Waiting…
Just as the story behind Waiting…sounds very familiar – a budding filmmaker worked in restaurants for years and then wrote a film about his experiences (see Kevin Smith’s wikipedia page if you haven’t caught on yet) - the film itself is an assortment of familiar jokes and situations, it’s influences all too clear. Basically Empire Records in a restaurant, Waiting… also explicitly aims to be the Clerks of the food service world, with similar riffs on customer service and dead-end job dissatisfaction, and a few Something About Mary gross-out gags also included for good measure.
The main story, as far as I could tell, revolves around everyone at the restaurant playing a game where you try to get your fellow employees to inadvertently look at your genitals, and if they do you get to kick them in their arse. There’s a few little obligatory story strands thrown in about growing up and not knowing your path in life, and a few fairly predictable jokes reflecting restaurant life (spitting on food, etc.), but mostly it’s about the genital game, which admittedly is vaguely amusing at times.
Ryan Reynolds keeps playing the same slacker-smart-ass role over and over, but does have his moments, and here is no exception. It’s good to see John Francis Daly from Freaks and Geeks all growed up and getting work, although his character doesn’t really do anything until the final scene. Justin Long (a.k.a. the guy from those Apple commercials and Dodgeball and Jeepers Creepers) gets the humourless straight-man writer’s proxy role, and there’s seemingly twenty or so other characters (mostly unfunny) all fighting for enough space to get off a few gags (mostly unfunny), so much so that sadly the usually quite amusing and always totally hot Anna Farris gets left with next to nothing to do.
Having done my share of customer service work I imagined I was in for a cathartic viewing experience, but there was only a moment or two I could really relate to (the annoying customers who come in just before closing being one. Hate those fuckers) and I was left with the feeling that maybe you gotta have worked in food to really appreciate it. I’m sure this will be a cult hit among such an audience if it’s not one already, but don’t count me among the converted.