“The Ten” – Thou Shalt Not Dishonor “The State”
“The Ten” (2007) is like the poor man’s “The Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy.” It features the sketch comedy ensemble from “The State” in a series of short vignettes, each based on one of the Ten Commandments. The results are both mixed and memorable.
It works mainly as one of those so-dumb-it’s-funny movies. Most of the jokes won’t make you laugh out loud, but it does seem like the kind of movie that gets funnier with repeat viewings– if for no other reason than to quote the best lines to your friends.
The film uses narrator Paul Rudd to introduce each vignette, and this linking device is easily the film’s greatest shortcoming. It’s as if the writers used all of their choicest bits in the vignettes, and how to piece it all together was an afterthought. (Which it probably was.) The narrator’s scenes are all about him arguing with his girlfriend, which is unfortunate because we simply don’t care about these characters. They are the least interesting players in a film full of interesting, absurd weirdos.
Weirdos like the skydiver with no parachute who gets stuck up to his chest in dirt. Or his girlfriend, who falls in love with a ventriloquist puppet. Or the ventriloquist’s drug dealer, called the Lying Rhino, whose back story is animated.
“State” alum Michael Ian Black shows up too, but is criminally underused. His part is so small it’s a cameo, which is downright disappointing.
The best sketch depicts the commandment “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.” It is a hilarious spoof of the “keeping up with the Joneses” syndrome in which a pair of neighbors compete to see who can buy more cat scan machines for their home. Having so many cat scan machines seems pretty useless, but the plot thickens when a nuclear reactor leak exposes a group of school children to radiation poisoning…
Maybe “The Ten” wouldn’t feel like such a let down if it hadn’t been preceded by a better movie with many of the same actors. That film was called “Wet Hot American Summer.” If you liked that, you’ll like this too. But “The Ten” does feel like a step in the wrong direction.
Grade: C+
Did you like “Wet Hot American Summer” better?
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