2008 Woodie Awards
'My Boss's Daughter' shows up too late to work
Potential exists, script prevents its bliss
Issue date: 8/28/03 Section: Features
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Great looking 'it' girls, a talented and handsome leading man and a filmmaker with a laundry list of successes should make "My Boss's Daughter" a sure-fire hit. So what went wrong?
Director David Zucker is responsible for some classic parody films like "Airplane" and "Top Secret." Zucker is also responsible for this tragic piece of cinema.
The movie desperately tries to be funny, and it's not. Ashton Kutcher, ("That 70s Show") stars as Tom Stansfield, a mister-nice-guy trying to get ahead at his job.
His boss, Jack Taylor, played with awkward discomfort by Terence Stamp ("Superman" and "Star Wars: Episode I") ,is hot headed and quick to fire any of his employees at the drop of a paper clip.
Enter Lisa Taylor (Tara Reid) as the head honcho's lovely offspring and the secret unrequited love of Stansfield. In a plot twist that can be seen on any episode of "Three's Company," Stansfield gets duped into house-sitting for his boss by Lisa under the illusion that it would be a date.
Left in the house all alone, and responsible for his superior's prized owl, Stansfeild endures a night of Murphy's law: if something can go wrong, it will. The house quickly fills up with unwanted guests and estranged family members with restraining orders. Oh yes, and of course the owl goes AWOL. Add a few exploitation shots, courtesy of Carmen Electra, and it should make for good old-fashioned hilarity. Instead it makes a huge piece of wasted time.
Well-seasoned Zucker should have been able to make this one fly, but the pacing just isn't what it should be and the film drags through poorly set-up gags and sitcom-obvious ploys.
With a cast of comic heavyweights like Andy Richter of "Conan O'Brien," "Saturday Night Live's" Molly Shannon and Jon Abrahams, the talent is there for another Zucker homerun. The horrible script just can't be salvaged and the humor that would normally come off as cutting edge satire is insulting to both the audience and to the minorities and people with disabilities it uses as subject matter.
Director David Zucker is responsible for some classic parody films like "Airplane" and "Top Secret." Zucker is also responsible for this tragic piece of cinema.
The movie desperately tries to be funny, and it's not. Ashton Kutcher, ("That 70s Show") stars as Tom Stansfield, a mister-nice-guy trying to get ahead at his job.
His boss, Jack Taylor, played with awkward discomfort by Terence Stamp ("Superman" and "Star Wars: Episode I") ,is hot headed and quick to fire any of his employees at the drop of a paper clip.
Enter Lisa Taylor (Tara Reid) as the head honcho's lovely offspring and the secret unrequited love of Stansfield. In a plot twist that can be seen on any episode of "Three's Company," Stansfield gets duped into house-sitting for his boss by Lisa under the illusion that it would be a date.
Left in the house all alone, and responsible for his superior's prized owl, Stansfeild endures a night of Murphy's law: if something can go wrong, it will. The house quickly fills up with unwanted guests and estranged family members with restraining orders. Oh yes, and of course the owl goes AWOL. Add a few exploitation shots, courtesy of Carmen Electra, and it should make for good old-fashioned hilarity. Instead it makes a huge piece of wasted time.
Well-seasoned Zucker should have been able to make this one fly, but the pacing just isn't what it should be and the film drags through poorly set-up gags and sitcom-obvious ploys.
With a cast of comic heavyweights like Andy Richter of "Conan O'Brien," "Saturday Night Live's" Molly Shannon and Jon Abrahams, the talent is there for another Zucker homerun. The horrible script just can't be salvaged and the humor that would normally come off as cutting edge satire is insulting to both the audience and to the minorities and people with disabilities it uses as subject matter.