VINCE VAUGHN IN UNFINISHED BUSINESS

year: 2015 rating: **

It’s Politically Incorrect to use the “R” word for… the mentally challenged. And it’s even worse, especially in a movie with a bullying subplot, to laugh at… those people. Which is the first of many problems with UNFINISHED BUSINESS since the unpredictable third banana wild card, played by Dave Franco, is beyond "touched."

Token Doofus

Not sure when Tom Wilkinson aesthetically morphed into Jack Klugman. And lately, Vince Vaughn’s comedies have been lackluster. Although compared to DELIVERY MAN, this underdog globetrotter isn’t entirely horrendous: yet it constantly aims in that direction.

The plot is both simple and complicated: Vaughn’s Dan Trunkman and Wilkinson’s Timothy McWinters are former employees of a successful company that… it really doesn’t matter what they did or are attempting: Something about having “good numbers” and basically, if an important deal fails – shuffling the boys from St. Louis to Portland, Oregon and then Berlin, Germany – the future isn't theirs.

Other than one over-the-top scene at a gay nightclub bathroom, there are no real laughs, shocking or otherwise. Franco’s brain-dead Mike Pancake hardly utters a complete sentence. The wrongly cast/overly qualified Wilkinson seems lost while Vaughn acts like a passenger in his own vehicle, sleepwalking through the usual "cool talkative guy" routine. Meanwhile, bonding sequences with his wife and kids (mostly online) disrupt what could have been a wild overseas party – like the trailers (and poster) imply. But everyone's having a bum trip. Especially the audience. OVERALL RANK: Jedi Rebel, Droid, Sith.