While watching "Waiting...," a new comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, the audience will probably start to have thoughts that evoke the movie's title. Some of these thoughts may include, "I can't believe I waited in line for this," or "I don't think I will wait to go to the bathroom," or - most popularly - "I can't wait until this movie is over." The premise is not a bad one, and many of the actors portraying the misfits and rejects who work at Shenanigan's restaurant are veterans of past successful comedies. For a variety of reasons, however, "Waiting..." doesn't work.
The story centers on the film's straight man, Dean, (Justin Long) , who has the gravitas found in a lead singer of a failed high school emo band. Dean, unlike his best friend Monty, is having second thoughts about the direction his life has taken. His tale of personal enlightenment is backlit by myriad subplots involving the various Shenanigan's workers during a typical day on the job.
The problems with the movie start with the character of Monty, played by Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds first found stardom as the lovable college slacker in "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," but this success has also typecast the actor. In "Blade Trinity," he played a variation of his breakout character in order to add some much- needed comic levity to a movie (and a series) that otherwise severely lacked humor. "Waiting...," however, conjures images of a Van Wilder that never made it to college and instead became a waiter-by-day and partier- by-night. This same schtick, for a seemingly gifted comedic actor like Reynolds, starts to wear thin early on. His sugary smile and deadpan delivery lack the wit and amiability of characters in his earlier films that allowed audiences to like him even as they laughed at him.
Other notable appearances include Luis Guzman, a veteran of dramatic fare such as "Traffic" and "Boogie Nights," and up-and-coming comedian Dane Cook, who is extremely popular on the college circuit. Guzman, who has been subtly comedic in past dramas, is the instigator of an outlandish and ongoing joke that involves showing his genitalia to other members of the restaurant staff. The humor of this game wanes early in the film, even as the plot continues to emphasize it, and Guzman is left trying to get cheap laughs out of it for the rest of the movie.
A greater travesty is the underutilization of Cook, who is known for his fiery brand of physical humor. With the exception of one disgusting scene where he narrates how the cooks deal with the food of restaurant patrons who are rude to the waiters, he is left limply hanging behind the counter to throw sporadic verbal cuts at the other characters. It is unfortunate that someone with such a commanding stage presence is featured as little more than a glorified extra.
Ultimately, the actors can only do so much with a script that pigeonholes them and features little comedic timing. Too often, "Waiting..." has the feeling of a series of sketch comedy scenes that fail to hold a complete film together. Every scene is supposed to show a different funny element about how the twenty-something workers get through a monotonous day of working in a restaurant, but frequently the jokes fall flat and lead to awkward transitions to a different section of the restaurant. With all of the action taking place in one locale, there is no space for the audience to digest the punch line, and the movie ends up suffocating under its own stereotypes.
The advice here is to wait and spend some money on a movie that features tighter comedic writing and circumvents typical college humor of endless sexual references and disgusting physical comedy.