Customer Reviews

The Darwin Awards

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Darwin Awards is about an eccentric investigator obsessed with the Darwin Award deaths - awards for those who die in such stupid ways their death raises humanity's IQ.

This movie is not a traditional comedy and will not appeal to everybody. However, if you enjoy dark humor, sharp wit and reading between the lines, you will find a LOT to enjoy in this movie. The script is expertly written, and the cast will make you wonder why you never heard of this movie.

Joe Feinnes plays the detective, and he switches to being an insurance claims investigator when he loses his job at the San Francisco Police Department. He is paired with Winona Ryder, a cynical claims agent slow to accept his psychological theories. In time they grow closer, and eventually she helps him catch the one crook who escaped him as a cop.

The story is filmed from the perspective of a documentary film maker played by Wilmer Valderama. There are also cameo appearances by John Doe (from the L.A. punk band X), beat poet Lawrence Ferlingetti, writer Josh Kornbluth, and Metallica. Add to that an all-star cast that includes:
David Arquette, Juliette Lewis, Julianna Margulies, Robin Tunney, Nora Dunn, Tom Hollander, Alessandro Nivola and the late Chris Penn in his final role. The list goes on.

The dialogue is subtle so I can understand why some might not find this to be their cup of tea. Some of the death stories could have been executed better. The romantic climax of the film also seems forced. Still, the good far outweighs the bad here. If you give this movie a second chance you might be surprised.

Overall, this is a fun movie that will make you laugh. If you are a fan of "Six Feet Under," you will find yourself wondering why there wasn't a mass market for this film. Enjoy!

Althought the premise is good, the cast fabulous (chuck full of cameo performances), and the production values above average, this film doesn't know whether it wants to be a Rom-Com, straight comedy, or mystery. So it's all three. The staging of the various "Darwin Awards" is usually VERY funny, and Fiennes does a great job as the lead (he's genuinely funny doing both slapstick and some more 'high-brow' stuff);but Ryder's 'tough-girl' is just too cliched, and you never really get to feel that she is capable of becoming involved with Fiennes. If you are looking for a little mindless fun(and I do mean mindless, as in people doing some really absurd stunts)then you will like this film.

Finn Taylor (whose big directorial showcases are CHERISH and DREAM WITH THE FISHES) showed me a good time with this 2006 film, THE DARWIN AWARDS. A moderate, take-it-or-leave-it good time, but at least I laughed (a few scenes made me roar).

Joseph Fiennes plays a smart and elegant-looking Mike Burrows, SFPD forensics/homicide detective extraordinaire. His problem is what we know as vasovagal episodes with syncope: it means he faints dead away at the sight of blood. Kind of like the serial killer Dexter. He faints once too often, causing Harold-Lloyd-type situations and gets fired (I was reminded a bit of Lloyd's 1932 film WELCOME DANGER, a great classic).

Mike decides he'd better move and get another job. Somehow he inveigles his way into an insurance company and takes a shot at getting claim investigator status. The boss (the always delightful Kevin Dunn of TRANSFORMERS fame) gives him 30 days to run through several impossible claims in order to land the job.

Mike gets teamed with veteran investigator Siri Taylor (a lovely turn by my big "crush" Winona Ryder, whose names I always misspell due to being starstruck). Along for the entire ride, though I cannot explain this cumbersome and unnecessary jape, is an annoying young documentary-maker (Wilmer Valderrama)--working on a project about Mike though it seems in the end he is simply gay and looking for someone on whom to obsess.

"Darwin Awards" is Mike's autistic codeword for people who cause their own demise due to extreme stupidity. There is a lesson to be learned from this, I think, but the film blows its chances. These accidents, the cases Mike has to solve and settle claim, are your typical stupid-idiot-urban-legend stuff. What is interesting and made me laugh was that both Mike and Siri begin identifying with the pathetic creatures who kill themselves through sheer stupidity.

Mike begins to wonder why he can't live to the full, seeing as how the character is a rip-off of Tony Shalhoub's MONK. Meanwhile Siri is overwhelmed with sadness because she has been at this for 15 years and cannot become emotionally compromised by what she sees.

Well, the film is funny a great deal of the time; it has some side-splitting instances, and Fiennes has a comic gift I would never have expected of him. He almost reminds me of a sedate Jim Carey. Winona, as I said, is beautiful and fetching in this movie. I wish she were less gonged-in-the-head and hadn't thrown in the whistle so long ago. She is precious, and yet the last decent thing she got to do was play the tormented android in ALIEN RESURRECTION.

This film, I think, does a nice job exploring the motives people have for doing stupid, thoughtless things...but then, watch the film and let the intrepid Mike explain it all to you as he solves cases and saves the world. We need more fragile superheroes, and Mike and Siri are two of the best I have seen.

I'm not sure whether I'd want to own this or not. Since it is surely worth a viewing or two, especially for Fiennes' shower scene which is a classic in film history, well...get it if you like. It's too 1980s for my taste and they could have done better; it's the 21st century for heaven's sake.

Also, be warned of some sexually puerile scenes; though not grotesquely explicit, they are nevertheless embarrassing.

Goofy. Tragic. But why am I laughing? Joseph Fiennes is a Sherlock/ genius in his own world that can't fit into ours. He can't handle the sight of blood, afraid of women, guilty over a botched police collar of a serial killer, and fastidious about safety. Winona Ryder is his foible picking Watson. Two depressed misfits on a journey trying to solve stupid and often fatal insurance claims.

If you like dark, quirky comedies, e.g., The Big Lebowski, or if you like road trip movies, you'll like this. The leads work wonderfully together. Both Ryder and Fiennes need more comedy and less drama in their lives, and they're good at it. The 'cases' are hilarious, but I really enjoyed the 'Odd Couple' leads duking it out as their personalities grate on each other in a tortured, sex-tensed, romantic sort of way.

The other story involving the search for a serial killer is put in there to promote the big climax, and the Peeping-Tom, worthless, documentary student is silly but provides humorous asides.
It's a night of escapism at other people's, who are not at our level of evolutionary development, expense.

More in the way of dark humor. More explict, really funny idiots offing themselves, doing us all a favor by not breeding. Instead we get the story of this wierdly neurotic ex-cop turned insurance-adjustor/profiler. Well I guess they had to have the sembalance of a plot. That's what they got. Michael (Joseph Fiennes) saves the insurance company lots of $$$ traveling cross country investigating strangely stupid deaths. His partner, played by Wynona Ryder is a veteran adjustor & doesn't really get him or his theories. It's very funny is spots. You know what's going to happen but it's funny anyway. When they try to get back to the plot for too long, it gets tedious. This could very well be a sit-com. You know: one stupid fatality every week. Lots of great cameos especially Adam & Jamie from Mythbusters. They actually did bust several of these deaths on their show. Before or after this movie I'm not sure. This movie had the potential to be much better. Mettalica rocks.

I ordered this awhile ago, but I only got around to watching it today. As a fan of the Darwin Awards, I've wanted to see this movie for as long as I've known it existed (somehow, I missed it when it was originally released), and it didn't disappoint. Some classic Darwin Awards are reenacted here, and there are some truly hilarious moments (like Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters appearing to sell a man a JATO rocket). If you're a fan of the Darwin Awards, then this is a movie worth watching.

If you're a fan of the written "Darwin Awards", you'll *love* this movie!! The stories are familiar DA stories brought to life in a very entertaining way with both Joseph Feinnes and Wynona Ryder providing the "glue" that holds all the stories together. If you're in need of some good solid belly laughs, this movie will provide them! (Caution: If you're not into "macabre humor", skip this one.)

You have heard about the man who boosted his Chevvy to the max with a USAF jet booster pack? No? Well you should have. Yes? Well, it's in here and much funnier to watch than anything you could say in words. The one about the dopeheads who fence-crash a Metallica concert? The dynamite ice-fishing trip with a dog who likes to play fetch? All these people eliminated themselves from the human gene pool with a spontaneous verve and aplomb which would fool you into thinking they had brains and a plan, if only these awards were not posthumous.

All these and more are in here, brilliantly packaged with great performances. There are lots of laughs in here, but lots of serious thought-provoking moments too. The wraparound story of the slasher-hunt, the geek with the video project, the fascinating yet spookily statistical mind-reading insurance investigator rookie who cannot stand the sight of blood, or even ketchup if it looks like blood? The road-hardened femme fatale? Watch this, it keeps you guessing, it's good. In fact, it's a keeper.

As a software professional, I've followed the Darwin Awards on the web for many years. So, when I saw the title of this film, I just couldn't keep it out of my shopping cart. The movie is nothing deep and won't change the world, but it was quite enjoyable and reasonably true to its title.

My only disappointment... not enough scenes including the phrase "Hey, watch this!".

This is a good movie to watch, I reccommend renting it-or buying it. It's incredable to see the unbelievable ways people have died, doing some really stupid things. If you've never heard of the "Darwin Awards" before, google it. it's very interesting. I like this this movie, I give 2 thumbs up.