Customer Reviews

The Ten

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

'The Ten', directed and written by David Wain of MTV's 'The State', is an often hilarious, consistently humorous, grow-on-you film. Wain and pretty much everyone who was in 'Wet Hot American Summer' join some heavyweights including the emerging comedic genius, Paul Rudd, Jessica Alba, Adam Brody, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen, Liev Schreiber, Oliver Platt, and, yes, even Ron Silver.

I heard there is a theory that the movie is funniest the tenth time you watch it. How titularly appropriate.

Buy this movie if for no other reason than to own the hottest Savior Sex ever recorded on film. Or for the hottest puppet sex...

There are many mediocre films in the world. And then there are brilliant ones. Often the brilliant films are ones of which it is said "Either you'll love it or you'll hate it." This is said frequently of trademark filmmakers like Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, and Darren Aronofsky.

I hesitate to include David Wain in the class with the above, because he certainly doesn't subscribe himself to a league of serious artists. But his works (Stella, Wet Hot American Summer, The State, and The Ten) do have a trademark to them, a quite brilliant one. I've tried to give serious thought to what it is that makes his films work so well, and finally settled that it is a brilliant mix of the dedicated parody and the absurd non sequitur.

In his work we often see him take a cinematic staple and put it to the situational test. In "The Ten" we are given multiple treatments of a traditional story with a situational twist: a young man's values are put to the test when he becomes a Hollywood superstar; two sons wonder about their true father; lovers fall apart as one of them begins to fall for another. In the hands of filmmakers over time these stories have been given a genre treatment that has led to certain expectations. We expect the sweeping musical score, the intense close up, the slow motion, the emotional dialogue. In the hands of Wain the sequence is the same, but the situational elements are turned on their head. Specific story elements become non sequiturs, chosen under the criteria that they have as little to do with the cohesive theme as possible: the young man's fame comes from him being stuck in a hole in the ground; the sons are told their father is actually Arnold Schwarzeneggar, and instead of reuniting them they are introduced to a Schwarzeneggar impersonator; the lovers turn out to be two quite masculine prison inmates who end up arguing as if they were on a soap opera.

This abuse of genre is definitely Wain's strong point. It would be difficult, after becoming used to his style to trust him with something more sincerely emotional. In fact, the very vignette which works least in "The Ten" is the one where he is the least satirical and the most original - "The Lying Rhino." Though it is a brilliant animation, and absurd, it is the only one with a complete absence of any reference to make it relatable. However, within his trademark element Wain takes the most established cinematic traditions and lovingly butchers them to a point where an audience member can no longer even watch "Law and Order" or "Oz" without scoffing at sincerity of the characters.

Going to a place beyond the slapstick parody, Wain actually adopts the storytelling techniques of the genre, wedding it to a completely absurd reality taken as far as possible. There is no winking. There is no nudging. It is truly sincere. This results in humorous irony in its purest form, taking Wain's work to a place beyond comedy - closer to Dadaism - and yet more accessible than high art - given rapid fire jokes and an approachable premise.

That said, if you are unfamiliar with David Wain, you definitely have to come to The Ten with a complete absence of expectations. Appreciation comes only with acceptance.

In a mass-media, mass-consumption, perpetual self-improvement society, a whole bunch of "Thou shalt nots..." are rather passe' (to say the least.) This movie had about 25-30 laugh-out-loud moments in a 75% full theater. Each of the 10 sketches has elements of bad taste (of course) along the lines of South Park / Family Guy / Reno 9-11 / Daily Show, but in the end a laugh is a laugh is a laugh. The cast includes some big-time heavy-hitters: the shocking Justin Theroux as Our Lord (who will 'get around to' the Apocalypse... eventually) and the hillarious Rob Cordry as a prisoner who seeks true 'love'. ...Only for the well-read, open minded, movie-goer who is repelled by political correctness. Gretchen Mol, Winona Ryder and Jessica Alba never looked better.

If you liked "Wet Hot American Summer" you won't be disappointed - it's a movie that's fun to watch and looks like it was fun to make. It's silly and crude and smart .... the introductions by Paul Rudd do slow the film down (as does his own story)... but Winona Ryder returns to glorious comic form. She's fantastic in this and worth the price of admission.

This movie is comprised of 10 sketches that contain the absurdity of The State and the hilarity of Wet Hot American Summer. The sketches are not all winners but the great ones have Liev Schreiber bringing his AMAZING talent to a crazy situation, Rob Cordry as a lovable rapist and a great great "foreign" film. It's pretty hilarious.
This movie is no Wet Hot American Summer--but what is? There are some AMAZING parts of it and Paul Rudd has a great through line and continues to impress. Some great walk-ons and some great freakouts. I highly recommend it if you like The State.

Look, I can understand this isn't everyone's type of humor, but it should be. It's absurdly hilarious. Not all the sketches are equally funny, but they add up to being almost as good as Wet Hot. If you liked Wet Hot, and you should, then you'll like this.

I have read the other reviews of this movie on here... I COMPLETELY Disagree. This movie was a select release and I caught it in St. Louis. Maybe because other people in the Theater were laughing also, but I laughed HARD through atleast 70 percent of this movie and during one commandment I was in tears I was laughing so hard. I never saw Wet Hot American Summer, but I felt like this was clever and outrageous. 4.25 Stars.

I find the term "genius" to be overused to the point of meaninglessness, but after experiencing the comic extravagansa that is "The Ten" that is the term that begs to be used.

I've had in my life of watching movies only a handful of times where the lights come up afterward and I feel like I've had an out-of-body experience: laughing so hard I'm in tears, taken for a ride to comic heights as I was in the hands of these master filmmakers.

The film is divided into ten stories, loosely based on each of the Ten Commandments. This clever device serves perfectly, as every style fully explores its premise and style without overstaying its welcome, leaving you wanting just a little bit more, then we're onto the next. But the Ten Commandments theme informs all the stories, and various characters and jokes brilliantly overlap and reappear.

The movie is held together by the endlessly appealing Paul Rudd ("Knocked Up"), who plays a sort of MC, trying as he might to present the ten stories, only to be distracted by tumultuous personal life, involving his wife (Famke Janssen in a startling wonderful comic turn) and a younger woman (Jessica Alba, stealing scenes as the perky Liz Anne Blazer).

The interstitial segments with Mr. Rudd would alone be worth the price of admission, but there are dozens of scenes that will go down in our collective memories as classic moments in movie comedy, executed by a veritable who's who of top movie and comedy stars, including Adam Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Rob Corddry, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Ken Marino, A. D. Miles, Gretchen Mol, Oliver Platt, Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Liev Schreiber, Ron Silver, Jason Sudeikis, Justin Theroux, Joe Lo Truglio, Mather Zickel, Michael Ziegfeld and more. To explain more of the plot(s) would ruin the often surprising and shocking fun, so I shall restrain myself.

Kudos also to the fine craft of the film, from the expansive music score by Shudder to Think's Craig Wedren (of whom I've been a fan for a long time), and to the lush cinematography and production design. As a dessert of sorts, the movie ends with a rousing musical finale that rivals Stanley Donen in his prime.

Pound for pound, The Ten is the most satisfying, entertaining night I've spent at the movies all year -- and that's saying a lot in a year that brought us top entries from the Cohen Brothers, P. T. Anderson, among others. I'll say it here: The Ten beats them all. If it doesn't sweep the Oscars, then the fix is in.

Truly the only disapointment was that there wasn't more of The Ten when it was done. This is grandly rectified by the deluxe DVD release coming on January 15th. There's a hilarious commentary track by the filmmakers and Mr. Rudd, including a wry counterpoint from the director's very funny parents. Also a generous selection of entertaining and informative behind-the-scenes, interviews, outtakes, bloopers, and alternate cuts.

If you don't go out and buy The Ten on DVD the day it comes out (Jan 15), you're completely nuts and should have your head examined. It is without exageration, quite literally the best movie ever made.

(Full disclosure: I served as a producer, actor, screenwriter and director for this film.)

-DAVID WAIN

My jaw dropped when the film started (I saw it at a theater in NYC). This was nothing like I've ever seen before. I couldn't believe how the producers got all these stars to do such incredibly weird things. Winona Ryder having sex with a puppet?! A suburban guy buying Cat scan machines to compete with his neighbor? A young fiancé jumping out of a plane without a parachute, then being stuck in the ground forever? I wasn't prepared for this. This was not a typical comedy. And these stories were all coming from the Ten Commandments. My wife and I (and her friend) were shocked at first, then settled into this zany world where every story was totally different, but they were all kept together by the narrator, Paul Rudd, who had his own ridiculous story going on. I recommend this to anyone with a sense of humor that goes beyond the "normal" types of comedies. Can't wait to get the DVD so I can show it to my crazier friends.

The Ten had me laughing the whole time! Winona Ryder and a puppet having a love affair! Ridiculous. Some of the scenes in the movie were way over the top. The scenes where Ken Marino, who plays a doctor thrown in prison and getting raped was a bit much to take, even though most of it was really funny. Rob Corddry was his would be lover, an easy going, loveable, inmate and male rapist. He was great but the scene was tough to watch at times. Most of the cast was great, especially Jessica Alba, Paul Rudd and Oliver Platt, who played a phony Arnold Schwarzenegger. They were all playing roles that you wouldn't expect major actors to play. That was fun to see. I didn't really get into the animated scenes, but it looked like a lot of the younger people in the theater liked those scenes a lot. This kind of film doesn't come along too often. It's not perfect, but the overall experience was pretty amazing and funny.