Unfinished Business is a European road trip comedy that doesn’t quite hit the right chords enough to keep the laughs rolling, but there are a few good ones to be had and not all of them are crammed into the trailer below. It’s got an endearing quality that goes a long way in winning you over thanks to its heavy investment in the zero-to-hero storyline, and it’s heart is more often than not in the right place, but it just struggles to find the footing it’s so eager to latch onto.
The film was released in the cinema on the 6th March 2015, it’s one of the year’s first out and out comedies following up on the more serious awards season that can sometimes dominate over the winter months. However, even here there’s an attempt to tackle some serious issues, including career failure, bullying and sexuality, and for this you can only commend the film, although it is a little off kilter most of the time.
The story is the troubled business adventures of Dan Trunkman, played by Vince Vaughn (The Internship), who decides to quit his job to set up his own business when provoked by his former boss, Chuck Portnoy. Taking on a small team, including Timothy McWinters who’s just been forced into retirement and Mike Pancake who has absolutely zero experience outside of his former job at Foot Locker, and forming Dynamic Systems to rival his former company, he set a pretty big challenge for himself.
It’s not exactly a scintillating plot, but it does get a little shot in the arm in the way of a potential big business deal that sends the three unlikely heroes to Berlin at the same time as a big fetish event and the G8 Summit. This is added to by the appearance of Chuck, who’s putting forward her own rival bid for the deal in an attempt to gazump Dan and his band of misfits.
While Vaughn is as likeable as ever, he’s not particularly funny, and the same can be said for Tom Wilkinson (The Green Hornet, The Grand Budapest Hotel), who plays Dan’s elderly employee, Timothy McWinters. Nick Frost (Cuban Fury) is wasted in the comedy, but on a positive note, Dave Franco (21 Jump Street) steels the comedy show as the inexperienced simpleton Mike Pancake with a brilliant interpretation of the character, great delivery and good slapstick humour.
As you can probably see from the trailer below, there’s definitely a dirty edge to the comedy with sex being a big part of the film and its gags. If you’re a devout feminist you might be a little put out by this and the sheer number of boob shots that feature in the film, but in all fairness there’s just as much attention to the male side of the naked coin to balance things out.
While Unfinished Business is on the whole not a good film that’s not to say that it won’t find a few cinema goers that are receptive to its charms. In fact, there’s an early credits scene that kicks in at the end of the film that held the entire cinema in place to watch it. Everyone was more than aware of the limitations of the comedy, but clearly it’s likeability was high enough to make people care about that final scene. However, if you’re expectations for a comedy film are any higher than just a few laughs and an endearing set of bumbling characters then this might not be the right film for you, but if you’re a fan of silly comedies then you probably won’t be too disappointed.
If we’re being brutally honest, there are just as many jokes that fall flat as there are laughs throughout the film and the attempt to include serious issues doesn’t have much in the way of good delivery or direction and a lot of the blame for this has got to sit with writer Steven Conrad (The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty) and director Ken Scott (The Delivery Man).
Unfinished Business review: 2.2/5
