"Trainwreck" is a comedy starring comedy central's breakout star Amy Schumer, former SNL cast-memeber Bill Hader, and NBA megastar Lebron James, along with a slew of other athletes, as it pertains to the sports related plot. Schumer plays a woman, named Amy, who works at a sleezy tabloid magazine and partakes in numerous "one night stands". She is an alcoholic party animal and shows little to no class, making her character somewhat of a "trainwreck". When she was young, Amy's father convinced her that monogamous relationships are unrealistic, and when her job forces her to interview a sophisticated sports doctor, Aaron (played by Bill Hader), who she actually begins to care for, her warped values are put to the test. The result: a funny movie that is sometimes clever but mostly raunchy and ultimately falls into the cliche rom-com trap that it was seemingly trying to avoid. "Trainwreck" gave me the impression that it would be different. Granted I knew that this movie would be a romantic comedy, but I figured it would be with an original twist on the tired genre. To an extent, and by extent I mean most of the movie, it was, but a painfully predictable and disappointing ending derailed this train, resulting in a...
With all these trainwreck puns, I'm probably being a little hypocritical by calling this movie predictable, but come on you had to see this coming. I'm sure every critic who has reviewed this movie made at least one. Sorry I'm losing my train of thought here... Back to the movie. "Trainwreck" is not exactly a trainwreck per see, but this movie is riddled with narrative flaws and lame comedic bits. The cameos got old and some were just not really funny at all. A good example is the whole John Cena storyline. He and Amy are "dating" for a small portion of time near the beginning of the movie, and the movie feels the need to magnify the details of their physical relationship, this results in a gross, unfunny, and unnecessary bit that looked as if it had just been thrown in there to be funny, which it wasn't. This was the case with a lot of the jokes, they didn't pertain to the plot. Too many jokes were irrelevant to what was going on in the movie. The bits should add to what is happening in the story, as it makes scenes and the movie as whole funnier. Believe it or not, when jokes have an importance to the grand scheme of things, they hit harder and raise the stakes, rather than fall flat. "Trainwreck" was full of funny ideas but had no idea what to do with them, throwing them together into a mixed bag of in cohesive bits that didn't contribute to the story, and maybe the story is to blame. The plot follows an arc that most romance movies follow, they meet, they fall in love, they have a montage or two, they fight/breakup, there is a tragedy of sorts, they get back together, the end... There are a few original and funny twists along the way, but in a nutshell, that's it. "Trainwreck" was very inconsistent, it had long stretches of very clever dialogue and humor, then experienced long bouts of boring, depressing, and unfunny movie time far too long for a comedy. When "Trainwreck" shined it really shined, Amy Schumer is extremely funny, she can deliver a horrible line and still make me chuckle, but writing, a crucial part of any movie, is where this one lost track.
Bill Hader is a hilarious actor, but wow was he not given a chance to shine. I understand with Schumer's antics and LeBron's priceless deadpan, more on him later, the movie needed a straightman to keep everyone levelheaded, but he deserved more time to show off his comedic chops. The storylines with Amy's family, namely her father and sister, were not very entertaining and didn't really contribute to the main plot, between Amy and Bill Hader. If anything it distracted from it. LeBron James was surprisingly good in this movie, he's a better actor than Shaq that's for sure. If you don't know what I'm referring to, watch "Kazaam". Or don't...you probably shouldn't... its awful.
Overall, "Trainwreck" made me laugh, and as a comedy it succeeded in that regard, but it wasted its potential as a result of narrative flaws and serious comedic dry spells.
C