Movie Review: Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business

Release Date: March 6th 2015
Director: Ken Scott
Writer: Steven Conrad
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, Anthony Katagas
Main Cast: Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco, Sienna Miller, with Nick Frost and James Marsden
Genres: Comedy
MPAA Rating: Rated R for some strong risqué sexual content/graphic nudity, and for language and drug use
Studios: 20th Century Fox

Official Sites: Web | Facebook | IMDb

A hard-working small business owner (Vince Vaughn) and his two associates (Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco) travel to Europe to close the most important deal of their lives. But what began as a routine business trip goes off the rails in every imaginable – and unimaginable – way, including unplanned stops at a massive sex fetish event and a global economic summit.

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Unfinished Business a new dramedy about the lengths to which one struggling start-up business will go to close an all-important deal. The film stars Vince Vaughn. Tom Wilkinson, and Dave Franco as the little fish in a big pond who are up against a couple of sharks (Sienna Miller and James Marsden) in a battle to see who can close a business-saving deal.

In order to try to close this all-important deal, the little fish have to take a series of business trips, or one trip, which turns into several stops. Everything ensues. There is mayhem, hilarity, debauchery, awkwardness, comedy, romance, and more debauchery. On top of the things I just mentioned, there is a sub-plot about the Vaughn’s character’s family, and the troubles back home. It’s a lot.

I wanted to enjoy it. I mean who doesn’t like an underdog story? But just when I got to a place where I could get on board with the characters and their dilemma, there was genuinely gratuitous and outrageous debauchery which made me not care for it. It was what I would call forced humor. I felt like the movie was saying “Laugh here.” It makes me not want to laugh. And, unfortunately, there were many moments like that. But it wasn’t all bad. I actually rather enjoyed the subplot with Vince’s character, the family issues. That seemed real. That I can identify with. And I really like Vince Vaughn. The scenes with the Facetime calls were sincerely funny. I also thought the kids were great. I appreciated listening to Vince’s inner voice as he tries to decide who he is in relation to his daughter’s homework assignment. I also thought that Dave Franco and Nick Frost (who is a big fish crony) gave great performances. I wanted to see more of both of them on-screen.

Unfortunately, the enjoyable scenes were few and far between. There were some funny and hilarious moments. There were also some touching and endearing moments. There just weren’t enough of the good stuff to outweigh the bad. Unfinished Business opened this weekend.

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