Comedy in American cinema has been going downhill since the ‘90s, with movies becoming increasingly trashy, believing that wanton shock humor and gross jokes are the way to make a buck in Hollywood.
“Masterminds” did not fail to disappoint in that regard, at least initially. For about its first 50 minutes, it was a cavalcade of maybe the worst humor to have graced theaters in 2016 — the same year that gave viewers “Sausage Party,” “Dirty Grandpa” and “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising.” But suddenly, after having suffered for nearly an hour, “Masterminds” did the last thing it was expected to do: it became funny.
“Masterminds,” which premiered Friday, joins the ranks of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “American Hustle,” “The Big Short” and “War Dogs” as what should be called the “True Scam Story” category of recent films. They’re all based on true stories, generally involving someone scamming, extorting or stealing tons of cash and getting away with it.
This time, the true story is the Loomis Fargo Bank robbery of 1997, where former Loomis Fargo employees David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis) and Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) steal the current equivalent of $26 million with the help of Campbell’s high school friend Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson).
While the real David Ghantt served as a consultant for the movie (or so the credits claim), it would be unrealistic to believe he would have enjoyed how he was portrayed by Galifianakis. In the film, Ghantt is innocent to the point of being stupid, easily manipulated by those around him and completely unaware of any and all social cues. Wiig’s Campbell is the complete opposite, using her looks and charm to wrap Ghantt around her finger.
Rounding out the main trio is Wilson as Chambers, who is best described as the lease likely person to ever organize a bank heist. All three share the distinct characteristics of starting off as bland, stereotypical “trailer trash,” having some semblance of character development in the middle of the movie and then go right back to being disappointing as they become a hero-damsel-villain trio that would be more becoming of a “Dudley Do-Right” cartoon, if Dudley were to live in a trailer park.
The best members of the cast would have to be, by far, the minor characters. Kate McKinnon dominates the awkward humor style as Ghantt’s creepy fiancée Jandice, with a rictus grin and deadpan voice combination best compared to Jack Nicholson’s Joker. Another carry-over from “Saturday Night Live” and “Ghostbusters,” Leslie Jones plays the FBI detective in charge of the operation to find Ghantt and company.
Finally, Jason Sudeikis’ character is a standout. He’s a hit-man whose name and place in the plot cannot be revealed in this review, as that would ruin what could be considered the absolute best joke of the entire film.
This goes back to the point about comedies. “Masterminds” seems to suffer from a strange case of cinematic split personality — the first half is a compilation of the worst of the worst in humor these days. From David eating a tarantula (to “build up [his] immune system” when he reaches Mexico, says Campbell) to accidentally defecating in a pool once in Mexico, to the countless awkward interactions he has with the world around him, these 50 agonizing minutes could be replaced with one of those “cringe” compilations on YouTube and no one would be the wiser.
However, once past that, the plot begins to pick up as David fights back against his backstabbing cohorts. What once seemed like another crass comedy becomes something that’s not quite intelligent or perfectly written, but gets pretty close to both.
The true comedy lies in the aforementioned joke with the hit-man, the ways Chambers and his wife, played by “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” regular Mary Elizabeth Ellis, spend the stolen money — which plays out exactly as it did in real life — the Mexican Federal Police’s pursuit of Ghantt at a luxurious Mexican resort and Campbell and Jandice’s fated encounter at a clothes store back in America.
It’s one great gag after another, albeit with a few cliché undertones, such as a large-scale action rescue sequence which most definitely did not happen in the true case.
“Masterminds” may be the best non-animated comedy in theaters right now, but that is only because it has no actual competition until it stops showing in theaters. Maybe taking advantage of this rather bleak season in terms of comedies was “Masterminds’” big plan after all, in which case it certainly was a master stroke.
