Still Waiting ...

 (2009)

by Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Unearthed unexpectedly, this is a long-buried masterpiece - Samuel Beckett's sequel to Waiting for Godot. Most literary scholars had felt it to be lost forever.

SPOILER:

He never shows.

END SPOILERS:

I'm just fuckin' witcha. It's actually a straight-to-vid sequel of a lowbrow comedy called Waiting ..., minus the biggest names who appeared in the first. Anna Faris and Ryan Reynolds did not elect to appear in the sequel, probably because they read the script. Justin Long did appear, but his part was more or less a cameo, and was probably filmed in a single day.

Once again the story takes place within a single day in the life of a chain restaurant. The site manager would really like to make it to the district manager position, but if he fails to reach the top of his metaphorical thermometer, the corporate heavy breathers will not consider him for the promotion. Unfortunately for him, he seems doomed to failure because of a new competitor next door. His Shenanigan's (read Bennigan's, minus the lawsuit) is facing stiff competition from the neighboring Ta-Tas (read Hooters), which is not only taking away customers, but his hottest female employees as well. There is only one day left in his current reporting period, and he can't make his quarterly goal without a miraculous and unprecedented gross on that day. As a result, he has to push the staff extra hard, using the time-honored motivational tactics of fear and deceit.

The one thing that made the original script a pretty good piece of comedy was that it really revealed the truth about life in the service industry. The characters were drawn from life, and the story revealed a lot of crazy things that can transpire behind the scenes. Watching it was like eavesdropping on service industry workers who are amusing one another with their best "war stories." Uncharacteristically for a lowbrow comedy, IMDb contributors frequently comment on the film's accuracy! It's rated 6.9 at IMDb, which is almost unheard of for a lowbrow comedy. To give you an idea how good that is, it's a hair below There's Something About Mary and a hair above Kingpin. Pretty impressive.

The level of humor in the second one is similar to the first, but the originality and appropriateness are not. The sequel is generic and could pretty much take place in any workplace. Very little is industry-specific. Take the same script, modify it just slightly, and it could take place in a convenience store or a department store or a furniture store or even outside of retail. Moreover, the characters and situations have left reality and entered the fantasy world, especially at the Ta-Tas next door.

Adam Carolla is pretty funny as the world's worst self-help guru, whose tape is watched by the shy Shenanigan's manager. Of course, that is a throwaway bit which has nothing to do with the restaurant business. The one funny major character in Still Waiting ... is the hostess, a burnt-out alcoholic hottie with a major chip on her shoulder and a vocabulary that would seem a bit extreme at a Tourette's convention. Her attitude gets even worse when the neighboring Ta-Tas turns her down for a job because she doesn't have the obligatory perma-smile required by that chain to match her admittedly impressive ta-tas.

DVD INFO

* widescreen anamorphic

* unrated version

 

 

 

 

 

THE CRITICS AND ACADEMIES

No major reviews online.

THE PEOPLE

   
5.2 IMDB summary (of 10)
   

THE BOX OFFICE

Straight to DVD.

 

NUDITY REPORT

There are some breasts from unidentified Ta-Tas girls seen in passing.

The film's only nudity from a main character occurs when the hard-cussing hostess, rejected by Ta-Tas, gets drunk and despondent enough to show her Ta-Tas "credentials" to the rest of the Shenanigan's employees. Unfortunately, the nudity appears to have been done by a body double, and the aforementioned credentials don't seem to be factory originals.

 

Google
 
Web www.scoopy.com

Our Grade:

If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to read the explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by our definition, a C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:

C-

Carolla and the Tourette's hostess are good for a few laughs. The rest of the movie is weak.