Film Review
Not ‘Waiting’ Long For Laughs

By Daniel Watkins (October 25, 2005)

While the movie “Waiting” may seem like another mindless comedy staring Ryan Reynolds (Monty) that is geared towards 14-year-old boys, it is probably because it is. But really, it is the funniest movie to come out since “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” which is not that old anyway.

The movie begins at a wild college party. At this point, you can pretty much sum up what the movie is going to be like. It will be an immature comedy that many adults will not find funny. The laughs begin right away though, as we are introduced to the two main characters, Monty and Dean (Justin Long). They are essentially the same character, and we learn the morning after the college party that they are coworkers at a restaurant called Shenanigans.

The only difference between the two dimwits is the fact that Dean actually cares about his future. He is vexed one day by his mother telling him of the news of his long time high school friend, who was in the same classes as Dean and who had just graduated from a four-year college and was ready to begin building toward his future. This perturbs Dean, since he is still a lowly waiter at a corny restaurant. The whole plot and storyline of the movie basically revolves around Dean and his career-making decisions, while putting it in a funny and embarrassing-enough context to make it entertaining.

As the movie progresses and we are introduced to other characters in the restaurant, we learn of a game where the male employees try to get the other male employees to unknowingly look at their . . . aahhh . . . you get the point. This is where the immaturity comes into play, and the “game” that is played is often overdone, and begins to grow watered down and dull towards the end of the movie.

The characters are very stereotypical, but because of enlightened comedy acting, it works. Serena (Anna Faris) is a stereotypical blonde that will don anything for a better tip. She is the brunt end for many sexual jokes by Monty, and the jabbing continues throughout the entire movie. The movie also contains the stereotypical boss, Dan (David Koechner), who thinks he has more power than he really does. He runs around the workplace doing more than he should do, enforcing a crew of people that hate his guts. Sound familiar? There is also the Bishop (Chi McBride), who is older and wiser than everyone else working in the restaurant. He attempts, while cleaning his dishes, to solve problems for other people.

The remaining staff in the restaurant contains an edgy, ready-to-snap waitress, two stoner bus boys, and a crew of chefs that wait for complaints so they can spit in people’s food. The whole cast is very much predictable because of their immature actions, but hey, I thought it was side-splitting funny anyway.

“Waiting” does bring to light a couple of thoughts though. After seeing this exaggerated style of running a restaurant, I am not so sure that some people might take offense to it and not go to another mid-class restaurant for some time now. Everything seems right on the surface, but back in the kitchen, who the heck knows what is going on. Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?