Review: Bernard and Huey (2017)
What you get is 90 minutes of cringe-worthy shots of two grown men who can't pull their lives together. This movie is full of bitterness and women whose only purpose in life is to further the plot. If you're looking for smart writing, this is not where yo
- At Your Discretion - NR, Comedy, Drama
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Bernard and Huey is based off characters from a cartoon strip that was first introduced by Jules Feiffer in 1957. That is the only excuse I will grant this film. What you get is 90 minutes of cringe-worthy shots of two grown men who can't pull their lives together. This movie is full of bitterness and women whose only purpose in life is to further the plot. If you're looking for smart writing, this is not where you find it.
Set in New York City, Bernard and Huey follows, well, Bernard (Jim Rash) and Huey (David Koechner) as they reunite 25 years after their college days in the 80's. In the past, Huey was quite the ladies man (for reasons I am still struggling to understand) and Bernard was your stereotypical nerd. Flash forward to present day and they've switched places. Bernard is hooking up with different women every night and Huey couldn't get a woman to come home with him if he tried. And he does try. In addition to his crippling inability to convict anyone to have sex with him, Huey also has a daughter (Mae Whitman) and an ex-wife (Bellamy Young) in town, neither of which he has seen for 15 years.
One thing that doesn't change for these two bozos in the past or present is the incredibly repulsive way they talk about and speak to their female counter-parts. If you're wondering whether or not any of these characters achieve any sort of development or change, I'm sorry to tell you that they don't. There is no big revelation here. In fact, we don't get a lot of explanation for anything that happens in this film. People reconnect for no apparent reason, people go out to dinner and then have sex with no real motivation to do so. Prepare yourself for a lot of restaurant scenes, because that's the only way we get any transitions from storyline to storyline.
This movie is not only written for another time, I'm honestly a little offended that no one had the good sense to stop it from getting to any sort of screening. This movie is best left in the past, writing and the public's tolerance for the debasement of women has come a long way since this screenplay was written.