I thought that Failure to Launch was an okay comedy. However, you have to suspend you disbelief quite a bit to believe that Matthew McConaughey would still be living with his parents. There’s not really too much suspense since you pretty much know from scene one that he and Sarah Jessica Parker will be in love by the end of the film.
Tripp (Matthew McConaughey) is a 35 year old who at first appears to be doing well with a lady. They go back to his place and in the middle of consummating their relationship his Dad (Terry Bradshaw) walks into the room. Seems that Tripp still lives with Mom (Kathy Bates) and Dad. While they’re attending a barbeque over at a friend’s house (the ever reliable Stephen Tobolowsky) and they’re told of a service that can get their son out of the house.
They hire Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker) to get Tripp out of the house by “romancing” him. Tripp is more than happy with his situation and hanging out with his buddies Ace (Justin Bartha) and Demo (Bradley Cooper) who are also in similar situations. She arranges a “cute” meeting with Tripp at the furniture store where Mom and Dad are shopping for a recliner. Paula lives with her trippy roommate Kit (Zooey Deschanel) who is having a problem with an annoying mockingbird. To make a long plot description short, things don’t exactly go as anyone plans.
The cast is great and I especially liked Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw (and you see on the special features that they had quite a time acting together). I also liked Zooey Deschanel and the romance that she falls into. I’m just not sure that I cotton to the whole idea of 35 year old still living with their parents. What’s that? Sure I’d like a soda from the fridge Mom. Just leave it there on the table while I write this review.
Meeting at the furniture store
Failure to Launch is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fullscreen version is also available. Special features include several featurettes. The first is 11 minutes and called “Casting Off: the Making of Failure to Launch.”
It has interviews with Matthew McConaughey, writers Matt Ember and Tod Astle, Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper, Terry Bradshaw, director Tom Dey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Bates, and Zooey Deschanel. The next is 11 minutes and called “The Failure to Launch Phenomenon.” It covers the movie and the idea of older kids living with their parents.
It has interviews with some of the same people from the first featurette but adds Peter Micek (a 24 year old living with his parents), Opher Mizrahi (a 32 year old living with his parents), Bob Tebble (a 38 year old living with his parents), Teresa and John Micek, authors Eileen M. Clegg and Betty Frain (who wrote a book on this phenomenon, and Dorothy Svihovee (Peter’s aunt).
The next is 6 minutes and called “Dating in the new millennium.” It is all about online dating and interviews Marnie Hanel (Senior editor, Tango Magazine), Gail Laguna (Vice President of Communications of Spark Networks), E. Jean Carroll (Advice columnist and found of greatboyfriends.com), author Jillian Straus, Andrea Miller (Founder and president of Tango Magazine), Kelly Bare (Senior Editor of Tango Mag.), and Julie Paiva (Table for Six Adventures).
The next featurette is a 13 minute episode of “Moviefone.com Unscripted” and has Terry Bradshaw and Matthew McConaughey interviewing each other. Finally, there’s the 5 minute featurette called “The Failure to Launch Contest.”
Seems the production held a contest to find some of these kids who still live with their parents and the top three are in this featurette. Justin Bartha and Bradley Cooper will decide which of the three is the winner and that lucky person will win 6 months of free rent sponsored by Myspace.com. I won’t tell you who won. Rounding out the special features are the film’s trailer and some previews.
How much will it take to get him out of the house
Failure to Launch was a pleasant time killer and not exactly an awful movie. I laughed out loud several times. It just felt to me that it had a lot of plot devices from other romantic comedies (even though this phenomenon is rather new). I would recommend it as a rental that you, your parents, and your date would enjoy.
Failure to Launch is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a July 17th release date. Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story