I'm just not into this world of male comedy where strippers and prostitutes are funny and readily available when otherwise "nice" guys want to let loose at a bachelor party. I hate to sound like the much-ridiculed villain of the movie, Melissa (played by Rachael Harris), but each of those women IS actually someone's daughter. Believe it or not, women ARE actually people, not just objects for men's bachelor party and movie-going entertainment. If saying that makes me uptight - if it means I take life just a little too seriously - I guess I'll just have to be okay with being a too-serious, uptight villain.
And, do I even need to say it? The movie is SO male dominated. Practically the best speaking part in this film for a female was the receptionist at the hotel. And could they have cast a more lifeless actress than Sasha Barrese as Doug's wife-to-be? I'm not even sure what to say about Jade (played by Heather Graham). I don't want to criticize the fact that Stu (Ed Helms) ended up liking her because, as I said, escorts are people too. But it goes along with what I said above about the portrayal of stripping and prostitution as funny or no big deal. I just don't like that message.
Finally, the baby was a really interesting part of this movie. I was mostly annoyed with it as it was just another instance of men being unable to care for children. I mean, come on, what normal human adult doesn't know you shouldn't leave a six-month-old alone in a car...in the sun...in Las Vegas? What real-life man can't handle carrying around an infant for a few hours without slamming it into a car door?
However, and I know I'm making this WAY more academic than the filmmakers want me to, but I couldn't help but think about how the baby slowed those guys down. Everywhere they went, the baby had to go. Everything they did, they had to figure out what to do with the baby. It was ATTACHED to them. It made noise. It caused trouble. It slowed them down so much, in fact, that they conveniently got rid of it (by handing it over to a woman) after just a couple of scenes. It almost seemed like a shout-out to how movies are never made about four crazy twenty- or thirty-something women looking to have a wild bachelorette party in Vegas. How could they be? Who would be looking after all the babies?
But it's probably not a shout-out. At much as I enjoyed this movie, and as often as I'll quote it in the future, I just can't forgive it for being yet another comedy that makes the same old offensive mistakes when it comes to gender. I can't wait for the day when I can laugh through a film and still feel great when I leave the theater (or turn off Comcast On Demand, in this case).
I agree about the baby: it's probably not a shout-out, but it's a pivotal drag on the shenanigans for a few scenes. Also, while I know that this blog is more about female portrayals in film, I have to note the racial and ethnic stereotypes. I'm thinking of the Chinese mobsters, not the black drug dealer. But gender and racial and ethic stereotypes are all born of the same otherness and all relied on for the same easy laughs.
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