This Saturday I watched Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day attempt to plot the murder of their bosses. It felt a bit like I was watching a long episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia in a movie theater because the plot was about the grotesque plans by unrealistic jerk-offs and Charlie Day's performance was the funniest part. One feels both congratulatory and fearful of Day's fully established comedy shtick. He has cemented a successful "character actor" status, and that character is the infantile, panicky, fast-talking schemer we've grown to love over at It's Always Sunny. The congratulations are warranted, though, because prior to the Sunny show about our fair city, Charlie Day was a rather obscure comedy actor. This is his first leading role in a major studio comedy, and he really knocked it out of the park. The fear comes in when one notices the relatively limited lifecycle of such a character. If you recall, Jim Carrey only got a small handful of true victories before his shtick grew vomit-inducing, and was forced to reinvent his approach. Day's great and all, but one worries about how well he will fare with reinventions. I don't mean to pigeonhole him, and I certainly wish him the best. I just hope he paces himself now that offers are going to be pouring in.
[read the rest at Philadelphia Citypaper.]
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