Pun Salad

Mrs. Salad loooves Dennis Quaid. Ever since Breaking Away. So this was a must-get-for-my-sweetie at Netflix.

I'm not jealous or anything. And I'm pretty sure I would dislike this movie anyway.

Dennis (I call him Dennis) plays Henry Whipple, Iowa farmer. (Although, according to IMDB, "Iowa" is mostly played in the movie by "Dekalb, Illinois".) Henry is an aspiring agricultural mogul, even to the extent of attending a fellow farmer's funeral in order to make a pitch to buy the deceased's acreage. He also sells seeds for "Liberty Seed" an eeevil corporation (standing in for Monsanto, I think), and he's guilty of some bad behavior there too.

One of Henry's two sons, Dean (played by Zac Efron), is still at home. Henry would like him to take over the dynasty, but Dean would prefer to become a NASCAR driver. Who wouldn't? He's moody and self-centered, and treats his girlfriend like shit.

I might have liked this movie better if any of the main characters were more likeable or interesting, or if they overcame their character flaws to redeem themselves. But (as the movie develops) they only reveal more flaws, succumb to them, and are not called to account.

Your mileage may vary. Roger Ebert, before he was promoted to doing movie reviews for God, gave it 4/4 stars. And this guy found Dennis "at his most vulnerable and entertaining in a long time." I thought he—sorry—read his wooden dialog perfunctorarily, as if he realized what a sucky movie he'd been roped into.