Bad Words (2014)

We all know Bateman. He's won us over as the only sane person in Arrested Development, we've sympathized with him wanting to kill his boss in Horrible Bosses, we've pitied his life in This is Where I Leave You. Jason Bateman is the official face of the Middle American male. A leading protagonist, half in, half out, great hair, voice of reason, and still wants to get laid. A mild underdog.Well now we get to know Jason's dark side! Not only does Bateman lead in Bad Words, he directed it, and it is a glorious debut.Enter Jason Bateman's Guy Trilby, an acid tongued Joe Schmoe savant with a knack for completely obliterating words in the English language. A true linguist. Wronged by several forces in his life, he seeks revenge on a national spelling bee championship for the title, to satisfy his personal motives which play out through the movie. As passive aggressive and self-serving lone wolf as Guy is, he's followed by two accomplices on his quest; a prying floozy reporter eager to divulge Guy's mysterious agenda, and a fellow competitor in the bee who's been overburdened by stifling parents. Naturally, the sparks fly when organizers and parents of the bee's competitors watch in discern as a 40 year old man out-compete their aspiring pedigree children.This is a dark comedy through and through. Thrilby is a bear getting poked from every stick in the park. But it's important to mention that Thrilby generally acts out on people who wrong him first; only twice does Thrilby pick victims who are undeserving. You have never laughed so hard at the misfortunes of Jason Bateman. At least this time he gets back, with an evenness that we all wish we had a week to think of and execute.If you have a pension for watching antiheroes, Bad Words is for you. If you liked the hijinks of Bad Santa, Bad Words is for you. If you have a deep seeded obsession with Katherine Hahn (like I do), Bad Words is for you. If you like voluptuous black women, Bad Words is for you. If you have an appreciation for unreal instances of people spelling insane words that they seemingly pulled out of their a*ses... Bad Words is for you. And finally, if you love the comradery of a big brother meets little brother bonding story (ala Shane Black), Bad Words is MOST DEFINITELY FOR YOU. Channel your inner grievances and revel in the accomplishments of one man's trials to overcome advisories, with Bad Words.

Debuting feature director Jason Bateman stars here as Guy Trilby, a 40 year old former proofreader for product guarantees. One day he gets the bright idea to enroll in a national Spelling Bee. He's found a loophole which he can exploit, so he's off and running, competing against kids a quarter of his age. These include the annoying but endearing Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand), a boy with a demanding, somewhat distant father. Despite being a wise ass and a potty mouth (as well as a man on a mission), Guy finds himself befriending the boy."Bad Words" is a gem for this viewer. On the surface, it would seem to be a standard tale of an ageing loser, with much of the raunchiness and vulgarity expected from that sort of thing. Well, the movie doesn't disappoint in that regard, but it also turns out to have a fair bit of heart, without going overboard on sentiment. Guy is an enigma for a long time, confounding the reporter (the sexy Kathryn Hahn) with whom he frequently ends up having sex. (During which she apparently doesn't like being looked at.) And the friendship that develops between the smart alecky adult and the earnest kid was written in an entertaining and convincing way. Not surprisingly, Guy introduces Chaitanya to such grown up delights as ogling breasts, as well as teaching him the joys of practical jokes.The language is often colourful enough to generate some laughs, although "Bad Words" never does wallow in complete raunchiness or unpleasantness. The words chosen for the spelling bee are pretty damn amusing at times.Bateman does a creditable job as director, as well as delivering an engaging performance. Hahn, Allison Janney, Philip Baker Hall, Ben Falcone, Steve Witting, Beth Grant, Anjul Nigam, and Bob Stephenson are among a rock solid supporting cast. Young Chand is very likable.Overall, a smart, funny tale recommended to comedy lovers tired of the predilection towards political correctness in current times.Eight out of 10.

Jason Bateman is mostly known for his role as Michael Bluth on the hit comedy series 'Arrested Development' and a big variety of other comedy roles ranging from movies like 'Horrible Bosses' to 'Teen Wolf 2'. He is quite the comedic actor with perfect timing and is always great to see on the big screen. Bateman has said that he does these acting roles so that one day he can get behind the camera and direct, as this is his ultimate goal.Well the script by Andrew Dodge (a new-comer to Hollywood) called 'Bad Words' ended up in front of the iconic comedy actor and Bateman decided this would be the perfect film to start his directing career. And what a fun and cute film it is that follows a middle-aged man competing in Spelling Bee contests designed for kids. The results will have you in stitches through most of the film as it pushes the bound of raunchy taste while at the same time being tasteful. And Bateman does an exquisite job with his actors, script, and camera to make this 'R' rated comedy have a place on my shelf for many future viewings.You will probably draw comparisons with 'Bad Words' to 'Bad Santa', and not just because of its title. But maybe for it's underlying tone of something good like Christmas time or a children's Spelling Bee championship mixed with nudity and very vulgar language. It's a tone and style that has worked before and continues to work on in 'Bad Words'. Bateman plays a 40-year old proofreader named Guy Trilby who has a photographic memory and seems like a well enough guy, but we find out that he has never passed the 8th grade, and refuses to tell us or a reporter Jenny (Kathryn Hahn) why.But this rationale for not passing the 8th grade allows him to cross through all the legal jargon and red tape to enter National Spelling Bee Championships, crushing his 12 and under competitors, but is met with much disdain and even violent reactions from parents and the chairperson of the Spelling Bee, Dr. Bernice Deagan (Allison Janney), who tries to illegally thwart Trilby into quitting the contest. As Trilby and Jenny are traveling from contest to contest across the United States, a young and sweet boy named Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand) introduces himself to Trilby and welcomes the competition. Basically, Chopra is the nicest kid ever to be born and goes above and beyond to make everyone feel welcome with a smile on his face. Trilby responds with racial remarks and very inappropriate jokes that would make a grown man blush, let alone an 11-year old kid. We soon find out that Chopra's dad forces his son to only study and not have any social life whatsoever, so poor Chopra has no friends besides his trapper keeper full of words.Since Dr. Bernice put Trilby in the custodian closet at the hotel and Chopra has a full bedroom with a fully stocked bar in his room, Trilby uses Chopra to drink, but then sees that his new little friend could use some teaching in the 'real world' and most of all some good old fashion fun. Trilby's idea of fun may not be for everyone, for he takes the young Chopra on a night out he won't soon forget that includes prostitutes, stealing, drinking, and pulling vulgar pranks on random people to the sounds of the Beastie Boys. We do eventually get the reason Trilby has spent his life doing what we see, but it is done it such a good way that it never gets to sappy or overly thought out. The characters are there for a certain reason and they never go off on tangents, which is a breath of fresh air. It's straight to the point.Bateman plays Trilby with a certain kind of unusual charm even though he is very offensive. But hey, he's funny. And Rohan seems like the sweetest kid in the world and does a swell job. 'Bad Words' made me laugh throughout the entire film with very few breathers, and it managed to get a bit of heart and soul in there as well. If you want to laugh your ass off, then get out and see 'Bad Words', and if this is to show us what Bateman is capable of behind the camera, then by all means give him more projects.

I thought it was Cliff Curtis' movie because that's whom I saw in one of the posters. Anyway, it's Jason Bateman's movie, which is also his first directional venture. A refreshing theme because only a very few movies were made based on the spelling bee contest, but this one was a bit messed up story narration. Most of the narrative looked so pale and dull. It is supposed to be an exciting storytelling with blistering pace.You know, stories in the movies happen with a backdrop of the reasons. Like a piece of uninteresting wood carved into a something that attracts everybody. Some movie holds it till the end to reveal that beauty in the form of a twist, but some won't mind explaining it along the way. In this movie, what they had for the twist was lifeless, boring one, more like a cliché from the older days flick.The boy from the movie 'Jack and Jill' was decent. I felt some material in the movie was inappropriate regarding a minor in one of the lead roles. But I know the title clearly suggests it is only for adults. Understandable that the writer wanted to give something new, but he could not get it right. Maybe lacked to bring some interesting and inspiring elements. What surprised me was, it was not either for commercial benefit nor a fine art piece.All the way I knew something was not clinching and finally found out the approach to portray the main character in the negative mode had to do with something. They wanted the viewers to go against him and well, they got it in a way. Interestingly the screenplay was from the 'Black List' which was untouched for almost 10 years. Unfortunately Bateman decided to give it a try and the result is,... Here I'm with not satisfied fully, but okay-okay movie for being at least something different.6/10