Going into “Butter”, I was really not looking forward to this film. The main reason for it, the fact that it seemed like one of those films where a bunch of A list actors get together and have a good time. Hopefully, I’m wrong about that assumption.
The film takes place in Iowa, where butter cutting is like a presidential election. It’s plagued with scandal, greed, blackmail and sex. When a champion butter sculptor (Ty Burrell) is forced to not defend his crown, his wife Laura (Jennifer Garner) enters this competition to preserve the couple’s status as butter royalty. Everything seems guaranteed, until an enigmatic 10 –year-old African-American foster child enters the competition. Now Laura will do anything to sabotage and win this competition. That includes seducing her idiotic ex-boyfriend (Hugh Jackson) to help her. Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Ashley Green and Alicia Silverstone also co-star in this comedy.
Film Review:
Sadly, I was right my assumption. There are some films that you have to sit through as a reviewer, where you really want to shut the film off completely and do something else. That was my thought with “Butter”, as this was the worst film of 2012.
One of the reasons for it was its lack of direction. Director Jim Field Smith doesn’t bring any excitement to the way that he handles this film. Most of the supposed funny scenes felt boring or unfunny. It didn’t help that he had a very bad screenplay to deal with. I’ll was bored sitting there and watching this film, as ninety percent of the comedic scenes feel unfunny. You can’t have that in comedy film and expect to enjoy it. The other thing that I hated about Smith’s direction was that almost all of the performances were annoying. Every character in the film was one dimensional in the performance aspect. Smith doesn’t make sure that his cast stands out from each other. It may have maybe made this film more tolerable to watch. Also if you’re putting a gag reel at the end of the film to pad the running time, then there’s most certainly a problem with your film.
The screenplay was very mean spirited. Screenwriter Jason Micallef doesn’t good a very good job with the way that he approaches the story. One of the things that I don’t like about the characters was the fact that they were unlikable. They come off more aloof and lighthearted than interesting and fun to be with. Maybe it was the fact that he added political stereotypes, which even made the characters even more annoying than they were. It didn’t make me laugh. Instead, it made me not interested in the film. The other thing that I didn’t like was the fact that you’re having the narration from each of the two main characters. It’s was completely written wrong and was very unnecessary for this film. It made a very dull film, even duller. It did nothing but hurt the film even more.
Blu-Ray Extras:
There are very little extras on this Blu-Ray. You only have a gag reel and deleted and extended scenes. It would have been nice to include a behind the scenes featurette or commentary track to get some information on the film.
Final Summary:
If this film was in a competition with other films to see who would win, “Butter” would finish in last place. It’s a very boring film with annoying characters with tedious screenplay.
Review Rating: One Star
Extras: One Star
