Review: ‘The Job’
How desperate does a man get before he agrees to do the unthinkable? How low must you fall before you allow yourself to get caught up in something immoral, illegal, and just plain dangerous?
These themes are barely touched on as we encounter Bubba (Patrick Flueger), a jobless, down on his luck guy in a nameless small city in the low budget dark film [[[The Job]]]. Based on a 1998 stage play by Shem Bitterman, who went on to script and direct this adaptation, the story is a slow act of seduction.
While sitting in the coffee shop where his long-time love Joy (Taryn Manning) works as a waitress, he is befriended by a drifting salesman named Perriman (Ron Perlman), who gives him a job lead. That begins the long, torturous descent from just plain lost to lost, confused, and crossing the line between good and evil.
The film, out today on DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment, is far from engaging despite the interesting set-up and situations. None of the characters feel real or are fleshed out in a way that makes you believe they are willing to commit the acts that punctuates the rest of the film. The oddly named Bubba lets himself be talked into killing by Joe Pantoliano, in an understated role. When he decides he can’t go through with it, despite the promise of $200,000, Perriman agrees to help for half and that’s when things stop making sense and spiral out of control.
Bitterman gives oddness in lieu of clarity and twists that make little dramatic sense. Yes, setting things up so that Bubba is forced to do what he couldn’t bring himself to do is interesting but then the payoff goes from barely believable to illogical and badly constructed. Coupled with mediocre acting and lightly sketched characters, the entire movie becomes a 99 minute dreary experience.
The Alternate Ending and perfunctory Making Of featurette round out the DVD. Be warned, just watching this from beginning to end is job enough.
Phil Silvers perfected his fast-talking, scheming promoter character during his years on the vaudeville circuit and polished it in a variety of feature films so that by the time he debuted on his own television series, it was pitch perfect. His Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko became a template for comedy roles imitated by others across the pop culture spectrum. For example, the Baby Boomers grew up with the Bilko persona imprinted on Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat. Silvers rarely varied from the character, using it to good effect in subsequent films and even the Broadway play[[[ A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]].
And I was so proud of us earlier at the convention.
Green Lantern— Ryan Reynolds (Hal Jordan/Green Lantern), Blake Lively (Carol
International 
Fans asked the stars geek-appropriate questions, such as “If you were a superhero, what ability would you have and what would be your name?” Nayyar would be Awesome Man with the ability to make things awesome, and Helberg would have the power to fly but would not tell anyone so he could join a basketball team and jump in the air longer. 
