I guess making it big in Hollywood is a pretty daunting prospect for any young filmmaker, scriptwriter or actor and there will always be the temptation to try and reproduce the success of the legendary 1996 SWINGERS in which a group of unknown (until then) friends and struggling actors, fed up with the lack of opportunities joined forces to create on a shoestring one of the funniest movies of all time. Jon Favreau wrote, produced and starred in a film that made household names of Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston and himself among others and i'm afraid that though a valiant effort, Ash Avildsen's WHAT NOW comes up short on almost every level. Technically the film is OK, direction, cinematography, editing etc are all competent. the problem lies mainly on the acting and the story which follows the tribulations of a group of unsuccessful thirty somethings on their quest for love using untraditional, modern methods and though this is an interesting premise, it is delivered without panache or an ounce of charisma by a group of actors that are in the majority of cases totally miscast. Jo Cassiere is supposed to be the all out comic relief of the movie yet he comes across more like a demented weirdo. Lorenzo Antonucci's role is totally clichéd and Bizzy bone AKA B-Murda never for a second made me believe that he was a former successful rapper though supposedly he is in real life which makes it even worse as he shouldn't even have to try. As for Ash Avildsen, his lack of screen presence is worrying for someone who aspires to be an actor not to mention his flair for comedy as a director which is utterly inexistent. The over the top acting and the clear attempt at giving us very witty and clever dialogues doesn't help and turns a group of guys that should have been likable into a bunch of burnt out,cynical and pretty mean at times thirty somethings for whom nobody is rooting. Avildsen tries to create a clever comedy with some light touches of drama but fails miserably on both accounts giving us characters completely devoid of any charisma for which is almost impossible to feel any empathy. All in all definitely NOT the new SWINGERS.
