The Ten

The Ten (David Wain, 2007) [5]

The Decalogue, it ain't. Less a morality play than an excuse to a different array of zany stories, the latest outing from Wain and writer Ken Marino is pretty much the same scattershot outing as their last film, Wet Hot American Summer. Sure, the film is has some really funny moments but for me, a comedy has to have more than just laughs. There has to be some craft and understanding of filmmaking present and Wain simply doesn't show any more development of creating a tightly structured film as his previous outing. The structure of this film, being able to tell ten different stories, is helpful in that it allows the film to go off on tangents purposely. The real glaring error is that if the viewer weren't told, it would be hard to figure out that these stories have anything to do with the Ten Commandments. With the exception of the 'thou shall not covet they neighbor's possesions' with Liev Schrieber and his neighbor seeing who can get the most Catscan machines and using prison bitches as "wives", most of the other stories fall a little flat. They have some good jokes but they don't real have a real distinct link thematically. Watching the opening film, it has one mention to the commandment its representing and nothing else. A better concentration of the ideas of the commandments would have made this better. I said after seeing Wet Hot American Summer that it would have worked better as a series of skits. The Ten is basically a film of skits but sadly, it isn't any better.