WAITING...

By: BRIAN THOMAS
Review Date: Thursday, February 09, 2006

The origins of the "workplace comedy" are difficult to determine. The subgenre has been successful much earlier in television, and even radio (DUFFY'S TAVERN, AMOS & ANDY and THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM can be classified as such). In movies, the lineage can be traced back as far as THE FRONT PAGE, but its modern form took form with Michael Schultz' 1976 CAR WASH. Written in the late 1990s, WAITING... seems a bit old fashioned compared to TV sitcoms like THE OFFICE and SCRUBS, but as ensemble comedies always sink or swim based on casting, this is a blessed production. One could easily imagine a horrible sitcom or movie with the same restaurant setting, but WAITING... has the necessary personnel to make the show work.

22-year old Dean (Justin Long of JEEPERS CREEPERS and DODGEBALL) is in a holding pattern, waiting tables at a "Shenaniganz" chain restaurant in a drifting relationship with coworker Amy (Kaitlin Doubleday) and wondering whether to go back to college. Early on in his shift, manager Dan (David Koechner of ANCHORMAN) offers Dean a promotion to assistant manager. Will Dean accept, possibly dooming him to a lifelong career in chain restaurant management?

Yes, it's basically the same set-up as CADDYSHACK. Wisely, the movie doesn't give you much time to ponder whether or not you care, dishing up one stock restaurant character or stock restaurant situation after another. There's the underage hostess (Vanessa Lengies) all the guys are hot for; the nasty cooks (Luis Guzman, Dane Cook); the wiseass big-fish-in-a-small-pond waiter (Ryan Reynolds); the wise old dish washer (Chi McBride); the wigger busboys (Max Kasch, Andy Milonakis); and a variety of other staff just as lost as Dean, though perhaps lacking his potential. And then there's the game that all the boys play, which involves them somehow tricking each other into looking at their privates. All of this is based on material collected over the years by writer/director Rob McKittrick while he waited tables, so it has the ring of truth for everyone who has ever worked or ever eaten in a restaurant. It's all played brilliantly by a cast made up of veterans (Guzman, McBride), relative newcomers (Koechner, Doubleday, Kasch), and ascending stars (Reynolds, Cook, Anna Faris, Jordan Ladd). Everyone gets a chance to shine a bit, but some performers hit surprise home runs, particularly Alanna Ubach as an intensely wound up waitress and TV's Andy Milonakis, who is nearly 19 but looks like a pudgy, perverse 12-year old. Those that missed out on the theatrical release of this one in its quick theatrical release because they expected another AMERICAN PIE knock-off definitely ought to give it another shot on DVD. It has the potential to be almost the next OFFICE SPACE. The one minute shorter R-rated theatrical cut is also available in a fullscreen edition, but if you're watching a movie full of dick jokes anyway, why not treat yourself to the unrated special?


When I saw on the box the words "Telestrator Commentary" I got a little excited. For those who don't know, a telestrator is how sportscasters draw on the TV screen to illustrate plays, and I've always thought it had great potential for use on DVD, though I think this may be only the first or second time it's been used. However, I couldn't find an option to play it during the movie. That's because it was moved over to disc 2 so that McKittrick and producer Jeff Balis could also pause or rewind the movie while commenting on it. Instead of devoting so much space to dull material, more 2-disc sets (or the new higher capacity disc formats) should use their digits to try this trick. Both participants are equally funny and informative, and it really shows that McKittrick is really all of the characters in his movie.

Video commentraks of specific scenes, combined with some behind the scenes and audition footage Justin Long chooses to make up his own dialogue to dub over a scene with Chi McBride, and Andy Milonakis outs Koechner for molesting him on the set. A documentary on the film is less a Making-Of than it is a chance for most of the participants (the bigger stars are absent) to tell stories, and the viewer can branch from it to some of the other material on the disc. An interview with a trio of waiters tells us just what we expect: that many of the things in the movie are common occurrences in restaurants.

Copyright © 2006 Brian Thomas, author of the massive book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS.
Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at feedback@cinescape.com.