Vince Vaughn, having played likeable schleps for over 20 years, perfectly fits the everyman mold. His Average-Joe persona, however, rakes in millions of dollars and fans. Is it fair? Nope, but he, at the very least, seems pleasant.
His latest Vaughn-playing-Vaughn vehicle, Unfinished Business, comes off as the amalgamation of Swingers, Wedding Crashers, and Old School. Indeed, this road-trip flick doesn’t deliver any surprises. The plot, of course, follows Vaughn as a down-on-his-luck bloke ready for his big break. Having quit their jobs, Dan Trunkman (Vaughn), near-retiree Tim McWinters (Tom Wilkinson), and dweeby youngster Mike Pancake (Dave Franco) start their own small business.
Director Ken Scott, having turned Vaughn’s last comedy Delivery Man into something worth watching, efficiently handles Steve Conrad’s formulaic screenplay. The plot, sending our gaggle of goofballs to Berlin, delivers a peculiar yet pacey assortment of awkward situations, needless gross-out gags/nudity, and clichés.
Unfinished Business, unaware of its own stupidity, struggles to cement its work-life balance theme. Flipping bizarrely between forgettable plot details, existential thoughts, Dan’s familial crises, and Tim and Mike’s shenanigans, its repetitiveness wears thin halfway through. Vaughn’s fast-talking, hangdog shtick works at opportune moments. Wilkinson and Franco, going against type, are Unfinished Business’ best assets. However, Sienna Miller, James Marsden, and Nick Frost are now desperate to scratch this off their resumes.
Unfinished Business, like Vaughn’s character, deals with too much at once, struggling to succinctly seal the deal.
