The Third Wheel (2002)

The Age of Commercialism

Admirable film.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

..... TRASH!! This movie was beyond awful. Another one of those "Everything going wrong on a first date". Acting was horrendous, plot line simple and predictable. OK I get its a romantic comedy . This was a bore-fest. The funniest part of the movie was within the first 5 minutes. Jeff Garlin, of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' fame pulls a zinger. Than I do not laugh for the rest of the movie. The fact that Ben Affleck is the best actor in this movie is telling. Mr. Affleck never makes anyone forget about Spencer Tracy or Paul Newman. Matt Damon is alright in his one scene as well. Denise Richards as the trophy girl was nothing special. This movie was unrealistic and many loose ends that never quite get tied up. The most shocking thing in all these comments is that I saw many 9's and 10's. Were these cyber critics watching the same movie I was? I do not know, maybe my DVD was the unfunny copy. Save your time folks and if you really want to watch a funny movie about a first date , might I suggest a flick from the mid 80s called AFTER HOURS, with Rosanna Arquette at her finest.

This was on The Movie Channel tonight. I'd never heard of it, but watched it because the cast looked interesting. What a pleasant surprise.The setup has been done a million times. Shy guy gets up the nerve (after months and months) to ask Beautiful Girl out. Amazingly, she accepts.People in the office are so amazed at this that they literally make bets and have a party where they keep track of the couple's evening. Their date takes an odd turn when they encounter a very strange homeless man who attaches himself to them and the plot gets stranger and stranger and funnier and funnier.It has echoes of two of my favorite movies, Blake Edwards's BLIND DATE and Martin Scorcese's AFTER HOURS, but it's totally original.I guess this was one of those movies that just literally got lost in the shuffle in the turbulent decline of Miramax Films. That's a shame. Did it ever show in theatres? I've never seen it.The whole cast is great. Even Ben Affleck, here very comfortable in a character part. Maybe he'll have a future as a great character actor and stop making bad movies where he's leading man. There's a good cameo by Matt Damon at the end of the second act that's especially good.Having read the comments, I know not everyone enjoyed this as much as I did. That's why the multiplex has a dozen auditoriums with different film playing.That's my story and I'm sticking to it :-)

I admit this movie is not worth more than 3 US dollars per person to view, however, a previous comment by another IMDb user mentions two scenes being stupid.The first criticized scene involved a coin being thrown from a very tall building and accidentally breaking a parked car's windshield. The IMDb user said that this was "some coin". The scene is a classic "exaggeration humor" scene that plays on the ideas of altruism gone wrong (the context within which the coin it tossed) and on the idea of a small object accelerating during free-fall due to gravity (9.8meters/sec sq). The movie did over-exaggerate the speed of the coin for it to be able to have enough momentum (mass x velocity) to break a stationary windshield. An quarter could come close to the mass of a small caliber bullet...very small yes...and with enough speed, a bullet of such caliber could shatter a windshield...especially a windshield that is not new or has defects in it's structure which may or may not be obvious. So, ignoring "terminal velocity" of the quarter by ignoring air resistance that would vary throughout free fall along with the potential flipping of the said quarter, if tossed from a high enough building, the windshield could definitely have shattered as it did. Ignoring these facts, this was simply a silly joke, an excerpt of one example of one form of "silly humor". It's possible that the IMDb use who made the previous comment is from a different culture where silliness is dumb. Cameos rock too.

Warning: Concept Summary (Nothing you won't know after watching the trailer)A homeless man tags along on the first date and tries to help Luke Wilson's character make the date go well. It's a typical romantic-comedy with a twist set-up. And it could've been a heck of a lot better.Warning: Slight Spoilers1.You don't really like the characters.They are not only not likable, they're not even consistent. The main male character is introduced as a generous, sensitive guy. Then he transforms into a bastard on the first date. The female lead is introduced as a no non-sense working woman who isn't afraid to speak what's on her mind. Then she suffers quietly on the date. And both their intelligences seem to jump from stupid-as-rocks to being able to make great leaps of logic beyond what is humanly possible.2. The script isn't well written.In a good script, there is nothing that doesn't serve a purpose. If it doesn't move the story forward or build character, it is cut. In one of the opening scenes, the main character gives a donut to a sleeping homeless man. His chubby co-worker sneaks back and steals the donut. We never see his co-worker again. Or the homeless man. Or the donuts. Why is this scene in the movie? It's just a cheap gag that goes nowhere. It's almost as if the script is distracted by cheap gags.3. Direction and EditingEditing could've been tighter and the character inconsistency is the fault of the Director. Even with the script being what it was, a different Director could've made it something something solid, and a good Editor could've made it much a much stronger film.I give it a 4/10. Pity, it could've made 7/10.