Movie Review: The Ten

2007
Written by Ken Marino and David Wain
Directed by David Wain
Starring Paul Rudd, Famke Janssen, Jessica Alba, Winona Ryder, Ken Marino, Liev Schrieber, Adam Brody, Gretchen Mol, Justin Theroux

The Ten is a strange, comedic look at the Ten Commandments. The movie consists of ten vignettes, each about a different commandment, and are narrated by Paul Rudd as Jeff, who also stars in one of the vignettes. The stories are as follows:

1. Thou Shalt Worship No God Before Me - After falling out of an airplane and getting stuck in the ground, a man (Brody) becomes a celebrity and is worshiped like a god.
2. Thou Shalt Not Take the Lord's Name in Vain - A librarian (Mol) has a passionate affair in Mexico with a man who turns out to be quite a surprise (Theroux).
3. Thou Shalt Not Kill - A surgeon (Marino) kills one of his patients "as a goof."
4. Honor Thy Mother and Thy Father - A woman (Kerry Kenney) hires an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator (Oliver Platt) to act as a father figure for her sons.
5. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Goods - A police detective (Schreiber) and his neighbor (Thomas Lennon) get involved in a jealous and ostentatious competition and make some ridiculous purchases.
6. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife - A prisoner (Rob Corddry) covets another prisoner's "b*tch."
7. Thou Shalt Not Steal - A woman (Ryder) falls in love with a ventriloquist's dummy and steals it for herself.
8. Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness - An animated rhinoceros becomes a lying gossip.
9. Remember the Sabbath and Keep It Holy - A family man (A.D. Miles) skips church to hang out with a bunch of naked men at his house.
10. Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery - A man (Rudd) cheats on his wife (Janssen) with a younger woman (Alba).

I wanted to love this movie. I loved The State and Wet Hot American Summer, in which all the same people were involved, but this movie was just so strange and uneven. That's not to say that some parts weren't very funny, because I did laugh a lot in this movie. But it was also really, really ridiculous at times.

The vignettes are short so the movie doesn't drag; it went by pretty quickly. And I really enjoyed seeing so many performers that I love in one film.But I'd say that if you're not a fan of The State or Wet Hot, you most likely will not enjoy this film at all.