Comics all over "The Informant!"

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on September 18th, 2009

From comedian/Tahoe Improv manager Howie Nave‘s Facebook status comes this mini appreciation of the new Matt Damon movie, “The Informant!”:

Opening wide today is a movie with genuine comedians rather than actors pretending to be comedians. “The Informant” may have Matt Damon in the lead role (and deservedly so) it’s the supporting cast that makes the movie worth viewing. W…hy? Well for starters I think every other cast member has performed up here (in Tahoe) as a stand up comic on stage. If you thought one guy in particular was out of time you were correct because that was Tom Wilson who played Biff in the Back to the Future movie trilogy. Wilson still does stand up but he was by no means the only one here. Bob Zany, Allan Havey, Tom Papa, Rick Overton, Joshua Funk, Joel McHale along with the great Tommy and Dick Smothers were just a few of the comedians I spotted immediately and even worked with at one time or another. The best part is that all of them had pivotal roles that made The Informant! one of the better releases worth seeing this year that was actually meant to be funny. Tom Papa has probably the biggest role ever since his voice occupied the screen in Seinfeld’s “Bee Movie.” Scott Bakula did a nice jobkeeping it low key here as FBI Special Agent Brian Shepard and along with comedian Allan Havey (portraying FBI Special Agent Dean Paisley) could be the next Dean and Jerry. Based on the true story by novelist Kurt Eichenwald (with a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns) The Informant! centers around Mark Whitacre (Damon) who fancies himself as an underground operative wanting to expose the price gouging that his company, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is doing to its customers. Damon is probably at his funniest too and given more screen time than he was allowed on his “Ocean” movies so he really shines. Director Steven Soderbergh (who gave us the Ocean11, 12 &13 movies by the way along with the incredible Traffic) has also delivered one of his finest projects in a long time. Go see it! 4 out of 5 bagels.

Howie also reviews movies. (We accompanied him on a sneak preview of “Almost Famous” back a few years ago in Reno, when he managed the club at the then-Reno Hilton.) The movie looks interesting and funny (and Damon’s character bears an uncanny resemblance to The Female Half’s brother, circa 1988!)

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