The Ten
Studio: Thinkfilm
Rated: R
Cast: Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder
Director: David Wain
WorkNameSort: Ten, The
Our Rating: 3.50
If Mel Brooks had taken that ‘Fifteen â?¦ Ten! Ten Commandments!â?� scene and expanded it into a batch of contemporary comedy sketches ‘ and added even more raunchy obscenity ‘ he might have come up with something close to The Ten. This collection of 10 skits ‘ one for each commandment ‘ comes from the folks responsible for The State and Wet Hot American Summer and is reaching for a brand of comedy far different than Brooks’. Whether it’s rival neighbors Liev Schreiber and Joe Lo Truglio in a game of one-upmanship over who can get the most CAT-scan machines in their suburban homes, Gretchen Mol (looking even hotter as a librarian than she did as Bettie Page) hooking up with Jesus while on a Mexican vacation or Winona Ryder fucking a ventriloquist’s dummy, The Ten is as ridiculous as it is uproariously funny. Though a handful of the skits fall flat, all of them contain at least one concept or line of dialogue that should shame any other sketch-comedy troupes out there trying their hands at big-screen humor.
This article appears in Aug 22-28, 2007.