“Get a Job” is simply a bad film with a talented cast. While I enjoyed it more than the 2008 film “Strange Wilderness” (which is the worst film I have ever watched and reviewed), I only recommend this film if you enjoy stoner comedies or are big fans of the talent that are in the film.Â
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TITLE: Get a Job
FILM RELEASE: 2016
DURATION: 84 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (1:78:1), English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English and Spanish subtitles
COMPANY: Lionsgate
RATED: R (Crude and Sexual Content, Nudity, Drug Use and Language)
Release Date: June 14, 2016
Directed by Dylan Kidd
Screenplay by Kyle Pennekamp, Scott Turpel
Produced by Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher
Executive-Producer: Tracy McGrath, Josh Rothstein
Cinematography by David Hennings
Casting by Sarah Finn
Music by Jonathan Sadoff
Production Design by Marcia Hinds
Art Direction by Jason Zev Cohen
Set Decoration by Cindy Coburn
Costume Design by Christine Wada
Starring:
Anna Kendrick as Jillian Stewart
Alison Brie as Tanya
Miles Teller as Will Davis
Bryan Cranston as Roger Davis
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Ethan
Nicholas Braun as Charlie
Marcia Gay Harden as Katherine Dunn
John C. McGinley as Diller
John Cho as Brian Bender
Greg Germann as Fernando
Jorge Garcia as Fernando
Cameron Richardson as Tara
Brandon T. Jackson as Luke
Bruce Davison as Lawrence Wilheimer
Miles Teller (The Divergent Series Franchise) and Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect 1 & 2) lead an all-star cast in the laugh-out-loud comedy Get a Job, available on June 14 on Blu-ray (plus Digital HD), DVD (plus Digital), and Digital HD from Lionsgate. The fresh and wickedly funny film is currently available On Demand. Following the struggles facing a group of college graduates as they navigate through a tough economy, Get a Job also stars Brandon T. Jackson (Tropic Thunder), Nicholas Braun (How to Be Single), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad), Alison Brie (TV’s “Communityâ€), Marcia Gay Harden (TV’s “Code Blackâ€),and Academy Award® nominee Bryan Cranston (Best Actor, Trumbo, 2015).
How far would you go to get a job? Recent college grads Will (Teller) and Jillian (Kendrick) desperately want to become a power couple — but first they have to get jobs! When work prospects threaten to strand Will and Jillian in entry-level hell, Will starts thinking out of the box — and hatches a hilarious assault on the job market.
From Dylan Kidd (director of “Roger Dodger” and “P.S.”) and writers Kyle Pennekamp and Scott Turpel comes the stoner comedy, “Get a Job”.
Originally made back in 2012, the film had gone through problematic distribution issues and would not be released until March 2016 via a limited release and video on demand. And now, “Get a Job” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in June 2016.
The film would feature an ensemble cast starring Anna Kendrick (“Pitch Perfect” films, “Up in the Air”, “Into the Woods”), Alison Brie (“Community”, “The Five-Year Engagement”, “Get Hard”), Miles Teller (“Whiplash”, “The Spectactular Now”, “Fantastic Four”, “Divergent”), Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”, “Argo”, “Drive”, “Malcolm in the Middle”), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (“Superbad”, “Kick-Ass”, “Role Models”), Nicholas Braun (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, “Red State”, “The Watch”, “The Stanford Prison Experiment”), Marcia Gay Harden (“Into the Wild”, “Mystic River”, “The Mist”), John C. McGinley (“Scrubs”, “Platoon”, “Se7en”, “The Rock”), John Cho (“American Beauty”, “Star Trek”, “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”), Greg Germann (“Ally McBeal”, “Here Comes the Boom”, “Sweet November”), Jorge Garcia (“Lost”, “Hawaii Five-0”, “The Ridiculous 6”, “The Wedding Ringer”) and Brandon T. Jackson (“Tropic Thunder”, “Fast & Furious”, “Percy Jackson” films).
The film revolves around Miles Teller (portrayed by Will Davis), a YouTube video editor who just graduated from college along with his girlfriend Jillian Stewart (portrayed by Anna Kendrick).
For Miles, life is kickback as he and his buddies Charlie (portrayed by Nicholas Braun, playing a character who wants to become a teacher), Ethan (portrayed by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, a programmer who is creating an app that enables one to stalk people) and Luke (portrayed by Brandon T. Jackson, a character who is getting his feet wet in working for a corporate environment) enjoy playing video games, drinking alcohol and doing recreational drugs.
Miles expects his entry to a career after college will be easy as he is expecting a job with LA Weekly, a place where he had interned as a video editor. And for the most part, his parents, especially his father Roger (portrayed by Bryan Cranston) is proud of him.
But Miles learns that life is not that easy. He finds out that the job at LA Weekly is not going to happen and hoping for financial support from his parents, finds out his father was fired from his job.
And while Miles applies for job, his carefree and creative attitude tends to get in the way as he quickly learns that finding a job is not easy. And the same can be said for his father Roger, who is older and trying to get a job and compete with younger people.
But Miles also finds it difficult to get a job because of his drug use and he needs to get a drug tests for a major corporate job for Lawrence Wilheimer (portrayed by Bruce Davidson) and work with the flirty Tanya (portrayed by Alison Brie) and his strict and controlling boss, Katherine Dunn (portrayed by Marcia Gay Harden), who could care less about his style.
But Miles must learn if finding a job that pays well is important or finding a job that doesn’t pay as well but allows him to be creative is more important.
VIDEO:
“Get a Job” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:78:1 aspect ratio). The film looks vibrant in outdoor scenes and is full of detail. I didn’t notice any problems with overall picture quality and “Get a Job” looks very good in HD!
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Get a Job” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and features a lossless soundtrack that has crystal clear dialogue and music, while surround channels are more for ambiance.
Subtitles are in English and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Get a Job” comes with the following special features:
- Video Resume Outtakes – (2:57) Interviews with the cast of the film.
- Where It All Began: The Cast of GET A JOB – (6:56) The cast and crew talk about the film and the characters.
EXTRAS:
“Get A Job” comes with a slipcover and an UltraViolet code.
No one wants to see a film fail especially with a talented cast.
But “Get a Job” is one of the worst films I have watched in the last five years.
When I read that “Get a Job” was made in 2012 and then released in 2016, typically a delay of a film is not a good sign.
And it was even more surprising to believe that a film that would star popular talent such as Anna Kendick, Miles Teller, Bryan Cranston, Marcia Gay Harden, Brandon T. Jackson, Nicholas Braun, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and many others, would not be released.
But nevertheless, I tend to find some enjoyment from a film that typically receives negative reviews and “Get a Job” was a film that tries to capture the post-graduation from college angst with stoner film comedy.
For the most part, I think there are many people who can relate to the character of Will. Graduating from college, thinking you will score a wonderful job and then finding out that all was not all that it seems.
In his case, he is a YouTube creator that has become popular for creating crazy, non-traditional types of video but as we all know, only so many people can succeed and become profitable for many years under that platform. And as creative as he is, his thoughts like most people who are talented is that companies would welcome that creativity and exploit it.
But Will quickly learns that they like his skillset but they want him to abide to their corporate boilerplate without straying away from that concept. And that is difficult for him as he has a boss that is strict, wants him to become professional and he quickly needs to grow up as his father has become unemployed and his girlfriend, who also is having similar issues of thinking she has a job that will be there forever, unfortunately doesn’t happen.
And while I enjoyed that aspect of the film, the film tries to hard to incorporate things that make it a stoner film but ends up hurting the film. For example, the character of Charlie (portrayed by Nicholas Braun) is a hardcore pothead. He must teach a class chemistry and has them toasting his food for them and he becomes the coach of the boy’s basketball team and often using profanity towards the young children. Personally, I found this to be poor taste.
The other involves Ethan (portrayed by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) playing a character that creates an app that allows people to stalk someone. Even in 2012 with privacy issues for cell phones and stalking, the concept is ill-planned and ridiculous. Granted, there is a purpose for this app in the film and how it would be used, but still, it’s an ill-conceived storyline. Sure, Mintz-Plasse is known for playing these crazy characters, but the overall concept doesn’t work.
And then you have Luke (portrayed by Brandon T. Jackson) who is a person trying to make it in the business world and his boss tells him to prove himself by drinking jizz from an animal in front of his co-workers. Obviously going for that gag comedy scene to be hilarious and make people gag, it is ineffective and further enforces the ridiculous nature of this film.
But there are things in the film that are funny and plausible that made me laugh, but for the most part, “Get a Job” doesn’t do anything to enhance the careers of the star talent featured. If anything, the film was created before many of the younger talent became popular and went on to create big budget or critically acclaimed films and I can see why the film had distribution problems and took four years to be released.
As for the Blu-ray release, picture quality is very good as outdoor scenes are vibrant and features great detail. While lossless audio features crystal clear dialogue and surround channels utilized more for ambiance. You also get a few special features included as well.
Overall, “Get a Job” is simply a bad film with a talented cast. While I enjoyed it more than the 2008 film “Strange Wilderness” (which is the worst film I have ever watched and reviewed), I only recommend this film if you enjoy stoner comedies or are big fans of the talent that are in the film.
