Waiting...

Well, Waiting definitely wasn’t the Office Space of restaurant parodies as I had hoped it might be, but it was funny in a juvenile and obnoxious way. Personally, I liked Waiting, and I can see its appeal for a fairly young demographic (of which I am apparently still part). The film, like its characters, is not meant to be seen as a sophisticated attempt at satire, but as a lighthearted and, at times, disgusting glimpse of restaurant employee tomfoolery.

The movie takes place over the course of one day at Shenaniganz, a mid-priced restaurant with a group of highly colorful characters. Monty (Ryan Reynolds) arrives to work the lunch and dinner shifts and is told by the manager to show a new employee, Mitch (John Francis Daley), the ropes. From there we are given a quick introduction to each of the characters on the restaurant’s staff as Monty gives Mitch a rather disturbing tour. Apparently, the male members of the staff keep themselves entertained during their shifts by playing the “Penis-Showing Game,” which is comprised of several different exposing positions, each with a corresponding number of kicks awarded if one is successful in flashing an unwitting fellow employee. The plot itself centers around... well, nothing really. The employees have various interactions with each other, Mitch is hazed, the manager is on a power-trip all night, and the customers are sometimes nice but more often rude. Dean (Justin Long) might have the only real storyline in the movie, as the manager, Dan (David Koechner), offers him a promotion to assistant manager and explains the perks of having “real power.” Dean can’t decide whether to take the position or not, however, because although he would make considerably more money, he worries that it will be a dead-end.

The kitchen staff and the waiters play the Penis game throughout the night with varying results, and Mitch continues to follow Monty around his tables as part of his training. He learns one of the horrifying truths of the restaurant industry: never mess with the people who handle your food. When one such customer gets her comeuppance after being inexcusably mean to a waitress, Mitch, as well as most everyone in the audience, is completely sickened at the employees’ idea of vengeance. But man was that customer a bitch. There are various other customer-related incidents, but the majority of time is spent on the interactions between the employees.

Again, this is not a sophisticated movie. I cannot emphasize more strongly that this film was ridiculously stupid—and funny in that way, which is precisely the point. The characters are overdone and exaggerated, the situations are sometimes too contrived, and the main source of comedy is freaking penis humor for crying out loud, so while it’s entertaining in a guilty pleasure sort of way, it’s definitely not clever or riotously funny. I got a fair number of laughs, a good deal of chuckles, and quite a few grimaces when it came to a food scene here or there.

I highly recommend this movie for adolescent guys, fraternity brothers, and anyone else who is interested in watching an obnoxious film. It’s easily one of the most immature movies I’ve seen in a while, and yet I admit that I thought parts of it were pretty dang funny.