Is Worst Dinner Ever the Comedy Version of Die Hard We’ve All Been Waiting For?
Genre: Comedy/Action
Premise: An estranged father and son have to survive terrorists, explosions, and, worst of all, dinner with each other, at the top of one of Boston’s tallest buildings.
About: Jack Waz has been staffed on several television shows since the mid 2010s. He charges onto the Black List in the number 11 slot with Worst Dinner Ever.
Writer: Jack Waz
Details: 96 pages
Yesterday’s review got a little intense. I’ve noticed that certain subject matters get the trigger-happy crowd a little too triggered. Which is why we’re going in the opposite direction today. We’ve going to have fun. We’re going frantic. We’re going comedic Die Hard! I can hear Scott’s head turning in the UK all the way from LA. “Die Hard, did you say?” Yeah baby. We got a Die Hard inspired script. Let’s discuss!
20-something Danny has a pretty sweet life except for one thing. He hates his dad, Charles. While it appears the hatred is deep deep DEEP-SET, it was really his mother’s funeral that put that hatred over the top. That’s when Danny learned that his dad went out on a date right before her funeral.
While Danny would be fine never seeing his father again, his fiancé, Kate, insists that she meet him if they’re going to get married. Danny reluctantly makes the phone call and the two set up a dinner at Boston’s Prudential Center, which has a bougie restaurant at the top of its main building.
Around this time, we learn that Charles is stupid rich. He runs some high class financial fund. And, if we’re paying attention, we also learn that he has some unhappy clients in Ireland who may believe he’s stealing from them.
Both wife and fiancé join Charles and Danny for dinner and, surprisingly, things go smoothly at first. But then a flash-grenade lands in their salad and all hell breaks loose. Charles and Danny sprint downstairs while Kate and Charles’ wife are stuck in the bathroom.
Callum, our “Hans” in the story, sends all of his IRA team after Charles and Danny who, mostly through stupid luck, are able to avoid, and occasionally, kill, the baddies. Finally, Callum’s number 1 man is able to capture them, infuse them with a truth drug, and get Charles to admit that he’s running a Ponzi scheme in an account under his son’s name. Yikes! From that moment on, we have to worry about Danny killing Charles more than the IRA killing them.
Worst Dinner Ever passes the GSU test.
We’ve got our goal – save fiancé and wife and get out of the building.
We’re got our stakes – death along with the implosion of Charles’ business.
We’ve got our urgency – the whole thing is taking place tonight.
And the script gets points for its energy. There isn’t a page in this screenplay that reads slow.
You’ve also got a fun variation of the Die Hard formula. For you newbie screenwriters, finding a fresh spin on the Die Hard formula is a rite of passage in this business. Everyone has either tried to do it or is still trying to do it. And here, we’ve switched two variables. Instead of the genre being an Action-Thriller, it’s an Action-Comedy. And then, instead of having a single hero running around the building, we get a two-hander.
Is it enough?
That’s a good question.
One of the things I constantly run into reading screenplays is that a lot of them, on the surface, should work. I’d put Worst Dinner Ever in that category. You’ve got a high concept comedic spin on Die Hard. Your central characters are in intense conflict with each other throughout the movie, providing plenty of drama and potential for character growth. You’ve got the wife and girlfriend here to add more variety to the situation. The concept is contained and easy to understand. The stakes are high.
But I didn’t quite go gaga for it for two reasons.
Whenever I see a concept, I envision what the script is going to be. If the writer gives me that exact version of the story, I rarely enjoy it. As I like to remind writers everywhere, you need to be special in your execution of the story. If you’re only able to give us what 99 out of 100 other writers would’ve given us, then you’re not exhibiting any special qualities. A good screenwriter is supposed to anticipate what the reader wants and give it to them, but do so in ways that they didn’t expect.
I’m not saying you have to reinvent storytelling here. But you at least have to include a few carefully placed scenes that keep us on our toes. I checked out Copshop over the weekend, which is a fun little movie. It’s about a guy who purposefully gets arrested so he can get into the same jail as the dude he wants to kill. Once the film has the two in their adjacent jail cells, we think we know how it’s going to go down. But then we learn that one of the cops upstairs is on the take with a cartel. The Gerard Butler character tricks another cop and gets out of his cell by minute 30. There’s a close-range shootout as he tries to kill his target hiding behind the bench. And I’m thinking to myself, “I have no idea where this is going next.”
Comedies are a little different in that the audience doesn’t come to them for plot twists. But that’s not what I’m asking for. I just want the writer to be ahead of me as opposed to me behind ahead of the writer.
Another issue with Worst Dinner Ever is the comedy. Comedy is subjective. So much so that two people can watch the same comedy with one thinking it’s an instant classic and the other thinking it was the most unfunny movie they ever watched. So I’m not going to pass judgement on the sense of humor here. I was more concerned about the repetition of that humor. It was the same joke over and over again. Danny yells at Charles for being a bad dad. Charles yells at Danny for being a bad son. We probably get that joke in the neighborhood of 100 times.
There were occasional funny moments that broke up that routine – such as when they use a snowmobile in the building to escape the bad guys. But we kept going back to that squabbling joke over and over again.
I remember in another ‘meet the parents’ movie, “Meet the Parents,” that Greg had a different comedic relationship to the dad (antagonistic) compared to his fiancé (desperate to seem more manly in her eyes) to the ex-boyfriend (tries to live up to the impossible standard he set) to the sister (she’s constantly annoyed by all the mistakes Greg makes) to the brother (forced to keep the brother’s drug use secret). The comedy felt varied because each relationship was so different.
Which is frustrating because Worst Dinner Ever is an easy read. I like the idea of a comedic Die Hard. But when you can anticipate almost every line and almost every plot beat, you’re going to get bored as a reader. Readers need to be surprised every once in a while to stay invested in a story. Which is why this wasn’t for me.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: With comedies especially, you have to look for scenes that specifically exploit the premise. If you don’t do this, your comedy will be generic because it’s going to stem from the same pool as every other comedy. Worst Dinner Ever’s unique premise is that father and son hate each other more than anything. So let’s build a scene around that. Have two terrorists interrogate Charles and Danny in separate rooms. They tell each of them that if they don’t give them the information they want, they’re going to kill their son/dad. “Fine,” both the dad and son say. The terrorists get tripped up. “I don’t think you heard me. We’re going to kill your father if you don’t tell me where he’s hidden the money.” “Good! Make sure you elongate the torture process if possible. And if you could allow me to watch or record it and show me later, I can’t express how helpful that would be.” The terrorist stares at Danny, realizing that this plan has no chance of working. You could get a really funny scene out of that and it’s unique because you can’t do it any other movie. That’s what you should be aiming for: comedic scenes that can’t be in any other movie.
