In Schmucks (inspired by the French movie The Dinner Game, a.k.a. Le Diner de Cons, a.k.a. Dinner for Idiots), Paul Rudd plays Tim, an aspiring analyst at an assets management firm, who manages to get himself noticed by the boss and get invited to the big leagues. But to gain entry, he has to bring a moron to dinner. Of course, he hits Barry with his car, and the rest is history. But the dinner party isn't for a couple of days, and Barry manages to ruin Tim's life piece by piece -- his apartment, his car, his relationship, his career -- before they even get there. It's at least partially Tim's fault, since he's constructed something of a house of cards for himself, but since he does it to keep his gorgeous curator girlfriend (Stephanie Szostak) happy, it's forgivable.

Rudd once again largely plays the straight man, which is unfortunate, since he's so damn funny, but he does get to do some physical comedy when he throws his back out. And he may only seem serious because there are a dozen other comedians in the movie for him to react to. Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords has a surprising amount of screentime as the immensely egotistical artist Kieran, who lusts after Tim's curator girlfriend (as well as several species of animals), and he steals every scene he's in. His FoC co-star Kristen Schaal is similarly great as Tim's slavedriver of a secretary, and Ron Livingston and The Daily Show's Larry Wilmore play executives at the firm who have their eye on the up-and-comer. David Walliams (Little Britain) is subtly brilliant as the blonde, blue-eyed German industrialist Tim must woo, and Lucy Punch is a revelation as Tim's brutish, psychotic stalker Darla. Seriously, it's like they read the character description, saw that a woman named "Punch" was auditioning, and gave the role to her, and it's the most brilliant casting ever.

The dinner party, as I mentioned, is only the final act, but the rest of the schmucks must get their due: Octavia Spencer (Raising the Bar) is frightening as an animal medium, Patrick Fischler (Lost, Mad Men) is disgusting as a vulture trainer and Chris O'Dowd (The IT Crowd) is hysterical as a blind swordsman. (I have nothing to say about Jeff Dunham. He had a puppet, and it was creepy. What else is new?) Zach Galifianakis, who is all over the advertising for this movie, has only two scenes -- granted, they're big scenes, and he turns out to be an important character later, but if you aren't a Galifianakis fan (understandable), don't let him keep you away. The movie is mostly just Rudd and Carell, and they're great together. Of course, liking Jemaine Clement might help, too, since he's in several scenes and a number of large paintings, most of them nudes, but we just assume everyone likes Jemaine Clement unless they tell us otherwise. Hey, we won't ask, you don't tell.

What did you think of the movie? Let us know below, then see the Schmucks cast's schmuckiest roles!

Check out the most hilarious quotes from Dinner for Schmucks and look back at how Steve Carell built his movie career.

Watch what our Trailers Without Pity crew had to say about Dinner for Schmucks:

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