“The Strip” wears its inspirations like products lined up at a convenience store: it’s “The Office,” it’s “Clerks,” it’s “Office Space,” it’s every twentysomething sitcom about slacker dudes stuck in a pop-culture rut. Unfortunately, “The Strip” doesn’t add much to that litany, despite collecting a group of appealing performers — some of whom get to show off their stuff to decent advantage.
The central setting is an electronics store in a mini-mall, the kind of place familiar to viewers of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” except even more desperate. This is Electri-City, a dumb name that hardly needs pointing out, although the movie does.
Our point-of-view character is Kyle (Rodney Scott), an amiable guy who is listlessly following in his father’s footsteps as an Electri-City employee. Maybe someday he’ll be the manager of a few Electri-City stores, and then he’ll have — well, what exactly will he have then?
The manager of this store is Glenn (former “Kids in the Hall” comic Dave Foley), a hopelessly clueless schnook who foolishly invites his most vacant worker, Jeff (Billy Aaron Brown), to crash at his home. This is obviously within dangerous proximity to Glenn’s neglected wife.
The most vivid character is Rick, played by a newcomer named Cory Christmas. Rick is a budding actor, and a terrible one by the looks of things — his nontalent leads to the film’s scattered laughs. Christmas is, thankfully, over the top, which the part calls for.
Rick is the kind of guy who picks up women at nightclubs and then brings them to his house, which is actually his mother’s house, because he still lives at home. This results in a satisfyingly mortifying scene.
Other people and events dribble by and after director-writer Jameel Khan is finished poking fun at his characters, he tries to get us to care about them. No dice; these caricatures haven’t earned that kind of attention. Which wouldn’t matter as much if the more outrageous comedy were actually funny, but it’s not. Warmed-over jokes and offkey timing keep “The Strip” from turning into anything, though these same qualities might guarantee a TV-sitcom spinoff.
“The Strip”
Clueless twentysomething dudes at an electronics store in a mini-mall — this movie covers turf familiar from “The Office” and “Clerks,” but without the comic ingenuity or timing. A couple of the actors get opportunities to show off, which is about the best that can be said for this one.
Rated: PG-13 for language, subject matter
Showing: Varsity
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