Get a Job has many issues: it’s mean spirited, unnecessarily crude, and made by an out of touch, older generation director. Yet, above all else, the comedy’s number one problem is it’s just not funny.
From a basis viewpoint, Get a Job had a lot going in its favor. A film about the spoon-fed generation (my generation) having difficulty adapting to the harsh real world is a solid premise ripe with comedic possibilities. Take into account the film’s notable talent, including Miles Teller, Anna Kendrick, and Bryan Cranston, and Get a Job sounds like a surefire success. Unfortunately, the film’s cast and premise are wasted on eighty minutes of unfunny jokes, juvenile gags, and outdated pop culture references. The latter blunder is a common error made by older generation directors (including Richard Linklater and Jason Reitman), yet it never ceases to piss me off. Some painfully out of touch subjects include a very outdated YouTube format (despite its significant role in the story) and several cringe worthy attempts at video game lingo.
While the actors’s performances are fine, their characters are nothing more than walking stereotypes. There’s the stoner teacher who does wacky stuff with his students (like roasting marshmallows during chemistry class) yet somehow doesn’t get fired, the strict, cruel female boss who gets her comeuppance by the end, the geeky perv who somehow makes highly advanced technology—which would realistically get him: A) arrested by the FBI or, B) hired by the FBI—and the black friend who’s only there because the film needed to fill their token minority quota. Anna Kendrick’s unusually minor role as the sexy, stuffy girlfriend is very out of place and wasteful of her talent (though, in all fairness, the entire cast’s talent is wasted on this film). Bryan Cranston as the dad is Get a Job’s finest aspect, yet, sadly, his role is too minor to save the film. Get a Job is a waste, an unfunny waste of talent and concept that deserves to be forgotten, and will, most definitely, be forgotten.