The comedienne (do we still use that word?) Amy Schumer stars in the bawdy comedy Trainwreck as a gal whose childhood trust and intimacy issues have resulted in a chaotic adult life of wall-banging and random guy-banging. She gives promiscuity a bad name. When she finally happens on the perfect guy (Bill Hader), will she sabotage this opportunity? Schumer herself wrote Trainwreck, which was directed by the current king of lowbrow comedy Judd Apatow.
Trainwreck has plenty of LOL moments, and even some shoulder-quaking laughs. But it’s two hours long, and that’s too long to sustain the basic jokes here. Trainwreck has jumped the shark before we get to an improbable celebrity intervention and the Madison Square Garden grand finale.
There are some glimpses of comedic genius here and there, including a brilliant take on the all-night male-female argument – the kind where the woman is amped up in a full-throttle rage and the man keeps fighting to stay awake. Both men and women in the audience were laughing knowingly.
Trainwreck does benefit from a superb cast. I always love to see Hader and Brie Larson (good but wasted here). Tilda Swinton bops in for a turn as a supremely confident and self-absorbed boss. Pro wrestler John Cena is very good as the first boyfriend, a bodybuilder with some denial issues of his own. And Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei are very funny in a profoundly bad movie-within-the-movie.
But the real revelation here is LeBron James,who is playing himself as best friend of Hader’s character, an orthopedic surgeon. LeBron is very, very good – just as good as the real actors. He has an excellent sense of timing and a lot of natural appeal. There aren’t that many movie roles for 6-foot 8-inch black men, but LeBron can definitely act. He’s consistently a joy to watch in Trainwreck.
Amy Schumer delivers a lot of raunchy laughs in Trainwreck, just not two hours worth. It’s definitely not a really good movie, but it will offer an evening of light laughs on home video.