I am a huge fan of David Wain/Stella's comedy. I love their shorts, loved their tv show, enjoyed The Baxter, and I have come to love Wet Hot American Summer.Having said all that, I wish I could have loved this one more. Yet, dont take that the wrong way since I really didn't enjoy Wet Hot American Summer the first time I saw it either. It was maybe until the 3rd time that I bumped into a part of it on cable that I came to enjoy it. I see this happening with The Ten as well.
The premise of 10 skits about the 10 commandments is a great one and when you mix this in with the off the wall and often times offensive humor of David Wain it becomes a genius one. However, this film faces the same problem that I have always felt anthology films face, which is that you are going to end up with a mix bag. By this I mean that some turn out really great, some turn out to be ok, and one or two are just going to turn out bad. So, because of this when you think of this mix bag of skits/short films as a whole film you are left with a film that was entertaining for the most part but heavily flawed because of the couple of bad apples in the bunch. The Ten suffers as a whole because of these bad apples.
Some of these skits are hilariously offensive and brilliant at the same time like Winona Ryder and the puppet (Thou Shalt Not Steal), an homage to Y Tu Mama Tambien that deals with a woman falling in love with Jesus Christ in Mexico (Thou Shalt Not Take the Lord's Name in Vain), and a prisoner who wants to start raping another persons bitch in prison (Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife)
Some are just bad like Paul Rudd dumping his girlfriend for Jessica Alba (Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery), a guy who loves to host naked parties on Sunday (Remember to Keep Holy the Sabbath), and an animated skit about a drug dealing Rhino (Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness)
The others are just "ok" and pretty forgettable. I'm sure that the film will get better for me on repeat viewings but for now it's also just "ok".
- B
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