Zach Braff and Amanda Peet play Tom and Sofia, a young couple about to welcome their first child into the world. Unfortunately, they're going to need an income very quickly since she's left her job to become a full time mom and he's just lost his job as a chef. So he goes to work with her dad Bob (Charles Grodin) at a wacky advertising agency, run by mellow dude Don Wollebin (Donal Logue). Almost immediately he realizes he has an enemy in his new supervisor, Chip Sanders (Jason Bateman), a paraplegic who has designs on Sofia (with whom he once had a sexual fling).
This is one of those cases of solid performers bringing life to less than stellar material. It's all pleasant enough, even in its unrated incarnation (it's never really that nasty or raunchy), but it's also patently predictable. At best, it may induce some smiles, but it never does produce belly laughs. It creates some very mild chuckles with the way it takes jabs at modern motherhood and Toms' new workplace, but doesn't ever kick into a high gear. It's up to the actors to sell it, and they do, up to a point. The stars are likable, as are their characters, and you can't help but feel some sympathy towards Tom as he tries to expose a physically disabled person as being a scumbag - which, of course, makes HIM look bad.
Lots of familiar faces here: Mia Farrow (as Sofias' mom), Fred Armisen, Bob Stephenson, Josh Charles, Marin Hinkle, Paul Rudd, Robert John Burke, Romany Malco, Amy Adams, John Benjamin Hickey. Lucian Maisel is appealing as neighborhood kid Wesley, whose talent for stuffing whole burgers into his mouth is exploited by Tom. It's especially nice to see Grodin again, as at this time he hadn't been in a feature film for 13 years. His son Nick plays the small role of Summers.
"Fast Track" a.k.a. "The Ex" is the kind of thing most people would probably watch once and then forget.
Five out of 10.
This is one of those cases of solid performers bringing life to less than stellar material. It's all pleasant enough, even in its unrated incarnation (it's never really that nasty or raunchy), but it's also patently predictable. At best, it may induce some smiles, but it never does produce belly laughs. It creates some very mild chuckles with the way it takes jabs at modern motherhood and Toms' new workplace, but doesn't ever kick into a high gear. It's up to the actors to sell it, and they do, up to a point. The stars are likable, as are their characters, and you can't help but feel some sympathy towards Tom as he tries to expose a physically disabled person as being a scumbag - which, of course, makes HIM look bad.
Lots of familiar faces here: Mia Farrow (as Sofias' mom), Fred Armisen, Bob Stephenson, Josh Charles, Marin Hinkle, Paul Rudd, Robert John Burke, Romany Malco, Amy Adams, John Benjamin Hickey. Lucian Maisel is appealing as neighborhood kid Wesley, whose talent for stuffing whole burgers into his mouth is exploited by Tom. It's especially nice to see Grodin again, as at this time he hadn't been in a feature film for 13 years. His son Nick plays the small role of Summers.
"Fast Track" a.k.a. "The Ex" is the kind of thing most people would probably watch once and then forget.
Five out of 10.