Film #050 - The Check Up (2005)
Viewed February 19, 2006
The Check Up is a short film starring Joe “Joey Pants” Pantoliano and Kevin Connolly (Entourage) made by Volkswagen to promote their 2006 Jetta.
With advertisement/films like this (which due to their increasing presense I have dubbed “Cinéma-Annoncez”), the important issue is whether they are able to rise above the level of being merely overlong commercials. BMW’s “The Hire” series starring Clive Owen are an example of how these films can do more than just sell cars.
Unfortunately, The Check Up, although quite amusing in places does little more than lead towards the inevitable sales pitch. The notion of an inspector (Pantoliano) checking up on a young man’s (Connoly) progress towards maturity is a nice idea and could have served the filmmaker well. But co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris do little more than build up to the obvious “the Jetta looks grown up, but is still fun” concept that serves as the film’s punchline. Unlike the “Hire” series, whose films were helmed by experienced directors and showed the expected polish, The Check Up’s lack of depth is a giveaway of it’s directors’ mostly music video-related background.
It’s only six minutes long, worth a view for the few chuckles it evokes and Joe Pantoliano is always fun to watch, but really there’s little more here than a sales pitch, and not a very convincing one at that.