Rating (1 to 10) : 4
Summary: A process server, Joe Tyler, serves a woman with divorce papers but then agrees to help her serve her husband so as to get a better divorce settlement.
Joe Tyler (Matthew Perry) is a process server, the people who serve court papers that notify someone that they have been summoned for a court appearance. He really doesn’t like his job and dreams of opening up his own winery – he grows grapes under hydroponic lights in his apartment.
Lately, his job has been difficult as he is finding it difficult to confront the people whom he must serve the summons. His boss Ray Harris (Cedric the Entertainer) is constantly on him about his failures to summon his “marks” while his co-worker Tony (Vincent Pastore) works to undermine him.
Joe gets a job to summon Sara Moore (Elizabeth Hurley, the Devil in “Bedazzled”), a trophy wife of a rich Texan tycoon who is staying at their posh apartment in New York City. She evades being summoned but Joe uses diligence (and illegal methods) to track her down. But after being served, she makes a deal with Joe – summon her soon-to-be ex-husband first since a divorce settlement in the state of New York is more lucrative to her than a divorce settlement in the state of Texas and he gets $1 million. So Joe rips up the summons papers and they go after her husband (they never seem to file divorce papers though). Problem is, Mr. Moore (Bruce Campbell) tries to have Sara served again, this time by Joe’s backstabbing co-worker Tony while trying to avoid being served by Joe.
The rest of the movie then wounds itself in a predictable path. You can guess what happens and who will win and what the ending of the movie is. Not much in plot surprises. The highlight of the movie seems to be when Elizabeth Hurley gets her jean pants caught in a baggage conveyor and you can see her in her white panties. Matthew Perry has been trying to make the jump from the hit TV series “Friends” to movie roles but the ones that he’s been in have all been duds (“Almost Heroes”, “The Whole Nine Yards”) and this one is no different.
With regards to this movie, pass.
Why you should or should not see this movie:
You should see this movie if you want to see Elizabeth Hurley in a leading role or almost naked. Otherwise, don’t waste your time.
Sara: “Tease me all you like. I just don’t feel right if I don’t have a bath. I don’t get you Americans with your two-minute showers.”
Joe: “Well it could be worse. We could be French and skip the whole thing.”