CARPOOL (1996) *1/2 If you're looking for a little bit of escapist absurdity.and you don't care that where you escape to might be really stupid, I don't mean absurdity in any existentialist or intellectual sense.you may end up here. I guess that's ok, I wasn't horrified. I'm glad that I didn't pay money or go far away to do it. I ate a plain rice cake whilst watching, and that was in some way enjoyable. The film begins with a dearth of ideas, and so runs out immediately. The film does not stop at that time, of course. It goes on with Tom Arnold doing his stupid thing, and others supporting him in ways that someone somewhere must have once envisioned as adequate. The whole thing's a lot like Tom, actually: he tries so hard but he's never really very funny, but he just absolutely refuses to acknowledge that obvious reality, and when you inevitably get bored you're half inclined to rally behind his good-moodedness, just for something to do. Good guys, bad guys, good work, strange children.what they lack in plot they don't make up in any other element, either. Still, as I say there's nothing horrifying about it, and it's largely possible to look up and be mildly amused by what's happening some of the time. Children and idiots will probably enjoy it most, and I'm almost ashamed to admit that I didn't suffer all that much either.
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