Movie Review: ‘The Darwin Awards’ removes itself from the gene pool

Complete mess of a film, a total waste of talent (and a reasonable cast) for the filmmakers, and a total waste of time for the audience.

The ‘Darwin Awards´ are an internet phenomenon given out each year to those who have removed themselves from the world´s gene pool through acts of sheer stupidity. The film seems to have removed itself from US cinemas in similar fashion.

Criminal profiler Joseph Fiennes has lost his job after bungling a murder investigation; obsessed with the Darwin Awards, he goads an insurance company into letting him investigate cases of bizarre deaths and other strange claims in the hopes of preventing future accidental deaths (and saving the company money).

Numerous cases are re-enacted (watching these deaths set up as comedy pieces is FAR less entertaining than reading about them) but the bulk of the story is devoted to inept rom-com between Fiennes and insurance agent Winona Ryder, who have no chemistry together.

Greatest insult: film doesn´t use any of the actual Darwin Award stories, instead favoring well-known urban legends that have often been mislabeled as Darwin Awards over the years.

Nearly completely incompetent and dreadfully dull. Avoid.

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Jason Pirodsky

Jason Pirodsky has been writing about the Prague film scene and reviewing films in print and online media since 2005. A member of the Online Film Critics Society, you can also catch his musings on life in Prague at expats.cz and tips on mindfulness sourced from ancient principles at MaArtial.com.

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