Life > August 31, 2003

By Steve Liadis

Contributing Reviewer

Late August is traditionally when studios release their weakest films, and My Boss’s Daughter is a perfect example of this practice.  A dull plot combined with unsuccessful attempts at humor was not worth the price of admission. 

In fact, it wasn’t worth the cost of the gas I used getting to the theater.

My Boss’s Daughter delivered weak jokes and unoriginal scenes, confusing stupidity for humor. When Dude, Where’s My Car? tries to copy Meet the Parents, the results are catastrophic. 

Ashton Kutcher plays Tom Stansfield, an introverted office employee who builds up the courage to approach his fastidious boss (Terence Stamp) about a new position and finally initiates a conversation with his daughter Lisa (Tara Reid).

Believing he is picking up Lisa for a date, Tom arrives at his boss’s house that night but learns that she has gone to a party and has left him to house-sit. Tom struggles to maintain order when unexpected guests arrive.

All of the characters are stereotypes and are completely unrealistic. Michael Madsen appears as a Mr. Blonde-type gangster, Stamp plays the mean boss and Carmen Electra’s character is little more than a set of breasts.

When Kutcher is angry or upset, his exaggerated sitcom emotions look foolish onscreen and Reid still comes off as cold even when her character falls for Tom’s charm.

And just how stale were the lines? The script writers even revert to O.J. Simpson jokes. 

Entire scenes completely fall through. When Kutcher threatens to shoot Madsen, Madsen urinates on him. That’s one of three such occurrences in the movie. A scene that isn’t funny the first time becomes unbearable when repeated.

The movie bashes nearly every minority group as well. The politically-incorrect humor here fails completely. One of the characters calls Tom “Jew boy” and references bagels. It is unclear whether this is a joke or an insult. This type of material was not funny, but instead bothering.

It’s difficult to say anything positive about the flick, but I suppose that the soundtrack and costumes didn’t strike me as being half bad. Of course, Reid looks gorgeous.

By the end of the movie, I didn’t care if Tom got the new job or won over Lisa’s heart. I just wanted to leave.

On his MTV show, Kutcher pulls pranks on celebrities, but in My Boss’s Daughter it’s the audience who gets “Punk’d.”