Long Shot is about as formulaic as comedies get (fish out of water/mismatched romance, in this case). While it has a smattering of funny lines, Seth Rogen’s one-note, over-the-top performance as a loser-stoner journalist hired to write speeches for an aspiring presidential candidate rapidly grates, whilst Charlize Theron possesses no identifiable screen presence, let alone charisma — and has a kind of austere beauty that ought to be confined to cosmetic ads. The scene in which an aurora borealis inexplicably appears drags proceedings down to the level of pure schmalz. Lisa Kudrow — sadly underused generally, and onscreen here for a total of about five minutes — is far the funniest thing in it. Clearly, she should have been cast in the Theron role, had the makers in fact intended it for the purposes of entertainment.
FATAL VISIONS 