The Darwin Awards

Evolution has a way of weeding out the weak and unfit. If this is true than perhaps natural selection will find a way of disposing of this movie before it passes on its undesirable traits. "The Darwin Awards" is as good as a film based on an internet site of awards given out to people who find dumb ways to kill themselves, thereby helping the gene pool by taking themselves out of it, would be expected to be. Stupidity is always good for a laugh, but this film's humor amounts to a lackluster chuckle at best.

A forensic detective, Michael Burrows (Joseph Fiennes), who happens to be very sensitive to the sight of blood, has just lost his job due to letting a murderer get away. Being a very skilled profiler, and also obsessed with the Darwin Awards, he lends his services to an insurance company in order to profile the type of personality that tends to commit these types of dumb accidents. He teams up with claims investigator Siri (Winona Ryder) and together they go across the country following Darwin Award worthy accidents. As Burrows tries to avoid these calamities, he becomes more and more like these people, emulating their stupidity.

This movie is littered with celebrities from David Arquette to Chris Penn. This doesn't make up for its twisted, convoluted plot -- which consists of Burrows trying to catch the killer that got away as he is researching the "Darwin" personalities. As well as not making any sense, the script is flat and really not that funny and so are Fiennes and Ryder's characters. A Darwin Award should be given to this movie for its bland and predictable material that fails to enrich the movie gene pool.