Being John Malkovich wouldn’t be too bad, if it weren’t for Making Mr. Right.

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Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for silly movies involving Malkovich and defective robot clones but only as long as they reach guilty pleasure heights. Parts of Making Mr Right definitely qualify. Take the scene where the android’s butt ends up on his belly button: great but oh so short. Unfortunately, the film just doesn’t live up to its pleasantly absurd premise.

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Too much time is spent with Ann Magnuson’s Frankie as she’s putting on make-up/going to meetings/driving around when we were promised early on an android with awesome super powers. Needless to say that once Malkovich’s robotic man-child finally leaves the lab to face the real world, nothing particularly exciting happens. We get to see him hang around a mall, buy a suit and get together with some side character off-camera.

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The film builds up to a wedding, which doesn't feel important to the plot in the slightest. Who is getting married you ask? One of Frankie’s friends we only met once very briefly. Great. Imagine having John Malkovich in your robot double movie and THIS is what the film decides to focus on. Granted, there's a space shuttle at one point but stock footage doesn’t count.

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Malkovich is great and seeing him with so much hair is a near religious experience.  He plays dual parts effortlessly and takes the opportunity to practice for his part in Of Mice And Men. His characters are shamefully misused, however, as the film settles for watered-down rom-com clichés rather than Inspector Gadget-style man-bot hijinks. 

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That Making Mr. Right is THIS forgotten of a movie makes a lot of sense seeing as it's a thoroughly forgettable film. The dire storyline is fatally uninspired, it takes way too long for anything to happen and when it finally does it’s just not what it needed to be. On the plus side, there are a few genuinely fun moments and the film is definitely watchable. 

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Odd movie to exist but ok.