VA - Me, Myself & Irene - OST (2000)

It should have been a winner, but it wasn't. The very thought of Jim Carrey re-teaming with the Farrelly Brothers for Me Myself & Irene was irresistible. Carrey helped launch the Farrellys' career with Dumb & Dumber, which helped prove that Carrey wasn't merely a one-hit wonder. Since then, Carrey turned into one of the biggest stars in American cinema, and the Farrellys turned into masters of modern comedy with Kingpin and the peerless There's Something About Mary. So, the very thought of them joining forces to tell the story of a Rhode Island cop with split personalities, both in love with the same woman, seemed like a surefire success. Somehow, it all worked on paper but not in practice. There were good moments, but it all played a little dull, which is a strange thing to say about a movie that goes out of its way to offend.

Sadly, the same thing is true about the film's soundtrack, which also has a great core idea -- modern artists covering classic Steely Dan songs -- but also fails to catch fire. Part of the problem is that the album has too many songs that aren't by the Dan, the best of which is Ellis Paul's Freedy Johnston-sound-alike "The World Ain't Slowin' Down" and Foo Fighters' dynamic "Breakout." The other problem is that the covers are either too faithful or not imaginative enough. Most artists don't play around with the arrangements, and when they do, the results aren't particularly different, as in Ivy's swinging bachelor pad arrangement of "Only a Fool Would Say That" or Brian Setzer's rampaging "Bodhisattva," both of which sound remarkably faithful even though the groups are pushing toward new ground. Really, only Smash Mouth manages a wholly different interpretation, but that's because they make "Do It Again" sound exactly like a Smash Mouth song. The rest are predictably different (the Marvelous 3's terrible punkish reading of "Reelin' in the Years") or enjoyably straight (Wilco's "Any Major Dude Will Tell You," Ben Fold Five's "Barrytown," Billy Goodrum's "Razor Boy"), but neither of which make the soundtrack particularly worth hearing. It's not bad time spent, but when it's finished, you can't help but think that it could have been a lot more than what it was. Sort of like the movie itself.~Me, Myself & Irene [Music from the Motion Picture] Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine