Missionário Retornado

There might be some people that think this movie was bad. However, being LDS I found this movie quite entertaining, and no I am not in Utah. I have never actually lived in Utah. That's beside the point, this movie was rather funny, and if you have ever served a mission, and experienced life afterwards it pretty much hit the nail on the head with how it feels. The story although a little far fetched is not distracting and some of the Mormon stereotypes are hilarious. All-in-all this movie is a good one to add to your collection especially if you are LDS. And by the way I thought that Wally Joyner was probably the funniest person in the whole movie. The only thing funnier was the cameo appearance of Donald Trump's hair. For those of you that have not seen it, watch the movie again and look at Wally Joyner's head as Jared (Kirby H.) finds out that he doesn't have a job anymore. Although it is dyed from the normal blonde hue, you can totally tell it is Trump's toupee.

7 out of 10

I think a lot of people have seen "Single's Ward" by the same writing/production team and expected "The R.M." to be the sequel. I know that I went under that impression, so it came as quite a surprise when the same ol' cast from Single's Ward were playing very different parts. It was a good movie that very much reminded me of an LDS version of the "Meet the Parents" (Nothing seems to go right). While there were many funny scenes that most any returned missionary could relate to, the film seemed to try to take the R.M. stereotypes a little to the extreme. I felt the plot suffered a little just to get a laugh. All in all I enjoyed the movie and hope that the Hales continue to put out films. If you're LDS and you want a good laugh I don't think you can go wrong with this one.

Jared is a young Mormon man who has just finished his two year missionary stint. He believes he is coming back to a job and plans on proposing to his longtime girlfriend. Horrors! After buying the ring, he learns his girlfriend is two weeks away from marrying someone else and his job is down the drain, too. Not only that, but his parents have sold his car and adopted a young man who is now inhabiting Jared's old room! Whew. Well, there is the den and Jared snags a job as a repo man for a rental company, among other prospects. And, he valiantly tries to sell the ring to improve his cash flow. But, things look up when he meets Kelly. She is the daughter of an important church man and she is beautiful. Can she possibly be interested in Jared? Everyone will take a shine to this film whether they are Mormon or not. The actors are engaging and funny, the script is snappy and the production values are good. There are a few insider jokes about Mormons which may fly over the viewer's head but it does not matter in the long run. If you are searching for another romantic comedy with good principles, put your faith in this review and find this movie. The film delivers a dose of happiness for any member of the viewing audience.

A review here compares this movie to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Being a Greek Mormon myself, I concur to a certain degree. The performances were good, Kirby Heyborne's facial expressions and reactions really carry the movie, Will Swenson more or less reprises his role from Single's Ward and Britani Bateman perfectly balances Mormon moral principles, in every sense, and being plain hot. The first half of the movie more than anything I felt sorry for the poor guy, although there were some good laughs, too. Most of the humor though is based on Mormon stereotypes - if You are not acquainted with that, I am afraid You will not get much out of this flick. I think that there is a message for Mormons, that righteousness always pays off, even it does not look like this at all, in the end you will ride with the hot general authorities daughter towards sunset; the message for non-Mormons IMHO is, "Mormons are an odd people, but they can laugh at themselves"

The R.M. has some inspired moments, and generally treats the idea of a returned missionary with humor. All of the things that go wrong are generally predictable, but expressed in a humorous way.

There are problems with the film, however. The biggest is the film's racial insensitivity. Early in the movie, Jared Phelps finds that a Chinese-American family has moved into his old home. With vaguely Asian music in the background, Mr. Wong kicks Phelps in the face. Why does the Asian-American character have to be an expert in martial arts? Why is there Asian music in the background? This might not have been an issue had there been any other Asian-American characters, but there were not.

Similarly, the Tongan exchange student in the film is named Humuhumunukunukuapua. This is the name of the Hawaiian state fish. Would a French foreign exchange student have been named Bratwurst?

Another problem with the film is the blatant ad for utahweddings.com. While presented in a slightly humorous way, it's still clear that it's an ad, and takes up at least 2 minutes of screen time.