Yes Man (film)
Describe Yes Man here.
Yes Man!
A 2008 film that is basically, Liar Liar, except this time Jim Carrey has to say yes to everything. Such as a Persian Wife, throwing a Bridal Shower, loans for everything under the sun and most importantly a ride on a hot strangeress' (Zooey Deschanel) moped.
Oh, and it's not magical compulsion.
It's very loosely based on the memoir Yes Man, by Danny Wallace.
Tropes used in Yes Man (film) include:
- Actor Allusion:
- Adaptation Expansion: The original was inspired by some random stranger's comment on the bus. The film replaces this with a meeting with an old friend of Carl's, then a huge motivational seminar.
- Adorkable: Norm. He seems pretty annoying at first, but the more we see of the guy makes him more endearing.
- Carl himself counts as this.
- So does Soo-Mi, the romantically frustrated Meganekko whom Carl eventually sets up with Norm, to great success.
- Anti-Love Song: Sweet Ballad ("Got nothing to prove, I'm not your whore...") and Uh-Huh ("I should have been the one to break up with you...")
- Badass Biker: Carl and the Ducatti.
- Big Yes
- Black Comedy: Carl's friends finding him dead. With flies all over him. And in his mouth. Of course it's All Just a Dream !
- Chekhov's Gun: A mail-order bride, learning to fly a plane, and a loan for a fertilizer company at first appear to be one-off gags, but both factor into the plot later when Carl and Allison are detained at the airport. The loan for the motorcycle and Lee being a nurse (conveniently at the hospital where Carl is taken) also turn out to be important.
- Chekhov's Skill: Learning to speak Korean and play the guitar seem to just be miscellaneous examples in a montage of things Carl says yes to, but they come in especially handy later. Same with the scooter/motorcycle.
- Close on Title: All the credits, including the name of the film, are placed at the end.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Nick. In spades.
- Comically Missing the Point: Pretty much everyone who's been to one of Terrence's events seems to believe that his philosophy really is about saying "yes" to everything, rather than it just being a way of opening people up to new ideas and experiences. Carl is the only person to get the full idea behind it, and even that doesn't happen until Terrence explicitly tells him.
- Creator Cameo: Danny Wallace who has his background cameo behind a horny old lady in the bar.
- The Danza: Terrence Stamp as self-help guru Terrence Bundley.
- Deadpan Snarker: Allison, played by... you guessed it, Zooey Deschanel, who did it a couple of times before.
- Dirty Old Woman: Tillie.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Jim Carrey actually learned Korean, and actually got that perfect DDR score (he already knew how to play the guitar).
- Fake Band: Munchausen by Proxy.
- Fan Disservice: Ever wanted to see Jim Carrey's bare ass?
- Hipster: Allison, if her strange fashion sense and a penchant for indie music and unusual hobbies are any indication. A rare non-satirical example.
- Interrupted Suicide
- "I Want" Song: Yes Man (the credits song).
- Large Ham: Terrence Stamp is over the top and seems to enjoy it. Jim Carrey, however, is much more restrained than in his earlier movies.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Carl seems to think this is what happens if he breaks the Yes Contract, and it appears this way both times he attempts to say something other than "yes" until Terrence explains things to him.
- Man Child: Apart from having a very childish sense of humour, Norm is a Harry Potter and Three Hundred fanboy.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Allison, played by...ZooeyDeschanel. you get the idea.
- Me Love You Long Time: The character of Soo-Mi was criticized for being portrayed as this trope.
- Meet Cute: A subversion occurs with Carl and Allison.
- Played completely straight when Carl introduces Soo-Mi to Norm.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: Played for Laughs when Carl is detained by federal agents who, judging by his weird hobbies, believe that he's a North Korean spy preparing a 9/11-style terrorist plot.
- Motor Mouth: Carl, after having one too many Red Bull energy drinks.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Terrence has one of these in the very last shot of the film, as he realises from the hundreds of naked people, who had happily donated all of their clothing to charity at Carl's request that no-one (aside from Carl) has understood the point of his message at all.
- Naked People Are Funny: End of the movie.
- And Carl's upskirt (or rather, up-hospital-gown) moment as he rides the Ducatti to get his girl.
- Precision F-Strike: During Carl's rant after his first "yes" act. It's quite understandable too.
- Product Placement: The only discernible reason for Red Bull to be mentioned as many times as it is.
- Reckless Gun Usage: The hero goes skeet shooting with his girlfriend. She asks what to do, and accidentally shoots the ground. After the instructor shows her where to point, she hits the clay pigeon. In her excitement, she turns around still holding the gun and everyone in the shooting range ducks for cover.
- Shout-Out: "I got blisters on me fingers!"
- The film has a number of tributes to the Harry Potter film series including a die-hard Harry Potter fan and a scene where the characters marathon the movie series. It should come as no surprised that producer David Heyman who produced the Harry Potter films also produced this movie.
- Spiritual Successor: To Liar Liar.
- Squick: The scene where Carl's neighbor helps him... release. It was in-universe Squick for him too until he found out she's apparently pretty good at it.
- That Came Out Wrong: When Carl tries to bolt when his ex-wife and her new man walk up in the bar, he stretches out the word "gone" into "gone-a-rea". Oops.
- This Is Sparta: The meme is Invoked in the movie.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Which is to say, the premise is essentially the same but virtually everything else is different from the way it really happened. In real life, Danny Wallace started the project after being told to "say yes more" by a man on a bus - it had nothing to do with any self-help organization, and all the stuff that Carrey's character does while in yes mode is different from what Wallace did in real life.