Python Hyena In Good Company (2004): Dir: Paul Weitz / Cast: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson, Marg Helgenberger, Zena Grey: Light comedy that addresses both corporate and family relationships. Dennis Quaid plays an ad executive who learns that his new boss is less than half his age. What really complicates matters is that he is dating Quaid's eighteen year old daughter. Results are often funny yet provocative comedy that only disappoints in its conclusion when it seems unclear where one character is headed. Directed by Paul Weitz famous for American Pie as well as About a Boy and the dreadful unfunny Down to Earth. Quaid delivers one of his better performances as a guy uneasy with his boss, and learns that his wife is pregnant. Topher Grace is hilarious as Quaid's new boss whose relationship with the daughter only fuels the fire. Scarlett Johansson is wonderful as Quaid's daughter who aims to be a writer. Her relationship with Grace carries predictable elements but done with honesty. Zena Grey plays Quaid's youngest daughter who provides the wit often accompanying young actors in comic family roles. Marg Helgenberger plays Quaid's stressed wife in what is more or less a predictable function. Not big with locations and the screenplay certainly has its faults but it does contain a strong message regarding family and relationships and the importance of unity. Score: 7 ½ / 10

SnoopyStyle Dan (Dennis Quaid) is a 51 year old executive in a sports magazine who learns that his company has been bought by entrepreneur Teddy K. One of Teddy's disciple Steckle (Clark Gregg) is tapped to run the magazine. Young enthusiastic Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) is the new head of ad sales even though he doesn't have any experience with sports. There are layoffs and it's not a good time. His wife Ann (Marg Helgenberger) is pregnant and his daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson) is transferring into the more expensive NYU. Meanwhile Carter's wife Kimberly (Selma Blair) leaves him. The young Carter takes Dan as his wingman and Alex as his new girlfriend.Both Quaid and Grace give good performances. Topher is channeling some yapping nervous puppy while Dennis is perfectly annoyed. They are more than simple one dimensional characters. They have heart. They have feelings. The story is simplistic at times. It wraps up in a Hollywood happy ending but it doesn't feel false. Like Steckle says, business can be so arbitrary. It's kind of a rom-com except it's between Quaid and Grace.

Robert J. Maxwell I wasn't able to sit through the entire film, so these comments are qualified.The story is that the corporation in which Dennis Quaid, at the age of 51, is head of the magazine advertising department. The company is undergoing some downsizing and employees all have the jitters about being fired or reduced in rank -- "Let go," as the expression has it. Quaid is dismayed when he's told that he'll be demoted to assistant chief executive deputy of magazine advertising. "You're not LETTING me go!," he exclaims. "I don't WANT to go; you're firing me!" An amusing rhetorical point.When he meets the new chief of magazine advertising, Topher Grace, his jaw drops. "How old are you?" "Twenty-six," replies Grace. "I'm 51 and you're going to be my boss." It's a humiliating experience. I was 49 with four college degrees behind me when I applied for a job as a pizza delivery boy, one of those kids who wears a colorful Edwardian outfit and shouts, "Look out -- hot stuff!" My boss would have been 21, but I didn't get the job after I replied to his query, "Got any delivery experience, sir?" Poor Dennis Quaid.The movie has some virtues aside from these incongruous juxtapositions. The teen-aged Scarlett Johansson is one of them. Topher Grace understandably is smitten by her.But Topher Grace's character is not one of the virtues. He's an innocent-looking guy, kind of appealing, but his character as written is a mess. He's supposed to be a whiz kid, but the examples of his genius that we see don't elevate him in my esteem. Most cell phones are bought by kids, so let's manufacture them in the shape of dinosaurs and instead of ringing, they'll roar.It's hard to know what they were getting at when the part was written. He constantly confesses to being nervous, and yet he's adamantine at work. It's as if we were learning that Idi Amin was nervous. I suppose his confession is designed to make us feel empathic towards him, the poor kid. He's 26, making a million dollars a year and is bursting with social status and power, and we feel sorry because he's nervous.I have a feeling that I know what the tale was getting at -- all these status discrepancies -- but the way they're treated resembles the failed pilot of a TV situation comedy. It was a disappointment because, well, comedy NOW -- more than ever! And there have been some good ones -- "The In Laws," "Analyze This!", and "The Freshman." But I wouldn't include "In Good Company" on that list.

Desertman84 In Good Company is a film about a middle-aged man finds a callow twenty- something usurping his professional life and worming his way into his family in this alternately funny and poignant comedy drama that is written and directed by Paul Weitz.It stars Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson together with Marg Helgenberger, Clark Gregg, and Selma Blair.Dan Foreman is headed for a shakeup. He is demoted from head of ad sales for a major magazine when the company he works for is acquired in a corporate takeover. His new boss, Carter Duryea, is half his age and a business school prodigy who preaches corporate synergy. While Dan develops clients through handshake deals and relationships, Carter cross-promotes the magazine with the cell phone division and Krispity Krunch, an indeterminate snack food under the same corporate umbrella. Both men are going through turmoil at home. Dan has two daughters, Alex, age 18, and Jana, age 16, and is shocked when his wife tells him she's pregnant with a new child. Carter, in the meanwhile, is dumped by his wife of seven months just as he gets his promotion. Dan and Carter's uneasy friendship is thrown into jeopardy when Carter falls for, and begins an affair with, Dan's daughter Alex.This film has a so-so script but great performances of the cast managed to elevate this film from a level of mediocrity. But nevertheless,it offers laughs at the expense of corporate culture.Also,it could be considered a "grown-up" film for many.