The Darwin Awards

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The Darwin Awards ★½ 2006 (R)

Lumpy, leaden comedy. The Darwin Awards are given (posthumously) to those who die in the most stupid and preventable ways. Michael (Fiennes), a former San Francisco forensic detective-turned-insurance profiler, is paired up with claims investigator Siri (Ryder) and a film student (Valderrama) who's taping their investigations as they try to identify possible victims and prevent their demise (thus saving the insurance firm lots of pay-outs). There's also a serial killer (Nelson), who previously escaped Michael, that figures in the plot. Last role for Chris Penn. 90m/C DVD . Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, Wilmer Valderra-ma, Tim Blake Nelson, David Arquette, Ty Burrell, Alessandro Nivola, Tom Hollander, Julianna Mar-gulies, Christopher Penn, David Perlich; D: Finn Taylor; W: Finn Taylor; C: Hiro Narita; M: David Kitay.