The Ten is a 2007 anthology comedy film directed by David Wain, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ken Marino. It was released through ThinkFilm. The film was released on August 3, 2007. The DVD was released on January 15, 2008. It is an international co-production between the United States and Mexico. It received mixed reviews.

Plot

Ten stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments: A man (Adam Brody) becomes a celebrity after falling out of a plane and becoming permanently embedded in the ground, thanks to a superstar agent (Ron Silver). After a swift rise to stardom, he becomes prideful and arrogant, referring to himself as a god. His career falls apart and he loses everything. His fiancée (Winona Ryder) leaves him for a TV anchor man. A librarian (Gretchen Mol) has a sexual awakening in Mexico with a swarthy local (Justin Theroux) who turns out to be Jesus Christ. She eventually settles down and marries her coworker (A. D. Miles), but is secretly reminded of her fling with Jesus whenever her family prays before a meal. A doctor (Ken Marino) kills his patient by leaving a pair of scissors inside her abdomen during surgery. Despite expecting the charges to be dropped because he left the scissors in "as a goof", the judge and jury sentence him to life in prison. The judge also disbars the plaintiff's lawyer, who is then told that he should consider a job as a tour guide at the local nuclear plant. A white mother (Kerri Kenney-Silver) enlists an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator (Oliver Platt) to be a father figure to her black children after telling them he is their biological father. It is revealed that their father is in reality Arsenio Hall, but they decide to keep the Arnold impersonator as part of the family; despite not being able to imitate Arsenio, he can do a pretty good Eddie Murphy impression. A police detective (Liev Schreiber) covets his neighbor's (Joe Lo Truglio) CAT Scan machine. After continuously buying additional CAT Scan machines to one up each other, both of their wives leave them. After hitting rock bottom, the two neighbors reconcile and go out for a drink. Meanwhile, a disaster at a nuclear power plant during a school tour (led by the former lawyer from the third story) leaves a busload of school children in need of several CAT Scan machines. They arrive at the neighbors' houses but the doors are locked and the two men are at the bar, so all the children die. A prisoner (Rob Corddry) desires a fellow inmate's "bitch" (the doctor from the third story) for his own. The woman (Winona Ryder) from the first story, having recently married the TV anchor man, falls in love with a ventriloquist (Michael Ziegfeld's) puppet, steals it and runs off to have a romantic relationship with it. The ventriloquist, having lost his dummy and become a homeless heroin addict, is told by another homeless man a story about an animated rhinoceros (voice of H. Jon Benjamin) who earns a reputation as a liar. After learning that a band of weiner dogs is intent on infecting others with a fatal STD, the rhinoceros tries to warn everyone. Unfortunately, nobody believes him, and they all succumb to the STD (following an orgy). It is then revealed that the rhinoceros now sells drugs to the homeless men. Jeff Reigert (Paul Rudd) presents all of these stories to the audience, while struggling with his own moral dilemma: having to choose between his beautiful wife (Famke Janssen) and his also beautiful but somewhat younger mistress (Jessica Alba). The husband from the second story (A.D. Miles) skips church with his family to get naked with his friends and listen to Roberta Flack.

Cast

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 36% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 5.12/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Although a few of the sketches that make up The Ten are humorous, the uneven and random tone of the film cause it to fall apart." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".