LOST AND FOUND RATING: 5.5 / 10 --> Not good enough to recommend
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David Spade finds himself without his funnier sidekick, the late Chris Farley, in a story that attempts to photocopy the high points from last year's major comedy hit THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (7/10), with poop, fart and dog jokes, and a romantic struggle among suitors of a beautiful woman.
PLOT: A man falls for a woman who does not see him for the self-professed great guy that he is. In order for her to get to know him better, the man kidnaps the woman's dog, and sets out to win her favor by spending more time with her, in search of the lost pooch. Her ex-fiance from France also wants her back. Wackiness ensues.
CRITIQUE: This is David Spade's movie. If you don't like his style of funniness, you will not like this film. If you do like his humor, you might want to check this movie out, but even then, only on video. There is no reason to catch this movie on the big screen because it only contains some chuckles, one or two big laughs (And yes, the shit joke was one of the funnier ones), zero believable romance between Spade and Marceau, and a weak and inconceivable ending. One of the biggest laughs that I got out of this movie was in its premise that wants us to believe that the gorgeous French actress Sophie Marceau, would even look twice at the much shorter Spade, a man with the absolute worst haircut in show business, and who gives very little reason for anyone to like him in this movie. Bad acting aside, the man just doesn't fly as a romantic lead.
I personally do like Spade's deadpan, sardonic humor, but even with that, I found about 50% of his jokes as flat as a week-old Coke. And when you consider that the only scenes that were even half-witty were the ones with him in them, you kind of get a feel of what we're dealing with here. And despite co-stars Marceau and Bruel's decent performances and admirable attempts at humor, their scenes together only made me feel uncomfortable and wonder aloud as to why two lovers from France would speak English together when alone (The fact that I had time to think about this, tells you how engaging their scenes together were.) Add a few music-happy montage scenes to kill some time, an annoying sidekick via Artie Lange, and no romantic believability whatsoever, and you've got yourself a video movie prime for a lazy, summer night for folks interested in seeing a gorgeous woman go for a geeky, sarcastic guy with awful hair. Either that, or you're a huge David Spade fan and you want to check out a few of his funnier zingers.
PS: In keeping with the tradition of THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, this film also ends with an elaborate dance sequence during its end credits, featuring the entire cast dancing to Dee-Lite's delicious tune "Groove is in the Heart".
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: David Spade graduated from Arizona State University in 1988. His father left his family when David was still was very young. Years later, his stepfather, a war veteran, committed suicide. David is also the brother-in-law of fashion designer Kate Spade. He stands 5'7, and his first movie appearance was in 1987's "classic" POLICE ACADEMY 4: CITIZENS ON PATROL, playing the character of Kyle. Sophie Marceau is probably best known to American audiences for her U.S. debut performance in Mel Gibson's BRAVEHEART, as Princess Isabelle. Recently, she's been living with director Andrzej Zulawski, who is the father of her first child, Vincent, born on the 24th of July 1995. She was born Sophie Maupu. Actor Patrick Bruel remains one of France's most popular talents, an acclaimed actor with lauded performances in film and television and an award-winning recording artist with chart-topping success in rock music. One of his bigger musical hits was titled "Qui a le Droit". Chubman Artie Lange also comes from a TV sketch comedy background, as one of the regulars on TV's "Mad TV". Following his graduation from University of Southern California Film School in the early 1980s, director Jeff Pollack traveled through Asia both as a tourist and documentarian. After three years on the road-and in the rice fields and jungle, Pollack returned to the U.S., dabbling in real estate development before devoting himself to an entertainment career. He created and executive produced the long-running NBC sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," starring Will Smith, before crossing over into feature film.
Review Date: April 18, 1999
Director: Jeff Pollack
Writers: James B. Cook, Marc Meeks and David Spade
Producers: Morrie Eisenman, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove
and Wayne Rice
Actors: David Spade as Dylan Ramsey
Sophie Marceau as Lila Dubois
Patrick Bruel as Rene
Genre: Comedy
Year of Release: 1999
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(c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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