DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO RATING: 7.5 /10 --> Very good movie
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You have to hand it to Adam Sandler. Whether or not you dig his type of humor, the man should be admired for at least one positive attribute: he sticks by his friends. He and his old college roommates have written and produced most of his own movies, and now, Sandler has turned his newfound Hollywood super-power, into a greenlit project for his good buddy Rob Schneider. And luckily for us, unlike their ex-SNL bud David Spade's first sans-Farley effort, LOST & FOUND, this one actually works.
PLOT: A professional fish tank cleaner suddenly finds himself in a big hole of debt when he mangles the apartment of a male gigolo client of his, whose place he was looking after during the man's three-week absence. Recognizing his inability to come up with that kind of dough in that little amount of time, Deuce decides to join the world's oldest profession, and turns himself into...a manwhore!
CRITIQUE: One of the funnier movies of the year, this film will definitely trigger two types of reactions: love or hate. If you like the Adam Sandler grown-up stupid child routine and all the crass humor from THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (7.5/10), well by golly, sign yourself up for this gig, cause it's perfect for you. If, on the other hand, Merchant & Ivory are considered to be two of your favorite words when discussing film, then I suggest you leave Deuce and his piss and fart jokes alone. This definitely ain't for you! Simple enough? Absolutely, and much like this film's actual plot line, do not expect to find the answer to the world's problems lying in this movie's abundance of wet T-shirt and handicap jokes, but do prepare yourself to laugh a hardy har-har when Mr. Schneider and co. pull off two of the first, and most hilarious, MATRIX, hommages of the year. You have to see it to believe it. Pretty cool. Also, much like Sandler's last cinematic vehicle, BIG DADDY, this film takes a real shot at romance tied into an emotional scene or two, and believe it or not, Schneider actually pulls these scenes off. Wow. Pretty neat.
Don't get me wrong here folks, you aren't gonna find the lost scenes from CASABLANCA in here, but God help me if I didn't appreciate the obvious but poignant "make the best of what you have" message woven into Schneider's goofy script. And if all that wasn't enough, you have an excellent cast of side characters, including one of the most intense cops put to film (with a "small" fixation on his own penis), a beautiful girlfriend, who also happens to be a pretty decent actress, and Oded Fehr, who if you hadn't noticed by the umpteen love notes inscribed after my MUMMY review, is a great looking man with an ass that would put most porno stars to shame. And the mane...wow! Another hilarious turn is also given to the character of Deuce's dad in this movie. His description of how he met Deuce's mom is to die for! The one thing which surprisingly didn't work for me, were the epilogues at the end of the movie. They seemed to be wanting to be funny, but just fell flat. All in all, this movie is filled with cheap, filthy and quick humor, and if that's what you're looking for, this should be your ticket to he-bitch heaven (you'll fully appreciate that line after you see the film).
And for God's sakes, if you truly do not like childish, dirty and "stupid" humor, do us all a favor and skip this movie, because you'll just end up bitching about it later, even though a flashing neon light is telling you "this is NOT for you!". Don't say I didn't warn you :).
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Schneider mentions a Filipino dish in this film, which might've been spurned from his own familial background. Rob's mother is Filipino and his father is Jewish. He was born and raised in San Francisco, the youngest of five children. He got his first big break on the "David Letterman" show in 1987 at the tender age of 24, and apparently dated co-SNL star Julia Sweeney for a few years in the early 90s. This is Oded Fehr's second big screen appearance after his turn as Ardeth Bey in THE MUMMY earlier this year. The real Oded was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. Surprisingly, there is only one other noticeable ex-SNL cameo in this film, and that is the wonderfully dry humor of Norm McDonald, who not so surprisingly, has a line which deals with anal intrusion. Adam Sandler's film production company, which produced this film, is called Happy Madison. Uuhm, do I really have to explain where the name came from? Well, okay. Two of Sandler's films were called BILLY MADISON and HAPPY GILMORE. There you go.
Review Date: December 8, 1999 Director: Mike Mitchell Writers: Rob Schneider and Harris Goldberg Producers: Sidney Ganis and Barry Bernardi Actors: Rob Schneider as Deuce Bigalow Arija Bareikis as Kate Oded Fehr as Antoine Genre: Comedy Year of Release: 1999 --------------------------------------- JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com --------------------------------------- (c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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