WARNING!: MAY CONTAIN SOME MILD SPOILERS AND OFFENSIVE MATERIAL.
Rating: * * *½ out of * * * *
Rated: R (!) for sexual content, crude and sexual humor, and some nudity.. (A mild R rating)
Starring: Rob Schneider, Oded Fehr, Eddie Griffin, Arija Bareikis, Amy Poehler, Norm McDonald.
Running Time: 88 Minutes
"Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" is simply a hilarious good-natured comedy that may offend some, but underneath all it's crude humor and sexual content is a sweet little love story that is surprisingly involving. It isn't any kind of cinematic classic, but it's a very very funny comedy that keeps us entertained until the end credits which themselves are funny too. It has all it needs to be a breezy entertaining comedy: the acting is up to pace and some of the performances quite funny, the screenplay is witty and smart, and the whole story is sweet and cute.
Deuce Bigalow (Rob Schneider) is your typically average guy: He cleans fish tanks for a living and gets an average of 10 bucks for it. Though one might call him a loser, Deuce gets a job he would never thought he would get. He gets to clean the tank for a Male Gigolo (Oded Fehr) and gets offered to watch over his place while he goes on a trip. Trying to be like him he hangs upside down from a pole and accidentally pushes off the fishtank and burns his cabinets. The thing is now he has to try and find $6,000 dollars in three weeks to make sure everything looks right again. So he decides to go "Man-whoring" and to his luck gets the oddest people on Earth: An over-weight woman who decidedly wants to eat everything in site, a woman with Narcolepsy who sleeps all the time, a woman who has sudden screaming outbursts, and a woman he can't stop thinking about. He charges $10 but he is willing to negotiate. From now on he is considered Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
With non-stop laughs an a abundence of crude humor "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" is sometimes like last years hit "There's Something About Mary" that is offensive but very funny. The screenplay by Harris Goldberg and Rob Schneider himself is a smart, clever and witty screenplay that seems to have been written with care to make is so hilariously funny. The characters in the film are all actually likable especially "Jabba Lady" with her big body but soft heart. There are actually times in the movie where I fell out of my chair laughing so hard that my stomach was killing me. Even though I thought "Toy Story 2" and "Being John Malkovich" were the funniest of the year "Deuce Bigalow" follows right behind them.
The directing by Mike Mitchell is fantastic and shows he took time on the film. Rob Schneider gives a surprisingly endearing performance and when his romance develops with one of his customers Kate (Arija Bareikis) it is a sweet romance that we get involved in and actually like being involved in it. "Deuce Bigalow" is a good-natured film worth all the merit it can get. Its not a classic or a masterpiece, it's just a comedy that we don't feel bad about watching. Sure it may come off as offensive and may come off as dumb sometimes, but you cannot deny that it isn't funny.
"Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" is no disappointment. Its a fast paced, entertaining sweet and hilarious comedy that may be destined to become a cult classic. Fans of Schneider will not be disappointed and fans of crude but nice comedies will not either. For some reason the film garnered an R rating but with no "f words" or extensive use of sexual content or explicit nudity I was really wondering why the film was R. A mild R to put it to the least, but even if your under 17 or above at least 13 this film is good enough for you to see. Don't try to be one of those people who make so much of a film that they do not like it, just sit back, laugh and enjoy the movie.
Reviewed by Brandon Herring December 9, 1999
Brandon Herring Http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/movie/3160/moviereviewheaven.html
"He Came Home"- Halloween "I don't know if anyone can stop him!"- H4 "Im so scared!"- Blair Witch " "- Silent Bob
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