DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO (M). (Touchstone/Buena Vista International) Director: Mike Mitchell Stars: Rob Schneider, William Forsythe, Arija Bareikis, Eddie Griffin, Oded Fehr, Gail O'Grady, Jacqueline Obradors, Richard Riehle Running time: 88 minutes.
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo is the sort of crass, crude, loud and generally unfunny low brow comedy that we have come to expect from the current crop of Saturday Night Live stars. Fans of the deliberately dumb style of humour perfected by Adam Sandler will probably get a kick out of this rather juvenile, politically incorrect comedy. Sandler produced this comedy, which stars his friend Rob Schneider, who played a small role as the pizza guy in Big Daddy.
Schneider plays the eponymous Deuce, a rather innocent, snivelling loser who cleans fish tanks for a living. By chance he finds himself minding a lavish apartment for Antoine (Oded Fehr), a male gigolo who has gone to Switzerland on business. Antoine keeps a large fish tank full of rare fish, and also collects antique weapons that are worth even more if they have actually been used to kill someone. But when Deuce accidentally breaks the tank and wrecks some of Antoine's precious furniture he is forced to come up with enough cash in a hurry to repair the damage before Antoine returns home.
With the help of jive talking pimp TJ (Eddie Griffin), Deuce reluctantly becomes a "man whore." But things do not go smoothly for the inexperienced Deuce. Rather than have sex with his eccentric clientele (who are either overweight, gigantic, or suffer from Tourette's Syndrome), Deuce helps them become happy with their own bodies and their unique problems. Complications arise when he begins to fall in love with Kate (Arija Bareikis), the one legged nurse who works in a hair donor clinic.
Mike Mitchell directs this nonsense with a remarkably heavy hand and a lack of subtlety. The performances lack any sense of nuance whatsoever. Most surprising of all, however, is the unashamedly over the top performance from screen tough guy William Forsythe (The Waterdance, etc), who plays a vice squad cop obsessed with his sexual failures.
There are some wonderful sight gags, and some rather obvious spoofs of recent movies, but there is precious little imagination at work in the script, co-written by Schneider himself. There is also a preponderance of tasteless innuendo, smut and puerile toilet humour, which may appeal to younger adolescent male audiences. There is an emphasis on childish slapstick humour and pratfalls, but there are also many moments that fall flat.
** greg king http://www.netau.com.au/gregking
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