Cannes Man (1996)

reviewed by
Chuck Dowling


Cannes Man (1996) *** out of ***** - Cast: Seymour Cassel, Francesco Quinn. Written by: Irwin Rappaport, Deric Haddad, Susan Shapiro, and Richard Martini. Directed by: Richard Martini. Running Time: 90 minutes.

With special appearances by: Lara Flynn Boyle, James Brolin, Jon Cryer, Ann Cusack, Johnny Depp, Robert Evans, Peter Gallagher, Menacham Golan, Dennis Hopper, Randal Kleiser, Jim Jarmusch, Lloyd Kaufman, Julian Lennon, John Malkovich, Chris Penn, Kevin Pollak, Jim Sheridan, Bryan Singer, Benicio Del Toro, Harvey Weinstein, Frank Whaley, Treat Williams.

An odd, yet interesting concept for a low budget film. A dim-witted ex-video store clerk becomes a courier for Troma Films and has to take promotional materials to the infamous Cannes film festival in France. Once there, he becomes the subject of a bet between two movie producers. One of the producers is the "legendary" Sy Lerner (Cassel), who bets the other producer that he can make this kid into the hottest thing at the festival before it's over. Sy hypes the kid as Frank Rhino, the most talented screenwriter ever born who's written the most brilliant screenplay ever written. The two then wander around all over the festival, trying to sell their non-existant screenplay "Con Man" (get it? Con Man? Cannes Man? It's funny!) and pursuading stars and directors to attach themselves to the project.

As I said, "Cannes Man" has an ultra low budget, and all it really is is two guys bothering celebrities at various events in Cannes. It would have been interesting to watch the making of this film, as stars must have been approached literally minutes before their "roles" were to be filmed. Everyone seems to enjoy their little moments however, particularly Johnny Depp and Jim Jarmusch who contribute the most screen time of all the "special appearances". And it does have a few laughs sprinkled throughout. It's an incredibly simple yet fairly entertaining film. [R]

-- 
Chuck Dowling

Visit Chuck's Movie Reviews at http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Over 1,600 movies rated and/or reviewed! Movie news, film related links, and reader's reviews.


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