# Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)

### reviewed by
Jamey Hughton

    DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO
    **1/2 (out of five stars)
    A review by Jamey Hughton

    Starring-Rob Schneider, Oded Fehr,
    Arija Bareikis and Eddie Griffin
    Director-Mike Mitchell
    Rated 14A
    Touchstone Pictures

    MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton
    http://Welcome.to/MovieViews

The title `Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo' is undeniably more catchy than the alternative descriptions offered for a male prostitute in the film (releasing a film called `Deuce Bigalow: Man Whore' would probably fail to draw much of an audience). Rob Schneider, a `Saturday Night Live' veteran who is now renowned among comedy fans for his touching portrayal of the `you can do it!' guy in `The Waterboy', plays the title character. Deuce is actually a fish tank cleaner who inherits the role of being a gigolo when circumstances become extreme. Sit back and I'll tell you the story....

Antoine Laconte (Oded Fehr, `The Mummy') is a wealthy male prostitute who requires the services of a aquarium attendant. Enter Deuce. When Antoine is called away for an extensive business trip in Switzerland, Deuce is left with the assignment of looking after a sick fish. Unfortunately, Antoine's entire aquarium system is destroyed, leaving Deuce with the daunting task of producing $6,000 for a replacement tank before he returns (insert comedic plot-twist here). Reluctantly, Deuce becomes a gigolo himself to raise the required amount of money in time. Surely enough, the clients he attends to all have some kind of ridiculous characteristic that will ensure their romantic interludes are fall-down funny. Sorry guys, no dice.

The scatological humor in `Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo' is often mean and obvious, with the screenplay centering around the prime concern of taking cheap shots at those with mental and physical disabilities. The list of targets include the blind, the tall, the overweight, those afflicted with Tourrets syndrome and those with prosthetic limbs. For it's majority, `Deuce Bigalow' scrapes the very bottom of the proverbial comedy bucket in a manner that is both disgusting and thoroughly careless. And yet, it's sort of funny at times. Eddie Griffin has an amusing role as a black pimp named T.J. who takes Deuce under his wing, but too often his character is reduced to low-brow gags such as eating various food items after they've been dipped in a hot tub. Meanwhile, William Forsythe overacts with gritted teeth and slicked back hair as a cop who frequently drops his pants in public to ask Deuce advice about his manhood. As Kate, a client who Deuce falls head-over-heels for, Arija Bareikis navigates her way to an admirable performance. Anyone who could make us believe that Schneider has some charming characteristics must be doing a fantastic job.

Actually, even with such a heavy burden on his shoulders, Schneider delivers. He is not a particularly well-rounded comic, and the extra dimension someone like Adam Sandler might possess is missing, but the actor nonetheless does a fair job. Speaking of Sandler, this is actually his producing debut. Rest assured, I'm sure that his company - called, appropriately enough, `Happy Madison' - won't go bankrupt anytime soon.

`Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo' is essentially a hit-and-miss comedy for anyone craving endless potty mouth, but it does have it's charm. I know that's hard to fathom in a breeding ground of perverse and offensive vulgarity like this, but there are actually traces of it. The film does have a few inspired gags up it's sleeve, too, particularly a pair of well-executed nods to `The Matrix' that occur during elaborate battle sequences. Unfortunately, though, this is just your typical conglomeration of low-level humor on the whole. Perhaps, one of these days, the people of Hollywood will stop to ponder the idea of a decent script being attached to a project like this. Alas, for every `There's Something About Mary', there are ten grotesque and unfunny imitations designed to attract only adolescent males. It has it's moments, but all in all, `Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo' falls into the latter category.

    (C) 1999, Jamey Hughton

    1999: A Year in Review  -  Best & Worst of '99
    http://Welcome.to/MovieViews
    MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews