# Too Much Sleep (1997)

### reviewed by
Laura Clifford

    TOO MUCH SLEEP
    --------------

Security guard Jack (Marc Palmieri) loses his gun as the victim of a scam one morning while admiring a pretty girl (Nicol Zanzarella) on the bus. Distraught, Jack turns to his buddy Andrew (Philip Galinsky), who puts him in touch with his Uncle Eddie (Pasquale Gaeta), a non-stop talker and apparent authority on just about everything in "Too Much Sleep."

Writer/Director David Maquiling has created a terrific character in Eddie, who gets Jack into some humorous situtions - for about the first thirty minutes of "Too Much Sleep." Once Jack's been given the tip to go to 145 Withers, a house party peopled with one forced wacky weirdo after another, Maquiling's film derails and can barely sustain interest for it's remaining hour.

Pasquale Gaeta is the film's saving grace. A self important little man who begins every ramble with 'But let me tell you something,' Uncle Eddie is a unique screen character who's advice runs from the actually useful to the seriously demented. In the film's funniest scene, Eddie manages to bring Jack right to the older woman half of the team who scammed him. As Eddie chases the woman through her neighborhood, she apprehends him, spraying him in the face. 'That's Jovan Musk at $15.99 a bottle, so you can see I mean business!' she tells him, before directing him to that address.

Downhill from here, Jack meets assorted weirdos and spends an inconsequential night with the younger con artist that leads to a meeting with a man carrying a paper bag, presumably containing his gun, in a bus station. After a chase that ends with Jack beating the man senseless with a pink plastic bat, that bag's no where to be seen and the gun's not mentioned again. A final scene on Eddie's front lawn allows for one more bout of comedic philosophizing from Gaeta.

Maquiling's writing, while offering some truly pleasurable bits of business, can't sustain itself for a feature length film. While his leads, especially Gaeta, are good, much of his supporting cast are amateurish. Overall, "Too Much Sleep" tries too hard to be whimsical.

    C

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