Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

Somewhere, someone must have come up with what he/she considered a catchy name, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, and then made a movie around it. One of these people is probably Adam Sandler (The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer), who is executive producer of the film. The main person responsible (not in a good way) is fellow Saturday Night Live alum Rob Schneider, who now graduates into the large club of ex-SNL actors who make bad movies. Okay, Deuce is not that bad, but it is in no way good. Sander fans can rejoice, since there is now another person to carry the torch on low brow stupid movies.

Deuce (Schneider, The Waterboy, Knock Off) is a nerdy fish tank cleaner. Women detest him. One day, he meets Antoine Laconte (Oded Fehr, The Mummy, Cleopatra), a male gigolo. Laconte has a problem with one of his tropical fish, a problem that requires the fish to be under constant supervision. Sadly, Laconte is going out of the country for a while, so he enlists Deuce to stay at his hip beach house and take care of the fish. Thus the set up, and hijinks can now ensue. Once Laconte leaves, Deuce trashes the apartment, and must somehow find the money to clean it up. Along comes TJ Hicks (Eddie Griffin, Foolish, Armageddon), a pimp who agrees to set up Deuce as a gigolo (or as TJ calls it, a man-whore). Deuce fails miserably as a prostitute, not sleeping with any of his clients. Instead, he spends time talking to them, and inevitably falling in love with a woman whom he thinks is perfect (Arija Bareikis, 30 Days, Snow Falling on Cedars).

The only funny parts are with Griffin. His character refuses to use any sort of conventional terminology, and instead tries to switch genders on all terms dealing with prostitution (he-bitch, man-gina). Every other joke falls flat on its face. Especially the jokes dealing with Deuce's "johns." Every single one of them has a problem, whether it is morbid obesity, Tourette's Syndrome, a wooden leg, or gigantism. These jokes come off as offensive, even though the script by Schneider and Harris Goldberg tries to pass them off lightly. The material is so old and so juvenile that the entire story and almost every joke can be entirely anticipated. Director Mike Mitchell (Herd) now has a dubious notch on his directing belt, the good thing is he has no way to go except up. William Forsythe (Blue Streak, Big City Blues) is also particularly bad as a cop trying to bust Deuce. Of course, most everybody will already know how they will react to the movie before they see it, or if they even decide to go. Sadly, many people will go see this movie, which will lead to more movies like it; a vicious circle with no end.

Haro Rates It: Not That Good.
1 hour, 27 minutes, Rated R for sexual content, language, and crude humor.

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