Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Did Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo really merit a sequel? No. Yet here it is anyway. And it is completely without purpose. The first Deuce Bigalow took a one-joke concept and stretched it out further than it should have gone. It stretches further here, in a completely pointless movie. The plot is nothing more than a few paragraphs. The one 'redeeming' factor is that European Gigolo is cruder and more sophomoric than the first (and there's nudity!). For better or worse, this is the type of film that Deuce Bigalow should be in, so here it is. There are moments that are funny, but just as many moments that will make people cringe (or yawn).

Circumstances force Deuce (Rob Schneider, The Longest Yard, Around the World in 80 Days) to take an extended trip to Amsterdam, where he meets up with TJ Hicks (Eddie Griffin, My Baby's Daddy, Scary Movie 3), now a successful pimp in Amsterdam. However, somebody is going around killing all of the male prostitutes, and Hicks is the primary suspect. Hicks doesn't care that he is the suspect, he cares that every wanted poster and news bulletin describes him as gay. Bigalow decides to find the killer to exonerate his friend. He will see all of the women that the various male prostitutes visited (the men have names like Heinz Hummer and Assapopoulos Mariolis). Bigalow is looking for a specific brand of old lipstick and a leopard print coat.

"Manwhore" is the favored term of usage in Schneider, and David Garrett and Jason Ward's (Corky Romano) screenplay. A literal parade of synonyms for 'male prostitute' stream from Hicks' mouth. This is what serves for comedy. Like the original, Bigalow, directed here by Mike Bigelow, goes on dates with a series of freakish women. One has a hole in her throat, one is humongously tall, another has a certain appendage for a nose, and yet another has huge ears. The irony is that Bigalow, a genuinely decent guy (of course) makes all of them feel better about themselves.

And what would the film be without a love interest for Bigalow? Eva Voorsboch (Hanna Verboom, Snowfever), a woman with a huge assortment of nervous habits finds Bigalow funny and accepting of her many, many, quirks. Her father Gaspar (Jeroen Krabbe, Ocean's Twelve, Fogbound) is the main detective in charge of the case, but he ignores all of Bigalow's clues. Bigalow and Hicks bumble their way from woman to woman, trying to find new clues along the way. A bevy of gratuitous nudity and crass toilet humor accompany each scene. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo feels more like a series of sketches thrown haphazardly together. There are things that will make people laugh, but Schneider really needs to come up with a cohesive plot and not rely on telling the same joke over hundreds of times.

Haro Rates It: Not That Good.
1 hour, 23 minutes, Rated R for pervasive strong crude and sexual humor, language, nudity and drug content.

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