Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

DEUCE BIGELOW, EUROPEAN GIGOLO


DEUCE BIGELOW, EUROPEAN GIGOLO (2005). Director: Mike Bigelow [sic].

In this sequel to the amiable, essentially good-natured Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo, star/co-writer Rob Schneider tries to do something similar but the results are less than felicitous. Fleeing the country after a stupid accident involving senior citizens, Schneider runs into an old pimp buddy who's aghast when he's suspected of being the male-whore murderer who's been bumping off male prostitutes in Europe. [In a supposed spoof of Holes the dead men are marked with a lipstick kiss.] And even more aghast that people think he's gay [a truly tiresome plot device if ever there were one]. Jeroen Krabbé is the police inspector on the case, and Schneider becomes involved with his lovely niece. [The average-looking stars of movies like this never wind up with passably attractive women who might be realistic partners for them; they always wind up with beauties.] While good taste is hardly the point of movies like this, the fact is that the script is generally too preoccupied with topping each gross out with something even more disgusting instead of being genuinely funny. Parts of the movie come off like the efforts of frat boys who forgot that it's often wise to put your more self-indulgent sequences away in a drawer after getting them out of your system. The movie holds your attention, maybe, but it's hardly anything you'd ever want to sit through again. Schneider's schnook character remains quite likable, however.

Verdict: If you're in a gross enough mood. **.

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