Reviewed by: Brad D. Francis
CONTRIBUTOR
Moral Rating: | Very Offensive |
Moviemaking Quality: |
|
Primary Audience: | Adults |
Genre: | Comedy |
Length: | 1 hr. 30 min. |
Year of Release: | 1999 |
USA Release: |
Featuring | Rob Schneider, Arija Bareikis, William Forsythe, Eddie Griffin, Oded Fehr |
Director |
Mike Mitchell |
Producer | Sid Ganis, Barry Bernardi |
Distributor |
Touchstone Pictures, a division of Walt Disney Studios |
This movie has no shame in playing to its intended audience: essentially, fans of Adam Sandler and his films. “Deuce Bigalow” is the brainchild of Sandler’s film production company. you’ll probably recognize the star from a number of Sandler movies (such as “The Waterboy” and “Big Daddy”): Rob Schneider. If you like movies of his genre, usually involving a lot of sexual innuendo, you may like “Deuce”. If you don’t like them, avoid this one.
Schneider stars as a down-on-his-luck fish tank cleaner. However, things begin to turn around when he gets the opportunity to fish-sit for a male prostitute, or “man-whore.” One thing leads to another and Deuce ends up having to raise a whole lot of money in not-so-much time. So what’s the solution? Well, why not do a bit of man-whoring himself? Unfortunately, he can’t score the high brow sort of clients as his predecessor but ends up with some others: a conceited plus (way plus) sizer who can’t stop eating, a woman with Turret’s syndrome, a woman so tall her head doesn’t even appear on camera and a woman with narcolepsy (“I’ve always wanted to try soup,” she says, “but there’s the fear of drowning.”)
For a movie about a male prostitute, “Deuce” has a surprising number of plusses. Although he’s being paid to “show them pleasure,” Deuce never even sleeps with a woman for pay, preferring to simply make them feel special about themselves through other, more honorable means. He can’t bring himself to have sex with a woman without meaning. Also, there were a relatively few number of profanities in this movie compared to most R-rated comedies. Plus, the parts that invoke a little romantic comedy are sweet, and promote values like forgiveness.
Still, there are a predictable number of grievances that Christians will have with this movie. Obviously, the subject matter throughout the film spurs a good deal of sexual innuendo. In addition, “Deuce” does end up bedding one woman (although it is not for pay) and they are not married. Plus, there is some bathroom humor. Literally. One should remember most of all, though, that this is a movie about sex. What you see is what you get, and not many surprises are found.
“Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” is predictable, though admittedly funny at times. However, for the vast majority of Christians this is one to avoid.
See review page for the sequel to this movie: Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005)