 Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo, 1999Ok, ok. I hated Saturday Night Live in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Phil Hartman, David Spade, Tim Meadows, Dana Carvey, Mike Meyers, Ellen Cleghorn, Chris Farley, Rob Schneider... rarely were there funny bits. Most of the time it was political humor that was being done just because Carvey did a good George Bush. Then we got inundated with Wayne's World every other week, and it got boring. Then we got Church Chat, and I wanted Carvey to die. There was terrible writing, terrible skits, it was just plain awful.Now, we've been given some hints of Schneider's acting along the way. From Demolition Man, Judge Dredd, Knock Off (a terrible film), The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Muppets from Space, Little Nicky and, soon to be released, The Animal. I had no intention of ever watching this film, Deuce, but after seeing a fairly funny trailer for The Animal, I had a hankering to find out if it was any good, or if it was what I was expecting. Crap. Not only did Schneider star in the film, but he was also a co-producer and co-writer of the film. And, if you take into consideration that this is an ex-SNLer... you'll dig this film. It starts slow, but it has some funny site gags. There is some very clever writing in this film. The plot itself is formulaic, in a cheeseball comedy way, but still entertaining. Schneider had some great moments in the film. I really wasn't too surprised at this, he's been a decent actor since the beginning. There were no real cameos in the film, except for Norm Macdonald, who I think is hysterical. He didn't have much of a part, but, that's how that goes. William Forsythe (The Rock, Blue Streak, Virtuosity) plays your typical pissed off detective who has a small... something-or-other. He was one pissed off mother, man, and it was funny to watch, but that character is waaaaaaaaaay too clichéd. Eddie Griffin was pretty funny as Schneider's man-pimp. He had some very funny moments. Oded Fehr was the main man gigolo. It was strange not seeing him all painted up, straight out of The Mummy Returns or The Mummy, but he was ok. He played the international hunk. It's not hard when you have the accent. Arija Bareikis was pretty good. I'd never seen her before in anything. She was in an episode of HBO's Oz, but I don't remember her in it. She was also in 30 Days and Snow Falling on Cedars. She did a good job in this film, probably because it was straight forward acting, no real comedy and such. I can't see her as a comic actress. Not exactly sure where Harris Goldberg came from, he was the other writer of this film. He's written some work that I've never heard of before... so I suppose that him and Schneider were friends pre-Deuce. Now, as a first feature film, as the star, this was not a bad film for Schneider to choose. It was pretty low budget, there weren't very big stars in it, and I'm sure it made its money back in the office... but this was not a good film to be your directorial debut. For Mike Mitchell, this was his first film. I think it was a big mistake. There was nothing wrong with the directing, but nothing was very shining. Nothing so incredible to say, Wow, that Mitchell was a great director in Deuce! His other project, Herd, was a Sci-Fi short that went nowhere. His latest endevor is "Greg the Bunny" , a television series. I have no idea what that is, at all. All in all, it's worth a viewing. I didn't check out the extra features, but, regardless, it's worth a viewing. Owning? You'd have to be a big fan of Schneider's work for that. J.P.
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