Rent a Man - Ein Mann für gewisse Sekunden

While watching `Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,' you may well find yourself laughing out loud from time to time – and hating yourself for it afterwards. For this lame brained comedy, beyond being incredibly juvenile and silly in its comedic temperament, also manages to be as politically incorrect as possible, using as its targets the obese, the handicapped and an assortment of social outcasts and misfits. And, although the ribbing is generally quite good-natured and even affectionate at times, one can't help but feel a little guilty about laughing.

The formula for the film adheres very closely to the one employed by virtually all "Saturday Night Live" or "Second City" alumni in their initial forays into big screen comedies. Once again we have the usual bumbling nerd trying to win acceptance as a `cool dude,' making a shambles of everything he touches, yet ultimately managing to garner the respect of his peers and the love of a beautiful woman. Rob Schneider plays the title role, a professional fish tank cleaner who, through a complicated series of circumstances, finds himself delving into the realm of `man whore' in order to earn some much needed money. The stupidity of the premise and the situations cannot be underestimated as Schneider is put through a series of pratfalls, misunderstandings and verbal slugfests that are often quite amusing almost in spite of themselves. It takes either a certain amount of daring or a shocking degree of insensitivity (or perhaps a little of both) to line up a series of jokes and sight gags aimed at people who suffer from obesity, Tourettes Syndrome, Narcolepsy, blindness and limb amputation - but this film does it. Somehow, though, the film manages to treat its characters with such a genial fondness that it never seems particularly harsh or mean spirited. Whether or not that mitigates the feeling of guilt resulting from one's laughter must, finally, be a matter of personal conscience I suppose.

Schneider plays the lead in a nicely relaxed fashion, not succumbing to the hyperbolic mugging that so many comics are prone to indulge in when faced with similar roles. And what a pleasant surprise to encounter Marlo Thomas of all people in an uncredited cameo appearance – and still looking like a knockout in her sexy lingerie.

`Deuce Bigalow' may not sit well with the easily offended or with those who prefer their comedy to be of a bit more - um, shall we say - cerebral nature. Still, unabashed silliness makes for a fun time every now and then and, in that spirit, this film deserves to be seen.

Let's see...you're watching a movie starring and co-written by Rob Schneider. You're obviously not expecting something with depth and plausibility. But he is a talented comedian, and anyone who is an avid SNL fan has seen Rob perform some very funny skits. He's not Milton Berle, but he has that mindlessly funny comic energy that frequently works.

"Deuce Bigalow" is a film almost aimed at ticking off critics. Not all audiences will find the crude gags funny, but others--preferably those who can let go of their inhibitions for an hour and a half--will have tons of laughs. The subplot involving Deuce's father as a bathroom attendant is pretty cheap. It's an obvious setup for scatological gags. One of them involving a scene in which Deuce is having a pleasant man-to-man talk with his Dad while you can hear the groans of someone in one of the stalls loudly...relieving himself made me roll with laughter. I wouldn't call it a priceless gag, but you don't always have to aim high with comedy. If it's funny, it's funny. If you laughed, you laughed.

Just like any Farrelly Brothers movie, there are gags involving physical handicaps like obesity, narcolepsy and Turrett's Syndrome. However, the jokes are executed in such a broad manner that no one--even ones with any of those disorders--shouldn't be offended.

Naturally, some will hate this movie, some will like this movie, some will love this movie. In my mind, if it's a comedy and I'm laughing--what other factors should I be looking for?

My score: 7 (out of 10)

I wasn't expecting to like this movie, in fact I passed up a chance to see it for free when it was in the theatres. But when I did see it on video, I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, it's full of lowbrow, politically incorrect humour (and what comedy isn't these days), but it had a sweet side also, I thought. I think I just liked the character of Deuce, because he seemed to actually be a nice guy, unlike some of the mean characters that have come out of SNL alumni. It's a fun movie, don't go in expecting a deep message to be put forth. Just enjoy it. And Deuce is a sweetie :)

Among a huge list in 1999 of comedies (American Pie, Bowfinger, Dogma, and South Park topping that list), Deuce Bigaow has to be included. It is a original comedy about a fish man (Rob Schnieder) who becomes a man-prostitute in order to pay for a 6,000 dollar tank. What follows in the film are some of the best and most outrageous antics to come from a SNL type of character movie. The premise sounds dumb, to be sure (as most others are), but Schnieder makes this worth watching with his consistently funny performance. Norm McDonald makes a cameo. A-

This is the type of movie that movie buffs (me included) like to belittle because it is silly and fun and has fart jokes in it instead of references to Ingmar Bergman. They (me included) forget though that telling a story, entertaining the viewer, drawing you in, is a humongous task for any movie, serious or funny.

When I watched Deuce Bigalow for the umpteenth time last night, I was just amazed how original, well thought out and made it is. It is consistently funny, I was either giggling or gut-laughing all the way through, but you just have to marvel at all the details. TJ and Antoine, for example, are both perfect in their roles. It's a big fat shame that not all the actors from this movie rose to stardom afterward. DBMG is also about the only movie that packs a believable romance and happy end -- usually, that segment is merely stapled on to compensate the girlfriend for having to endure a gross-out comedy on her date and to put her in the right mood for post-theatrical hanky panky. And you can watch this movie either end to end, or just tune in for a ten minute clip and still be entertained and amused.

The only aspect that I'd criticise about DBMG is that a few scenes seemed to be somewhat first-take-ish, not refined enough (and refinement is the essence of good comedy). Like when Bergita (the blind chick) and TJ (the male madam -- no, wait ...) get it off in the closet and Bergita says: "I can see again" (yeah ...) "Hey, you're black" (funny) "I knew" (yawn -- black man, big penis, must have been a killer joke back in the 1950ies). That's just a scene that could have been done better. But hey, I'm nitpicking here. Deuce Bigalow is an underrated comedy classic. And it's got an impressive soundtrack, too.