Detective Por Error

'The Man' a limp piñata of clichéd characters, jokes and plots that begs to be hit...

The miscast Samuel L. Jackson stars as Derrick Vann, a caustic, gung ho Federal Agent who has 24 hours to recover a pile of stolen weapons and find his former partner's killers. This becomes much more challenging when the bad guys mistake salesman Andy Fiddler (Levy, also miscast) for the gun buyer. Now, Vann has to get Andy to pose as the front man in a sting operation.

The only thing that set's 'The Man' apart from any other buddy cop movie is that it wastes the most talent in less time then you can say "He's my bitch." I was planning on seeing "Emily Rose", but it was sold out, so I got stuck with this limp, unnecessary buddy cop "comedy" with not an original idea in it's mess of clichés. Both actors have real talent, but are wasted, trying to do their best with weak material. While the film does have some laughs, it's a lame movie with recycled jokes that doesn't realize it's a lame movie with recycled jokes. That's the real problem here.

Brainless movies are appreciated when they don't take themselves too seriously. 'The Man' can't be classified in this category because It does take itself too seriously, and actually begins to think it's a passable movie. If I wanted to see brainless fun, there are much better options out there. Don't waste $10 on this movie, don't even wait for it on DVD. Avoid.

The Man: D(3 from 10)

I came across this movie and I did the right thing, I came here and read some reviews. The one that helped me the most and the one basically saying - go right ahead and watch it! And so here I am, purposely repeating the same line - you should watch it.

The main characters are great and even though the humorous moments are goofy, they do make you crack a smile and even laugh with gusto! It is not be the best movie I have ever seen, not even the best comedy but it certainly was some time well spent! I could even see Samuel Jackson having fun! How often can you say that about a movie where he is in?! Have fun watching this.

Ten years before this film was released, Samuel L Jackson was running round New York after being forced to help Bruce Willis in the third Die Hard film following him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now he's the renegade cop (ATF agent) out to bring justice after the death of his partner, while being suspected of being part of what happened. However, while in 1995 he was the angry accomplice to an equally angry badge holder, here he's forced to work with Eugene Levy - probably best known as Jims dad in the American Pie films - and he basically plays the same role; a family man living in middle America, this time working as a dental salesman, who's more used to fitting in with the rules than acting against them. He's almost too nice for a guy caught up in something were people have died. Samuel L is his usual cool self, especially how he deals with other officers, and his car isn't the standard issue Crown Victoria. As usual, he's extremely watchable. It's just how the polite Levy gets caught up in the middle of it and he behaves in the midst of all this action that gets a little grating. I mean, fart jokes? Samuel L Jackson may have bad things to the inside of Meat Loaf in the 51st State, but who wants to see Jules Winnfield gagging if Vincent Vega ate a Royale (without cheese)? Luke Goss makes a decent adversary for what is a buddy film between Jackson and Levy learning how to act more like the other; he's basically a business man with a gun. Miguel Ferrer, as IA Agent Peters, makes for more of an interesting "bad guy", with his single minded mission.

It's a good film. A bit washy in places and formulaic to get cheap laughs, but it gets the job done.

The Man drink heavily from the well of cliches but manages to swallow every drop, Its totally predictable.

What makes the movie work? The charisma of the two leads and some genuinely funny moments.

I usually find it hard to watch comedies as so many of them disappoint but The Man didn't let me down :)

Great story.Great action Great acting. The reason I give it a six is because it wasn't THAT funny. It was humorous at best. This i believe is the writers fault. The dialog just wasn't good enough. Eugene had nothing to work with. He still managed to make it work somehow.Remember Splash? Samuel played great his facial expressions were masterful. I have to admit that recently I might have been spoiled by Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which had the most amazing humorous dialog. Another thing that bothered me was that it was so obviously not Detriot. You can get away with making movies in Toronto in a lot of cases. But if you want to make us believe its Detroit then you gotta mess the place up a bit more.