Pros & Cons

This is the kind of film where the cast and crew were probably laughing the whole time about how ridiculous the movie they're working on is. A dorky white accountant is wrongly convicted and thrown into jail. Through silly and completely unintentioned antics, he gains a reputation as a tough guy. His black friend, who is just as akward, tries his best to show him the ropes. Meanwhile, the REAL toughest guy in prison, Kyle, wants the accountant to use the prison computer to invest his money, which he does not know how to do.

Quite simply, this is a silly film that should in no way be taken seriously. It's pure entertainment, kind of like one big, one-and-a-half-hour joke. There's a whole slough of actors you'll recognize here; this joke was probably a pet project they were all working on for a few weeks.

The story has great promise, but was not thought-out. Too erratic, lacks logical sequencing, ending is unexplainable. Appearance by Jerry Seinfeld falls flat - awkward and hardly amusing - so out of context that it confused me more than entertained me. I kept wondering why? The ending - which I watched three times - lacked reality. Sure it is a movie, sure its supposed to be a comedy, but hey, its the real world, you're trying to tell a "real" story - next time out - just set the movie in another dimension and suspend reality in total.

On the other hand - there were moments that were very funny and unique, but not enough to make this worth watching.

Also, some of the actors showed great potential - all left undeveloped and unexplored.

And what the heck was jerry Seinfeld doing in this movie?

Pros and Cons was just silly enough not to be taken seriously so that you can sit back and laugh. It was not a Leslie Nielson type of comedy, but it was satirical enough to get the point across. The movie is about an accountant who goes to prison and through sheer clumsiness he performs enough acts of toughness to become one of the most feared guys in prison. Larry Miller does an excellent job playing Ben Babbit the accountant. In every movie I've seen Larry Miller in he's played a cowardly worm type; this movie was no different except he is the protagonist in this one.

Being that the movie takes place in a prison there is expected foul language, race based gangs, and homosexuality, though it is never dwelled on too long nor is it graphic. I thought the movie was hilarious. Tommy Davidson and Larry Miller make a good team, it is a wonder why they never did any other movies together.

...because a trip to the dentist is less painful and you'll laugh more at his/her jokes than the ones in this 'comedy'...

I had been on a roll for many months, not seeing any really atrocious films, but the streak died here. This attempt at screwball comedy is populated exclusively by either morons or despicable one dimensional cliches.

You'll recognize a handful of the actors/actresses here, who must have really needed some money or failed to read the script, which has dialogue that theoretically could have been written by a lobotomized earthworm.

I gave this a 2. The only reason I didn't give it a 1 is because I derived a miniscule amount of entertainment belittling the film's ineptitude. I don't recall this being in wide release (though I could be wrong)-what a shock.

Accountant Ben Babbitt knows too much about what his boss Jack Stanford is doing. so Stanford makes it look like Babbitt is the one embezzling from the company, and Babbitt gets sent to real prison, not a country club. There's no way a meek guy like this can survive in the joint. Or can he? Babbitt is very clumsy, and some of his actions are misinterpreted. He actually gets a reputation as a tough guy! And his knowledge of computers and the financial world has the potential to make him some friends. Meanwhile, Ben was only driving the getaway car when a Korean gang robbed a bank (and he didn't even realize what was going on), and yet he gets sent to the same prison. Guess who his cellmate is?

This was very funny. Larry Miller gives a good performance, always showing confidence no matter what, and always a little shaky. Delroy Lindo does a wonderful job as the prison's tough guy. Tommy Davidson does a good job as Ben. David Rasche is over the top as Babbitt's boss--ironically, the character claims not to be a gun type of person, a very strange thing to hear from the actor who lampooned Dirty Harry types in the very funny 'Sledge Hammer!' TV series. And Christine Ebersole is almost as funny as Jack's wife. Wayne Knight impresses as one of the guards.