Tomcats

A cartoonist gets in to hot water when a night in Vegas gets him in to heavy debt. His only chance to pay off the "semi-criminal types" is to win a bet with his extra stupid - but rich - best friend.

One of the "crass and silly" comedies that has come out of the studios in the aftermath of American Pie proves that cruelty and sexism still have a role to play in American society today. Who else thinks that a golf cart running over a bimbo is funny?

Silly laughs and face pulling are the order of the day as our hero tries to dig himself out of his self-made hole. Enough naked flesh is thrown in to keep the adolescent audience on their toes and some of the scenes are almost funny, although my ribs were never in any danger.

Thankfully it cranks along at a reasonable lick and the credits come up before it stupidity and cruelty really kick home. Watchable yes, but when people try too hard to be funny they very rarely are. Ironic, but true.

Firstly, I may well be slightly biased- because I really truly enjoyed this movie. However, seeing it with a score under 5- and then looking at the reviews, there is a notable trend. The good reviews are predominantly well punctuated and articulate, with such things as (gasp) accurate spelling and grammar. Conversely, most of the bad reviews tend to be short blurbs with not a capital letter to be found.

My take on this: Despite being a dumb comedy, Tomcats is to nuanced for the average consumer of dumb comedy. So, it's a smart-dumb comedy. The timing of jokes is impeccable, the pace is excellent, and the actual material is above average- with some of it even fresh! This leaves it in a bad place for reviews though- because it means a small segment of people love it, while big segments of the population (the pretentious smart and the uncultured dumb, we'll call them) will always pan this movie. So, if you're smarter than the average bear- but still appreciate dumb comedy romps, go for it- this one is a keeper.

By some lucky (?) chance, I watched this movie a few days after watching "Flesh Gordon 2", so I was able to easily tell the difference between a likable moronic and tasteless sex comedy and a painful moronic and tasteless sex comedy. Granted, "Tomcats" has more energy than laughs, and the story is predictable in the extreme; however, it works by mixing in some sweetness along with the vulgarity, and it certainly helps that Jerry O'Connell and Shannon Elizabeth have a nice chemistry together - you get the feeling they would make a likable pair. Now, if only they had given a larger role to Jaime Pressly....(**1/2)

Now Tomcats wasn't THAT BAD. I remember all these critics were saying this movie was so bad. Yadda Yadda. These are the same people who said that Black Sheep was a bad movie. Tomcats had it's moments that you will never forget. Sure Jerry O'Connell was better in Joe's Apartment, and maybe Hoartio Sans isn't the best actor in the world, all together it makes up a pretty good movie. I recommend it, if you like slapstick comedy

I know "There's something about Mary" was much better as gross fun. But this one made me smile a lot, and actually laugh out loud two or three times. Not that tears were running from my eyes, but I was shaking with laughter at least once, so it was worth the while, all right. And, yes, now I guess I know what a nut looks like.