मास्टर ऑफ़ डिस्काइज़

...but it wasn't. It had cameos almost as good as "Goldmember". It has a babe as babe-esque as "Men in Black II." And though it did have a running fart gag, it wasn't as gagging as Fat Bastard's. It was...well, restrained. Dana Carvey wasn't doing Jerry Lewis. His character actually was trainable and actually could take care of himself, push come to shove. And that was worth an extra point up the rating scale.

Sheer genius cannot even begin to properly address this cinematic achievement, to call it any less is an insult. Dana Carvey, on the surface, plays a bumbling Italian waiter who inherits the power of disguise; however, if you dig a bit deeper & peel away the layers, you'll find a motion picture which is a scathing, yet biting social political statement on society as a whole. One cannot begin to hopefully comprehend or decipher all the psychological & stereotypical boundaries this film breaks. It is a surprise to find this film in mainstream theaters as a film on this level & caliber would normally only be found in the finest arthouse theaters. If you plan on seeing Master of Disguise, I suggest keeping your afternoon free, as after viewing, no after witnessing it, you'll need the rest of the afternoon to invest in deciphering the dense narrative. Admittingly some of the jokes were over my head, but all truly great comedies take a bit of effort for comprehension. Only for serious film viewers & students of the artform as a whole.

I rarely comment on movies, but when I see one getting such a bad rap.... I rented this for my 2 kids ages 8 and 12, and watched it with them and my wife. We all enjoyed it, and my kids have watched it several times since. It is obvious from the get go that this is a "goofy" movie, and it succeeds greatly as such. You can see the gags coming, but that only adds to the anticipation, as the goofiness is delivered in spades. We all loved Turtleman, and many of the other nutty characters invented by Dana. It is so difficult to find a family movie that we all can enjoy, that is harmless fun, with no scariness, no mom getting killed (a la Disney), no kidnapping, etc, etc. Only wish there was a sequel!

Oh my! "Opportunity Knocks" and "Clean Slate" were not exactly film classics, although compared to this movie, they may as well have been works of Shakespeare. Arguably the dumbest movie I have ever paid money to see in theatre (thanks to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" being sold out), this does not fit in the dumb but funny category of most of Adam Sandler's or Chris Farley's films, but in the jaw-droppingly dumb category. My wife and I often gazed at each other in amazement during this movie, unable to exactly process that something this truly silly and dumb was made (much less by Dana Carvey and Adam Sandler) and even stranger that others in the crowded theatre were laughing their heads off! We were excited to see Dana Carvey back in the movies, but there was good reason why this movie was not screened for review ahead of time.

To continue, I should say we had misgivings about seeing the film after the TV trailers that kept showing the "turtle" sequence, but decided that part was just silly fun and there's no way the rest of the movie could be so unclever and dumb. To our amazement, that was easily the most intelligent and serious part of the film! Think carefully before wasting your time with this one.. I score it a generous 3/10.

I have to say, I'm a little dissapointed that everyone's ripping this movie to pieces. Granted... the story makes very little sense (this didn't seem to stop Austin Powers 3 from getting rave reviews), but you know what? So what? This film is a fast-paced kid's movie and there's only one reason to see it: Dana Carvey. He's absolutely brilliant. He creates one of his best characters ever (The Turtle) and does some of his best impersonations ever as well (Robert Shaw from "Jaws" was a personal highlight of mine.)

When I saw this film, everyone in the theater laughed the whole way through. This is a film that will completely go over your head if you try to intellectualize it. It's just good, dumb fun. It reminds me a bit of those really insane 60s comedies, except that it's for kids. I have a feeling that this film will come to be appreciated over time on video and tv.