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- "The Ladies Man"
(Reviewed October 10, 2000)
- Foolishly, I went into the theater hoping that this movie might surprise me by being something more than merely a longer, more tireseome version of the beat-to-death "Saturday
Night
Live" skit. I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if the filmmakers had the creativity and passion and integrity to make a movie that actually was BETTER than it had to be, instead of trying to get away with
foisting
another cheap, stupid, TV-quality piece of SNL-quality junk with a stretched-thin premise upon us?" But no. Oh no, my friends. No, no, no.
Tim Meadows (who plays the title character) and Will Ferrell (his nemesis) are decent-enough comic actors, but the material they are working with here just ain't funny. The script is so surprisingly dull and
slow-moving, I suspected that the only people in the theater who were laughing were studio employees with a stake in the movie's gross.
Like all modern comedies, this one has the requisite "gross-out" scene designed to make audiences squirm. (In this case, an "eat-off" challenge involving progressively more disgusting examples of "bar
food"). That is literally the only scene in the entire film that did not leave me yawning with boredom. Then again, I'm not sure that "go and be nauseated" is much of an endorsement.
Trivial footnote: Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who played the conniving brunette bombshell Valerie Malone in "Beverly Hills 90210" and a teen dream in (gulp) "Saved by the Bell," is listed in the
credits as Tiffani Thiessen. (Wonder where the "Amber" went?) The lighting and makeup guys don't do her any favors (although she is 26 in real life, her face looks like it is pushing 40 here, and not for
any
apparent script-related reasons). But her impressively voluptuous body looks pretty darn good in a black merry widow and stockings. See? No movie is completely without merit.
Back Row Grade: F
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