Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

Let's see...you're watching a movie starring and co-written by Rob Schneider. You're obviously not expecting something with depth and plausibility. But he is a talented comedian, and anyone who is an avid SNL fan has seen Rob perform some very funny skits. He's not Milton Berle, but he has that mindlessly funny comic energy that frequently works.

"Deuce Bigalow" is a film almost aimed at ticking off critics. Not all audiences will find the crude gags funny, but others--preferably those who can let go of their inhibitions for an hour and a half--will have tons of laughs. The subplot involving Deuce's father as a bathroom attendant is pretty cheap. It's an obvious setup for scatological gags. One of them involving a scene in which Deuce is having a pleasant man-to-man talk with his Dad while you can hear the groans of someone in one of the stalls loudly...relieving himself made me roll with laughter. I wouldn't call it a priceless gag, but you don't always have to aim high with comedy. If it's funny, it's funny. If you laughed, you laughed.

Just like any Farrelly Brothers movie, there are gags involving physical handicaps like obesity, narcolepsy and Turrett's Syndrome. However, the jokes are executed in such a broad manner that no one--even ones with any of those disorders--shouldn't be offended.

Naturally, some will hate this movie, some will like this movie, some will love this movie. In my mind, if it's a comedy and I'm laughing--what other factors should I be looking for?

My score: 7 (out of 10)

While watching `Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,' you may well find yourself laughing out loud from time to time – and hating yourself for it afterwards. For this lame brained comedy, beyond being incredibly juvenile and silly in its comedic temperament, also manages to be as politically incorrect as possible, using as its targets the obese, the handicapped and an assortment of social outcasts and misfits. And, although the ribbing is generally quite good-natured and even affectionate at times, one can't help but feel a little guilty about laughing.

The formula for the film adheres very closely to the one employed by virtually all "Saturday Night Live" or "Second City" alumni in their initial forays into big screen comedies. Once again we have the usual bumbling nerd trying to win acceptance as a `cool dude,' making a shambles of everything he touches, yet ultimately managing to garner the respect of his peers and the love of a beautiful woman. Rob Schneider plays the title role, a professional fish tank cleaner who, through a complicated series of circumstances, finds himself delving into the realm of `man whore' in order to earn some much needed money. The stupidity of the premise and the situations cannot be underestimated as Schneider is put through a series of pratfalls, misunderstandings and verbal slugfests that are often quite amusing almost in spite of themselves. It takes either a certain amount of daring or a shocking degree of insensitivity (or perhaps a little of both) to line up a series of jokes and sight gags aimed at people who suffer from obesity, Tourettes Syndrome, Narcolepsy, blindness and limb amputation - but this film does it. Somehow, though, the film manages to treat its characters with such a genial fondness that it never seems particularly harsh or mean spirited. Whether or not that mitigates the feeling of guilt resulting from one's laughter must, finally, be a matter of personal conscience I suppose.

Schneider plays the lead in a nicely relaxed fashion, not succumbing to the hyperbolic mugging that so many comics are prone to indulge in when faced with similar roles. And what a pleasant surprise to encounter Marlo Thomas of all people in an uncredited cameo appearance – and still looking like a knockout in her sexy lingerie.

`Deuce Bigalow' may not sit well with the easily offended or with those who prefer their comedy to be of a bit more - um, shall we say - cerebral nature. Still, unabashed silliness makes for a fun time every now and then and, in that spirit, this film deserves to be seen.

I had waited a long time to watch this film after seeing the hilarious trailers that were shown on tv when this first came out on the cinema. I'm glad to say i wasn't disappointed as this film is very funny indeed. Rob Schneider stars as Deuce Bigalow a fish tank cleaner who stumbles into the male prostitution through cleaning a gigalo's fish tank. While looking after his apartment he accidently smashes the very expensive tank. the only way to pay for a new one is to do his own stint of of being a male madame!the problem is it is at the very bottom end of the market. He rents his body to the strangest of female clients ,who really are the stars of the film,with the funniest of consequences. Some of the film is a bit silly and not funny, the blind woman bit of the movie is just not funny and really plays no part in the film also i think the woman with tarets syndrome could have been played by someone with a bit more personality but apart from that a very,very funny film. 8 out of 10.

This is the type of movie that movie buffs (me included) like to belittle because it is silly and fun and has fart jokes in it instead of references to Ingmar Bergman. They (me included) forget though that telling a story, entertaining the viewer, drawing you in, is a humongous task for any movie, serious or funny.

When I watched Deuce Bigalow for the umpteenth time last night, I was just amazed how original, well thought out and made it is. It is consistently funny, I was either giggling or gut-laughing all the way through, but you just have to marvel at all the details. TJ and Antoine, for example, are both perfect in their roles. It's a big fat shame that not all the actors from this movie rose to stardom afterward. DBMG is also about the only movie that packs a believable romance and happy end -- usually, that segment is merely stapled on to compensate the girlfriend for having to endure a gross-out comedy on her date and to put her in the right mood for post-theatrical hanky panky. And you can watch this movie either end to end, or just tune in for a ten minute clip and still be entertained and amused.

The only aspect that I'd criticise about DBMG is that a few scenes seemed to be somewhat first-take-ish, not refined enough (and refinement is the essence of good comedy). Like when Bergita (the blind chick) and TJ (the male madam -- no, wait ...) get it off in the closet and Bergita says: "I can see again" (yeah ...) "Hey, you're black" (funny) "I knew" (yawn -- black man, big penis, must have been a killer joke back in the 1950ies). That's just a scene that could have been done better. But hey, I'm nitpicking here. Deuce Bigalow is an underrated comedy classic. And it's got an impressive soundtrack, too.

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo is far from an original or subtle comedy, but I don't think that is what the director had in mind when doing this movie. All in all it is quite a good movie, even though it is a real no-brainer.

Deuce Bigalow used to work as a tank cleaner in SeaWorld, but got fired because he was cleaning the tanks in the nude in front of a lot of people. Since than he cleans domestic fish tanks for a living. This job brings him into contact with Antoine Laconte, who works as a male escort and owns a gigantic apartment, filled with all kinds of precious items. One of these is a tank full of very expensive fish.

When one of the fish gets sick Deuce is asked to help and, since Antoine is going to Europe for 3 weeks, he has to check in on the apartment daily to look at the fish. But instead of checking in on Antoine's home, Deuce takes the opportunity to move into the flat. He accidentally sets fire to the toaster and breaks the fish tank. Knowing that Antoine will kill him for that when he sees it, Deuce has to make sure everything is exactly the way it was. But that will cost a lot of money... which he doesn't have. To raise enough money in that short period of time he decides to start working as a low-budget male gigolo.

As you can expect in this kind of movie, he doesn't meet any normal women who want to make use of his services. It is a real freak show, filled with a 500 pound woman, a woman who's about 8 feet tall... The movie is full of this kind of predictable facts, but when you are prepared for it, it really doesn't bother. Don't expect to see a highly sofisticated movie, but it isn't as bad as you might expect. One of the scenes that I really liked were the parodies on other movies like The Matrix.

I would recommend this movie to everybody who doesn't mind laughing about older and predictable jokes. It's an excellent movie when you came home from a hard day at work, when you are tired and looking for a good laugh without having to think too much. I reward it with a 7/10.