Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo
Eric Cox reviews the movie. Link. Excerpts:
The Farrelly Brothers' There's Something About Mary (1998) gained notoriety for pushing the envelope of risqué bodily humor.
If the original Deuce Bigelow (1999) pushed it a little further, its sequel doesn't push the envelope at all; instead, it points a flamethrower at the envelope and disintegrates it. . .
There's no denying that the film is as funny as it is disgusting, so long as one is able to accept it for what it is, but what it represents–an all-out attempt to be as flagrantly tasteless as possible–is surely a bad thing for the movie industry. . .
Indeed, the problem presented by a film like Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo is not so much a moral one as one of taste and of economics. Whenever a film like this does phenomenally well, studios try to capitalize by making even more outrageous comedies. . .
The Giant Clicking Sound you hear are the furious keystrokes of two-thousand writers in Los Angeles attempting to write the next big laugh-fest of human excretion.
It wouldn't be such a problem if the big studios produced one or two films of this type every summer for the teens and otherwise made comedies aimed at adults. Oh what a wonderful world it would be if the Deuce Bigelows could sit happily alongside the Jerry Maguires in the movie theaters, giving us a clear choice, but that is not the way it works.
Instead, when a formulaic film becomes wildly successful, a glut of similar scripts flood the marketplace, and the studios devote a good deal of time and money trying to develop one or two imitations to be released within the year.
As a result, a film like this one could cause studios to devote even less money and energy in comedies intended for mature adults. In the short-term, at least. Until another Sideways gets made and becomes a hit and everyone dumps their potty jokes and tries to recreate it.
But don't hold your breath. Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo has lowered the bar a little further for future Hollywood fare, and believe it, Hollywood will be all too happy to go there.