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STUDIO: New Line
MSRP: $27.98
RATED: PG-13
RUNNING TIME: 84 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Behind the Scenes featurettes
• Bloopers and Deleted Scenes
• Trailers
The Pitch
“Samuel Jackson and Eugene Levy have become typecast to the point that they’ve practically transformed into their on-screen personas. We’ll just throw them together and let them do their thing – no effort required!”
The Humans
Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy and Miguel “One bad mother" Ferrer
The Nutshell
Andy Fiddler is the nerdy father of a sexually awkward son who enjoys making love to pies. Whoops, wrong movie. Andy Fiddler is the nerdy truancy officer who has to chase the Olsen Twins around New York City. Whoops, wrong again. Andy Fiddler is a nerdy dental supplies salesman who gets mixed up in an illegal weapons purchase and has to tag along with Samuel L. Jackson while being incredibly un-hip. Hilarity supposedly ensues.
If one picture ever signified the career trajectory of an actor…
When Officer Vann attempts to set up a deal with some weapons traffickers, a case of mistaken identity ensues and the traffickers end up thinking Fiddler is the buyer. Vann is forced to keep Fiddler around to bait in the traffickers, and the two predictably run through every single buddy cop movie cliché imaginable. These two partners from the opposite sides of the tracks must put their differences aside to solve the case, and in the end, they may just learn a little about themselves…from each other.
The Package
The Man‘s extras are the usual assortment of complete and total fluff that were probably produced before the movie was even released. If they had waited until afterwards, the extras might have been a featurette full of apologies from the cast and crew. The deleted scenes make the film even more painful and embarrassing to watch by offering extended versions of scenes that were grating and horrible in the first place. The blooper reel is noticeably lacking people laughing or having a good time filming the movie, most likely because they all knew deep down inside what an awful crime they were committing by filming it.
A handful of boring featurettes round out the special features. There’s no solid behind-the-scenes documentary so you can witness an on screen abortion from conception to execution, just a bunch of fluff pieces. For example: did you know that Samuel L. Jackson likes to curse? Insanity! Too bad none of the features ask the really tough questions. For example: Why the hell would you cast a person who loves to curse and has made his career on cursing in a PG-13 movie? The disc also includes the trailer so you and your friends can ridicule it again, just like you did in theaters!
Don’t cry Samuel. I’m sure Tarantino will bail you out again.
The Lowdown
The Man is a movie that’s frustrating in just how little it tries. It’s one thing to shoot for the moon and end up coming short; it’s another thing altogether to have so little ambition that you produce something as mediocre and lifeless as The Man. The film recycles the most cookie cutter, predictable buddy cop formula it can find without adding a single interesting thing to the formula. The two partners don’t like each other. Eventually, then begin to form a grudging respect for each other and eventually become good friends, solving the case in the process.
After spending countless long nights coming up with the innovative plot, the filmmakers had no time left over for fleshing out the characters. Their solution was to merely lift the cookie cutter Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy characters out of their respective films and pair them together. If you’re too lazy to create your own characters, at least pick some more interesting ones to steal. How about Samuel L. Jackson from Def By Temptation and Eugene Levy from Vacation?
The Man isn’t badly made. It’s a slick looking film and does everything well, but when the plot and characters are so uninspired, what’s the point? No matter how well a movie like this is made, that’s not going to change the fact that it has absolutely nothing to offer viewers. Actors and filmmakers can slum around and make generic garbage like this for the payday if they want, but to expect people to watch it is just plain criminal.