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When I saw the preview for this movie, I knew that it would be great. Not just because it featured the comedy stylings of Andrew "Dice" Clay (making a long-awaited return to films after a successful jaunt as a janitor at P.S. 31 in Atlanta, Georgia - "This little piggy had roast beef, my big black cock in... HEY! You didn't wash your hands, Timmy!"), but because every Rodney Dangerfield movie is automatically worth watching. Ever since "Easy Money", Rodney has done a great job playing Rodney Dangerfield. And I like Rodney Dangerfield.

Listen, folks, there's a reason why they never allowed Rodney to join the Screen Actor's Guild. He doesn't act. He stands there, and he does his act, and the movie just goes on around him. That's fine with me, and it's fine with the ten or so guys who will also rent this movie because they think it has tits in it.

(Hint: it doesn't.)

In this magnum opus, Rodney plays a rich guy who has no luck with women. He buys this property in Utah or someplace in the sticks, and it comes with a whole bunch of wives. They are young and sexy. They demand sex from Rodney.

Complications ensue. Somehow, the mob gets involved.

Jerry Stiller somehow figures in, as does Molly Shannon (who is in this movie as if to say, "Look, there CAN be movies that are worse than 'Superstar'! Just look!". There's an evil banker, a scene in a male strip club where the men embarrass themselves and the women come out on top, and an action-packed finale featuring the worst stunt-double use in history.

I like Rodney Dangerfield movies because you don't have to worry about being disturbed, about being confused, about thinking. You just sit back and let it wash over you. It's got some good one-liners, some busty dames, and that's about it.

The acting is God-awful, the directing seems to have been done by an Atari 2600, and it looks to have a budget of my last paycheque (with which I purchased a Playstation 2). It's cheap, ugly, and not very good.

But I love it. And I've watched it twice now. And it just keeps getting better.

Why? Because it's there. Because it made me laugh and kept me entertained, which is more than I can say for most 100-million dollar comedies. Because I like the people in it. Because Jesus told me to.

These are like the movies they made in the '50s for Elvis. They're utterly disposible, they're structured around a person whose main talent is not acting, and twenty years from now, they'll use it to start fires.

But, for the moment that it exists in, it does what it was meant to do.

And it's a shitload better than "Meet Wally Sparks".

Hell, it might be better than any other comedy this year. And that's just sad.

As long as Rodney is alive, he will continue to make these movies. And as long as I'm alive, I will drink a lot of beer. Rodney will always have a spot in my VCR.

link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=4459&reviewer=27
originally posted: 03/01/01 14:17:56
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