Movie Reviews

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

6 Jan 2000

Deuce Bigalow (Rob Schneider) is a fish-tank cleaner, who can drone on about fish and aquariums in the same tiresome way that others babble about cars or computers. He is hired by the fearsome Antoine LeConte (Oded Fehr), a celebrity hustler, to look after his tropical fish while he goes on a business trip.

Many movie idiots are funny; others are so stupid that they are simply annoying. Deuce, unfortunately, leans to the second category. In a particularly grating scene, he manages to destroy Antoine's expensive fish-tank and trash most of his living room. Encouraged by T.J. (Eddie Griffin), a jive-talking pimp in Antoine's acquaintance, Deuce becomes a "man-whore" to pay for the damage, despite his lack of sex appeal.

Bad-taste comedy, of course, has been popularised in Hollywood by the likes of There's Something About Mary and the Austin Powers flicks. Sadly, while those two films at least showed some imagination in the way they got laughs from bodily functions and excrement, Deuce Bigalow was written by a bunch of giggling schoolboys, coming up with easy laughs.

Well, not exactly. Scripted by Schneider (yet another Saturday Night Live graduate) and Harris Goldberg, it does have its moments. Just not enough.

Setting him apart from the heroes of most envelope-pushing films, Deuce spends most of his time AVOIDING sex. He might be an idiot, but he's a MORAL idiot. Apart from his wonderful girlfriend Kate (Arija Bareikis), none of his clients actually get full service.

There is probably something Freudian about the way that most of the women in this film (including Kate, as we discover) are physical freaks of some sort, or suffer from ailments like Tourette's syndrome or narcolepsy. But much as it laughs at the not-so-beautiful people of the world, it also celebrates them.

Deuce is a nice guy, however irritating. He makes these grotesque women feel good about themselves, without any sex, and actually befriends them. (Honestly!) As far as bad-taste comedies about male prostitutes go, the morals of this film are indeed commendable. In terms of entertainment value, however, I'd rather watch something like Pulp Fiction. Morally questionable, sure, but not so much toilet humour.