Director: Les Mayfield, US, 12A, 83min
Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy, Luke Goss
On general release
Some film ideas should never get further than the Hollywood power brunch that spawned them. Pairing Levy and Jackson in a mismatched buddy movie and slapstick comedy is one such idea.
Levy plays a garrulous dental equipment salesman who gets caught up in an FBI sting to bust some evil European gun-dealing cop- murdering cads. Jackson is the confrontational FBI agent who bullies him into co- operating with the mission.
They are two of the most charmless characters to grace a movie in a long time — Jackson because he’s a foul-mouthed, belligerent thug, and Levy because, well, he just looks weird and he talks about ghastly things such as tongue scrapers with an unseemly enthusiasm. This lazy one-note schtick is a waste of Jackson’s acting ability and of Levy’s off-the- wall comedy chops. For laughs, this movie relies on not one, but two fart-in-an- enclosed-space gags. Come on guys, you’re better than that.
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WENDY IDE