Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Review by Clint Morris

You probably won't find it lettered on a postcard there, but it's true: Europe is most definitely the home of the sucky sequel.

Stuck for an idea? Your project lacking any real worth? Your cast about as enthusiastic to do the film as a night-shifter worker is to answer the doorbell at 7:00am in the morning? Finance been halved?

Then head to Europe - like many flimsy follow-ups before have!!

The Griswalds followed up their fabulous first Vacation with the boring-as-batshit National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), John Landis covered his eyes as Hollywood took his American Werewolf to Paris in the 'pillow required' sequel, and Dr Lecter fried all our brains with the mind-numbingly dull Hannibal.

Granted, not all follow-ups set in Europe are dire - Oceans Twelve, for instance, was a treat - but it is due time the Eiffel Tower plonked a 'no dumping' sign in-front of it's flight of steps, and filmmakers threw their rubbish in their own bins.

So can Deuce Bigalow up the country's tourist count?

Guess that answer depends on whether you giggled or gasped (in antipathy) at the film's one-sheet, which has Rob Schneider's Gigolo sitting outside the Eiffel Tower, which of course, thanks to the photography, looks like it could be his rather-large appendage.

Fish-expert turned involuntary male gigolo Deuce Bigalow (Rob Schneider) is lured out of retirement when his friend T.J (Eddie Griffin) is falsely arrested for murder in Amsterdam.

The cops - Jeroen Krabbe plays the chief of police, infuriated that his city is overrun by scum - believes he's the chap whose been killing off all the male prostitutes in the area (look out for Australia's Alex Dimiatrides as an Italian gigolo turned burnt toast) but Deuce and T.J are certain that it's a woman whose the killer, and guess who's going to go undercover to catch her?

First things first, both Deuce Bigalow and its sequel are not films for critics, or snobs, or those who shy away from a bit of man juice splashed across someone's phizog.

If anything for these people, Schneider's films are merely backing for a dartboard, plain and simple.

They're offensive - no minority, culture, country, sex or religion is safe, especially here, in the sequel - and the humour is as cheap as a crummy hotel room, but you know what? I still laughed. A lot. Cuff me, whip me, staple my gob shut from future reviewing.

What's good about this sequel is that Schneider, who takes story credit, hasn't rushed into anything.

He's waited for a reasonable-sort of plot to arise up into his noggin before doing a follow-up to his hit, making sure there were enough jokes to cram in there, and that it's filled with as many wacky supporting characters as the first film.

Still, there's a few moments that don't work, and even a couple that might push the envelope a little 'too much', but they're minor injustices for a film most of us had already assigned to the 'wait till video' pile.

Like any no-brainer comedy, go in expecting rubbish and you might be pleasantly surprised. Unless, of course, you're a toffee nose, and then we might point you in the direction of the latest from Kenneth Branagh - because you're likely to get as much out of this as you would a free double-pass to the Big Day Out.

One of the better screwball comedies of late (with a killer soundtrack to boot), Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo is the kind of film that isn't permitted within fifty-blocks of the Kodak Theatre - but it's target market, who'd need a street directory to find the home of the Oscars anyway, will shovel it up in spades. And I'm sure that's really all Schneider's concerned with.

And let's face it, seconds are never usually this tasty… Whore-larious.

3 out of 5

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Australian release: Thursday the 22nd of September, 2005
Cast: Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin, Jeroen Krabbe, Til Schweiger, Douglas Sills, Norm Macdonald, Alex Dimitriades, Hanna Verboom.
Director: Michael Bigelow.
Website: Click here.

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