Jamie
I was having a real case of nostalgia recently thinking about the (kind of amazing) theatrical experiences of my youth. I recall seeing the Power Rangers movie for a birthday party and my memory is that the theater was a madhouse with kids going wild before the film started up. I remember being baffled by Godzilla in 1998 and then even more baffled when I saw Wild Wild West in a jam packed summer theater. I recall thinking Hulk was quite bad (again in a totally packed theater) and one year for our birthday going to see a double feature of Princess Mononoke and (at least as I recall) The Fantasticks… which seems impossible given when those films came out, but hard to say with a small town theater. I remember laughing so hard at Austin Powers 2 during the scene in the tent where the shadows make it seem like Powers is getting stuff pulled out of his butt (classic) and then Wedding Crashers being an absolute sensation and people going to see it over and over in theaters. Anyway… what does this have to do with The Ladies Man? Not much. I don’t think we saw it in theaters, but we definitely watched it once it came out on video. We saw everything back then.
To recap, Leon Phelps is a local radio host in Chicago. He’s real profane and misogynistic and is only kept around because the owner of the radio station has a soft spot for Leon. But Eugene Levy has gone over the owner’s head and with just one more slip up Leon is off the air… and it takes about five seconds for that to happen and he’s fired. Leon is helped out by Julie, his producer, who owes Leon for helping her pick up the pieces after a disastrous wedding. She’s in love with him, but he doesn’t really see it as he’s busy getting busy. In fact, there is a whole cadre of men out there gathering to hunt him down for bedding their wives… once they find out who he is at least. Julie takes Leon around to find a new job but he bungles it at every turn. Fortunately he gets a letter in the mail saying that one of his former flames is looking to run away with him and give him all her money. Hooray. Julie is dismayed, but Leon is not. He just has to figure out who this lucky lady is. He goes on the search and figures out that it’s the wife of the head of the group of murderous men at nearly the same time that they figure out that he’s the culprit for all their marital strife. This culminates in Leon going over to the lady’s house only to be confronted by the men and challenged to a Greco-Roman wrestling match. Leon quickly dispatches him, convinces all the other men that it was their own inattention to their ladies that got them in trouble, and walks off with Julie on his arm. THE END.
Honestly, as I wrote that recap I wondered if this movie was actually a funny concept that was just bungled badly. Like the synopsis is clever in how dumb it is… turning on a dime away from one plot (looking for a job) into another (finding his former flame) by sheer coincidence. It should be funny, and certainly has a few moments, but it’s pretty light on the jokes (and offensive to boot). Maybe because the plot is so kind of complicated in how it twists itself around that they didn’t really have much time to get the right jokes flowing. Anyway, this was unfortunately quite bad. The best parts are with Will Ferrell (the only parts I remembered from the first viewing). The worst parts are with Lee Evans… even though they share most of their scenes together. I guess to end on a positive note: I think this was probably on the right track with how it is constructed. Starting to edge towards that Anchorman absurdity where the plot doesn’t matter much and can be thrown away at any moment. Just… like… where are the jokes?
Hot Take Clam Bake! Gonna go out on a limb on this one. Leon and Julie? I don’t think they make it. Here’s why: Leon, while loyal to his friends and a generally good guy, is also obviously a sex addict. He needs help. Julie seems to think that she can change him. You can’t change him, girl. He needs to take care of his need to find love. He also probably has a problem with alcohol (you see him chugging that Courvoisier? No bueno). Also, he still doesn’t have a job and seems incapable of getting one. Alright, so we got an unemployed addict living on a houseboat and you are a professional woman who is good at her job. Solid stuff. Hot Take Temperature: A Houseboat Aflame.
Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! Are we talking about an SNL film (again) that was garbage (again)? Let’s go!
As far as what I was thinking going into this film? Well, I mean … I’ve seen this film before. Obviously. I was once a teenage boy in the 90s. I only really remembered the fact that Will Ferrell was in it and was a very strange character obsessed with Greco-Roman wrestling. The SNL skits … I guess I haven’t seen one in a while. One second. Alright, it was what I expected, but there was actually a solid joke where someone asks for a poem, for example by Keats. And Leon responds “Well, sure, Stacy Keach is good. I didn’t care for the Mike Hammer series. But how about this …” That’s pretty good.
As far as this movie … boring and unfunny probably just about sums it up. Gross at times. Even the irreverent stuff (the very very long musical interlude among the roving band of jilted men looking to kill Leon) doesn’t work and seems more like an extended SNL sketch (the musical interlude was done better with the West Side Story parody in the first place). In the skits Leon seems dumb and inconsiderate. In this he seems actually like a garbage person, a gold digger with little evident remorse. But you know, none of that is that big of a deal, not too important if the film is funny … but as I said, it isn’t.
This is actually only our third SNL film. It’s Pat, and Stuart Saves His Family are the other two … amazingly neither actually qualify. We seemingly made exceptions for them having been released to very few theaters. We still have Superstar, Coneheads, The Waterboy (is it?), and A Night at the Roxbury to go. How have we managed this? How have we done (probably) the three worst SNL films available? It is nuts.
A few more quick things about the film: Billy Dee Williams being in this is a trip. He really wasn’t in that many major releases past the 90s, so why he agreed to do this is beyond me.
I like Will Ferrell but this is probably the weakest I’ve ever seen him. Overacting, and really quite aggravating.
And of course the king of overacting: Lee Evans, and this is no different.
And there is not a single funny joke in the entire film! It is remarkably unfunny. Almost impossibly so.
Naturally the obvious Product Placement (What?) for Courvoisier. Naturally a Worst Twist (How?) for the inevitable reveal that the lady the Ladies Man has been looking for the whole time is the wife of Will Ferrell who is leading the gang looking to murder him in cold blood. This movie is Bad bad bad, it just is not funny even for one moment.
Read about The Ladies Man cartoon I detail in the Quiz. Cheerios,
The Sklogs
Bad Movie Twins 