Directed by: Mike Bigelow
Written by:Rob Schneider, David Garrett, Jason Ward
Starring: Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin, Jeroen Krabbe, Til Schweiger, Alex Dimitriades
Released: September 22, 2005
Grade: C-

I feel strangely sympathetic towards Rob Schneider and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.  Schneider has been in Australia over the past week doing his best to promote the film.  Listening to his interviews, I found that Schneider is quite funny in person.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that in the early 1990s, he had a permanent place in the highly-rated American comedy show Saturday Night Live.

You also have to give credit to Schneider and his move to the bigger screen.  There are so few people (especially comedians) who make a decent transition from television to movies.  Aside from cameos in just about every Adam Sandler movie, Schneider has had starring roles in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The Hot Chick and The Animal.  I didn’t like any of these films but they fact they averaged more than $50m at the U.S. box-office shows that other people did.

That said, this is a really, really bad movie and if you’ve ready any other reviews for the film, you’ll know this already.  Some films are so bad though, that they actually become funny.  Recent examples include Kevin & Perry Go Large, Freddie Got Fingered and Dude, Where’s My Car?  The jokes are that bad, you can’t help but laugh in the cinema.  Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo fits into this select category and drew many laughs at the screening I attended (some from myself).  As the saying goes – “you dare not look but you cannot turn away”.

European Gigolo sees Deuce (Schneider) fleeing to Amsterdam after a run in with the law back home.  Once there, he meets up with fellow gigolo and friend T.J. Hicks (Griffin) who owns a houseboat which is parked in a canal near the red light district.  T.J. now works has a pimp but business has been tough with many leading gigolos recently been murdered on the job.  When T.J. is wrongly arrested for the crimes, Deuce knows he must save the day.  It’s time to get back in the business of “man-whoring” and find out who the real killer is.

From the opening scene, the jokes are awful and don’t get any better.  I haven’t had the heart to watch the original Deuce Bigalow film since I saw it back in 2000 but some of these jokes feel awfully familiar.  Deuce meets an assortment of new women with various quirks but as I’ve just said, it’s funny only because it’s dumb.  One woman is a giant who makes Deuce dress up as a baby.  One woman has a hole in her throat which spits out wine when she drinks it.  One woman was born in Chernobyl and has a male “appendage” attached to her face.  If that isn’t stupid enough for you, there’s an abundance of gay jokes involving T.J. and a few gags about tourists defecating on the streets of Amsterdam.

It may have my worst rating but if there’s any bad film you need to see this year then this is probably it.  Whether you’re laughing with the film or at the film, at least you’re still laughing!