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Saving Silverman

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Saving Silverman is a 2001 comedy film, directed by Dennis Dugan. It stars Steve Zahn, Jack Black, Jason Biggs (as the eponymous "Darren Silverman"), Amanda Peet, Amanda Detmer and R Lee Ermey. Neil Diamond has a cameo role playing himself.

Outside North America, the film was titled Evil Woman.

Darren, J.D. and Wayne are long time best friends and Neil Diamond fans who have formed their own tribute band. Darren meets the lovely Judith, whose controlling behavior soon threatens the band and Darren's friendships. J.D. and Wayne are convinced that Judith is the wrong woman for Darren. But when a wedding date is announced, and Darren's high school crush returns to town to take her final vows as a nun, the friends are in a race against time to rescue Darren so he can reunite with his "one and only". Nothing is out of bounds as deceit, trickery, bribery, kidnapping, shock rods, dart guns, and pop star intervention all come into play.

Plot

Darren Silverman (Biggs), Wayne Lefessier (Zahn) and J.D. McNugent (Black), best friends since fifth grade and Neil Diamond fans throughout, form a cover band called Diamonds in the Rough. After a performance, relaxing at a bar, Darren is introduced to the beautiful but domineering psychologist Judith Fessbeggler (Peet). Six weeks into their relationship Judith is still making Darren watch her change clothes, and though sleeping together produces satisfaction for her, Darren gets nothing but a sore jaw.

After a disastrous visit to Darren's friends, Judith forbids him to see them anymore. She further demands that he quit the band, get gluteal implants, burn his Neil Diamond albums, wax her legs, and attend relationship counseling under her care. Wayne and J.D. decide to save Silverman from her by attempting to bribe her, armwrestle her, and shock her with faked photos of Darren cheating, all to no avail.

Wayne and J.D. redouble their efforts by trying to reunite Darren with his "one and only", Sandy Perkus (Detmer), when she comes to town to take her final vows as a nun. When Darren and Judith announce their engagement, they kidnap Judith then fake her death by planting a dug-up corpse in her car, which they propel over a cliff to a fiery doom. Wayne and J.D. then visit Coach Norton (Ermey) in jail for advice; he states flatly that they should kill Judith.

Sandy's feelings for Darren are rekindled, but he can't get the manipulative Judith out of his mind. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent, but Darren runs 30 miles there to win her back.

In a counsellings session in the basement, chained to an engine block, Judith convinces J.D. he is gay. She then knocks him unconscious with a lamp, steals his keys, and escapes from captivity with the truck, only to be taken down with a tranquilizer dart outside the police station by Wayne. In the basement again, Wayne chains her up, but while he is feeding her a juicy Big Montana sandwich from Arby's some of the Arby's sauce from the sandwich drips between her breasts, she seduces him into releasing one of her hands, and she escapes. Judith runs to Darren's house in time to see Sandy and Darren kiss, and shames him into admitting that he promised to marry Judith. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent.

After escaping from jail with the help of Coach Norton, J.D. and Wayne arrive at the convent on the brink of Sandy's final vows as a nun, but convince her that Darren still loves her. They then kidnap Neil Diamond, convincing him to help Darren and Sandy reunite. At the wedding, Neil stalls the proceedings with a song, while Wayne and Judith beat each other up (as love play), Darren and Sandy reunite, and J.D. arrives holding Coach in his arms, and come out as gay to each other.

On stage at the Neil Diamond concert that night, the priest weds Darren to Sandy, Wayne to Judith, and J.D. to Coach; the entire cast sings Holly Holy.

Cast

Film culture

This film falls within a cross-genre film type from the late 1990s and early 2000s in which grooms are saved, or nearly saved, from distasteful marriage.[1]

Production

Saving Silverman was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia[2] at a cost of USD$22 million.[citation needed]

Reception

Reviews of the film were broadly negative, earning the film a 16% critic rating at Rotten Tomatoes[3] and 22/100 at MetaCritic.com [4]. Box office revenues were low. Worldwide theatrical gross was $26,086,706.[5] Rental income was $21.75M[6] for VHS and $5.19M for DVD.[7]

Tagline

  • They swore nothing could come between them. Then she came along...
  • They swore nothing would come between them. Then evil walked in the door - From Evil Woman version
  • 2 Best Friends + 1 Girlfriend = WAR
  • They've sworn to save Silverman.

Quotes

  • J.D.: (to Darren) Copy that. I'm not gonna make the *imitates static* sound after I say stuff, from now on.
McNugent, over and out. *imitates static* That was the last one.
  • Wayne: So you're gay, is there anything else you wanna tell me?

J.D: I got three balls.

  • J.D.: (to Sandy) Oh, remember that time in science class I was lighting farts with the Bunsen burner and I singed my ballsack?
  • Coach: Remember, boys. Stay away from women! All they want from you is your man juice! If you ever get the kind of urges that cannot be suppressed with hard liquor, then use this! (showing them his right hand)
  • Judith: (to Wayne) There is no right girl for you! If you've already met her, then she's probably either killed herself, or become a lesbian.
  • Wayne: Man, she's like the Emperor!

J.D.: Yeah, but with better tits!

  • J.D.: If you get the whole nacho it counts as one nacho.
  • Wayne: (to J.D.) Use the Navy Seals signals

J.D.: I only know the Air Force signals

Trivia

  • The name of the high school that they went to is Wheaton Central High, the same school that John Belushi and Director Dennis Dugan attended in real life.
  • The guy at the bar is Kyle Gass who, along with Silverman co-star Jack Black, is part of the rock band Tenacious D.
  • The music playing in the bar when Darren and Judith meet is "Connected" by the Stereo MCs.
  • The film was shot in front of Lord Byng Secondary School.

References

  1. ^ Adam Sternbergh, The Devil Wears Pearls: In recent movies, grooms across America flee their frigid fiancees, Slate, January 28, 2004
  2. ^ Saving Solerman production from the Internet Movie Database
  3. ^ "Saving Silverman at Rotten Tomatoes". Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
  4. ^ "Saving Silverman at MetaCritic". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  5. ^ "Box Office for Saving Silverman at Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
  6. ^ "VHS Rental info for Saving Silverman at Video Business". videobusiness.com. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
  7. ^ "DVD Rental info for Saving Silverman at Video Business". videobusiness.com. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
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