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Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

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Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMike Mitchell
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyPeter Lyons Collister
Edited by
Music byTeddy Castellucci
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures
Release date
  • December 10, 1999 (1999-12-10)
Running time
88 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$17 million[2]
Box office$92.9 million[2]

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo is a 1999 American sex comedy film directed by Mike Mitchell at his feature debut, written by Harris Goldberg and Rob Schneider, and starring Schneider as a hapless fishtank cleaner who goes into business as a male prostitute in an attempt to earn enough money to repair damage he caused while house-sitting. It was the first film released by Happy Madison Productions.

Released on December 10, 1999, the film received negative critical reviews but became a box office success, grossing $92 million worldwide on a $17 million budget.[2] The film has developed a minor cult following and spawned a sequel in 2005, titled Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, but with Columbia Pictures replacing Touchstone and upon release, received worse reviews and became a box office disappointment.

Plot

Deuce Bigalow, an insecure fishtank cleaner (aquarist), is fired for cleaning the tank at a public aquarium in the nude. Deuce is unsuccessful in attracting women, so he attempts to keep himself busy at work. On a house call, he meets an Argentinean male prostitute Antoine Laconte. Antoine is going on a business trip, and so asks Deuce to care for his lionfish and protect his home while he is away. Deuce accidentally sets Antoine's kitchen on fire when trying to make a grilled cheese sandwich in the toaster, and breaks an expensive fish tank.

Fearing Antoine will kill him, Deuce is forced to find a way to pay for the damage. Low-rent pimp T.J. Hicks offers to help Deuce make enough money to buy a new fish tank, and convinces Deuce to take over the absent Antoine's role as a gigolo. Deuce decides to make the clients feel better about themselves, since he only desires to have sex with beautiful women.

Deuce meets unusual clients but he still manages to get along with them, despite there being no sex involved, by helping them with certain issues in their lives. These clients include:

  • Carol, a woman who is severely narcoleptic. Rather than having sex, Deuce just literally sleeps in bed with her.
  • Ruth, who has Tourette Syndrome with coprolalia, and therefore is afraid of socializing. Deuce decides to take her to a baseball game, where her intimidating outbursts of profanity are likely to fit in with the crowd's yelling. After a few outbursts, the crowd starts cheering with her.
  • Fluisa, an obese woman weighing close to 750 pounds. Deuce averts the woman's advances, leaving her somewhat emotionally disarmed to the point of revealing her insecurities with her appearance. Deuce quickly comes up with an alternative form of "play", and the scene changes to Deuce and Fluisa sitting on her sofa playing a food-themed trivia game. He also helps her walk again by encouraging her exercise and diet as another form of "play"
  • Tina, another woman has a pituitary gland disorder and is extremely tall, so tall in fact that her face is always out of frame (her face is never revealed throughout the film). As Deuce walks down a sidewalk with the woman, various unseen bystanders yell insults at her, such as "Freak!" and, "That's a huge bitch!" the latter insult becoming one of the most memorable lines (later appearing in other films).

Deuce's list of clients gradually increases, with each client being satisfied by much more fulfilling measures (such as the aforementioned tall woman heard groaning with pleasure while Deuce is giving her a foot massage, exclaiming that no one had ever touched her feet before) due to Deuce's evasion of sex with them. However, Deuce falls in love with one of his clients, Kate (Arija Bareikis), who has a prosthetic leg. She later breaks up with Deuce when she finds out that he was a prostitute hired by her friends.

Meanwhile, Deuce is being stalked by Detective Chuck Fowler, who demands Antoine's "black book" of clients and threatens to take Deuce to jail if he does not comply. Deuce eventually helps Fowler please his wife by stripping and erotically dancing for her, and the two make amends. Deuce is still taken into custody on prostitution charges, as Fowler needs someone to bring in and Deuce's own refusal to betray his newfound friend, T.J. (whom Fowler described as another person of interest aside Deuce due to his previous acquaintance with Antoine), by turning him in. At the hearing, it is revealed that Deuce never slept with any of the clients except for Kate. Since Deuce gave back the money to Kate and was not paid for sex with her, he is cleared of all charges.

Using the money he made, Deuce restores Antoine's fish tank, although due to time constraints he is warned that the glass may not be installed properly. Unfortunately, one of Deuce's friends accidentally kills the prize fish in Antoine's aquarium. Deuce buys a replacement fish and returns to Antoine's house just in time. Antoine is suspicious, but cannot figure out why. He taps the new aquarium and the glass shatters. Deuce then reveals his prostituting adventures to the bemused and furious Antoine. Enraged, Antoine tries to kill Deuce, and at one point shoots an arrow at him. The aforementioned overweight client, Fluisa, shows up, comes between the two men, and saves Deuce's life (she is not killed because the arrow hits her breasts, between which she has hidden a roast chicken). Antoine is then arrested by Detective Fowler, and Deuce marries Kate. The end sequences continues to follow the epilogue, Deuce's father becomes a male prostitute, Fluisa underwent extensive liposuction and is now working as a model in Victoria's Secret known as Naomi, Ruth opens up an all girls school for Tourette's, Carol manages to fulfill her dream trip to France, T.J. starts his own reality show dedicated to his experiences as a male prostitute and an incarcerated Antoine marries Tina.

Cast

Production

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo is the first film released by the Happy Madison Productions film production company. Adam Sandler served as the film's executive producer. Sandler also shouted the insults "Freak!" and other offscreen lines.

Soundtrack

Untitled
  1. "Call Me" - Blondie
  2. "Spill the Wine" - Eric Burdon and War
  3. "You Sexy Thing" - Hot Chocolate
  4. "Get Down Tonight" - KC and the Sunshine Band
  5. "Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
  6. "I'm Not in Love" - 10cc
  7. "Magnet and Steel" - Walter Egan
  8. "No Worries" - Hepcat
  9. "Can't Smile Without You" - Sean Beal
  10. "Lift Me Up" - Jeff Lynne
  11. "Call Me" - Emilia Maiello

Release

Box office

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo opened theatrically on December 10, 1999 in 2,154 venues and earned $12,224,016 in its opening weekend, ranking third in the North American box office behind Toy Story 2's fourth weekend and fellow newcomer The Green Mile.[3] The film ended its run, having grossed $65,538,755 in the United States and Canada, and $27,400,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $92,938,755. Based on a $17 million budget, the film was a box office success.[2]

Critical reception

The film received negative reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 23% score based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's consensus states: "According to critics, Deuce Bigalow is just too dumb and filled with old, tired gags."[4] Metacritic reports a 30 out of 100 rating based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, stating "It's the kind of picture those View n' Brew theaters were made for, as long as you don't View."[6] Kendall Morgan from The Dallas Morning News writes in her review, "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo makes There's Something About Mary look like Masterpiece Theatre."[4]

Sequel

In 2005, a sequel, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, was released by Columbia Pictures instead of Touchstone Pictures. The film received even worse reviews than its predecessor and was a box office bomb.

References

  1. ^ "DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO (15)". British Board of Film Classification. March 9, 2000. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  3. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for December 10-12, 1999". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. December 13, 1999. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  5. ^ "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  6. ^ "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo Movie Review (1999)". Roger Ebert. Chicago Sun-Times. December 10, 1999. Retrieved March 24, 2016. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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