Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo Reviews

"Department of redundancy department" title notwithstanding, ex-SNL-er Rob Schneider's first starring vehicle is nowhere the non-stop grossathon you might suspect; in fact, it's actually a sweet, often very funny story about a schlemiehl redeemed by love. Deuce Bigalow (Schneider, of course) is an underpaid fish tank cleaner whose love life is mostly confined to abuse from the counter girl at a local pet shop. All that changes when he runs into the ridiculously good looking Antoine Laconte (Oded Fehr), a world class gigolo who tools around to the accompaniment of (what else?) Blondie's "Call Me." Deuce scores the job of house sitting while Antoine's doing a gig in Europe, but accidentally trashes the place. Desperate for cash (and afraid for his life — Antoine's got a collection of scary medieval weapons) Deuce winds up renting himself out to some of the gigolo's less glamorous clients, including a Norewegian giantess whose head is always out of the frame. There's probably something here to offend just about everybody, but a lot of it is a genuine hoot (love that Tourette's-syndrome lady) and Schneider is surprisingly endearing. His Deuce may be a dim bulb, but he's also a decent guy who makes his stable of variously unhappy women feel good about themselves. In any case, it's hard to resist a movie with a scantily clad Marlo Thomas as a horny housewife with a taste for men in lederhosen.