Senseless Reviews

What makes Darryl run? Start with the fact that Darryl (Marlon Wayans) is working his way through college to the tune of four jobs and counting. Add that his beleaguered mother (Esther Scott) needs money to pay the electric bill, then factor in the Smythe-Bates internship competition: The prize is a junior analyst's job at a prestigious brokerage house, and the $60K starting salary would go a long way to solving Darryl's persistent financial woes. He's even desperate enough to participate in an experimental campus drug protocol, though his nonchalance about the terrifying recitation of potential side effects has a lot to do with his having slept through most of it. The drug, of course, is one of those weird science things designed to set the stage for comic mayhem: First it heightens all of Darryl's senses, then it afflicts him with transient loss of sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch, always at the most inconvenient possible moment. Make no mistake, this is a coarse, vulgar comedy rooted in jokes about exotic genital piercings, sperm banks, butt itches, body odor and, of course, booty. But there's a surprising sweetness under its crude exterior: When he's not mouthing off, Darryl's basically a studious, hard-working kid who's good to his mama, loyal to his friends and respectful to his girl Janice (Party of Five's Tamara Taylor), which is a pleasant change from the sleazy scam artists of DEF JAM'S HOW TO BE A PLAYER and BOOTY CALL. The movie is Wayans' show all the way, but the supporting cast includes Brad Dourif as a mad scientist, Matthew Lillard as Darryl's spacy roommate, Rip Torn as a Smythe-Bates executive and David Spade as the world's oldest college student.