"The Man"
** Stars
Jim's dad from "American Pie"
otherwise known as Eugene Levy, has enjoyed a lucrative
career playing
pretty much the same character all the time. This is fine because it
works for him and sometimes he even manages to surprise you with a very
unique take on his root style, as with Mitch Cohen in "A Mighty Wind."
In this movie, he plays of
course, the old nerd role again as a dental
supplies salesman who gets mixed up with Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson is
also revising an old role here as the foul mouth tough guy. This time
around he's, Derrik Vann, an agent tracking down some gunrunners who killed his partner.
Both of the actors fore
mentioned are talented and can do a lot
better than this. This is a
buddy cop movie that has no direction, and it shows because for most of
the movie Levy and Jackson just drive around arguing. Occasionally,
something will happen like they'll try and buy guns, or someone will
fart. It's all fairly predictable and not really funny at all. Of
course, towards the end they will become friends and share a moment,
because that's what happens in these movies.
Levy needs to break free of the
silly sidekick role and try staring in a movie, and Jackson has to be
able to get better roles than this. But I guess people need their silly
comedies too.