The first Deuce Bigelow film was something of a surprise hit. Rob Schneider’s first outing as a leading man was never expected to be as, well… genuinely entertaining as it was. Sure, the movie was a little hokey, but that was to be expected. After all, we’re talking about a film that tells the story of a pool boy that becomes a gigolo. What was not expected was that the film would actually have a heart. As would be expected, the film had its fair share of comedy, but the tender love story was unexpected and …enuine. Could lightning really strike twice?
In a word, “no”. This is the film that audiences were expecting the first time around. It is childish, contrived, and decidedly low-brow, with none of the genuine affecting elements of the first film. This time around, as the title suggests, Deuce spends some time in Europe; Amsterdam to be exact. No longer a gigolo, Deuce is now helping out his old pimp TJ by trying to catch a serial killer of “man whores”. As bad as that plot sounds, trust me… it’s worse. So many of the jokes just make no sense. For instance, at one point TJ finds some french fries just lying around, and decides to eat them. He then accidentally drops them into the toilet. Naturally, he then dips them out and eats them. Why would he do that? What’s more.. who cares? Certainly not me.
Audio
This film comes complete with a clean, full audio track. Little is here in the way of surrounds, but the front of house has a nice dynamic range, with plenty of powerful lows and sharp highs. Dialog is clear, and the music fills the room nicely. In one scene, a meeting is being held in a large parliamentary style room, and the dialog echoes nicely off of the rock walls. The score is also strong and full of detail. Boasting both quality and subtlety, this audio track is much better than the film deserves.
Video
Why is it that some of the best little indie films look horrible, yet the studios have no problem throwing exorbitant amounts of money behind films like this one? As much as it pains me to say it, this complete waste of celluloid looks fantastic. The picture is clean, it’s clear and full of detail. I didn’t find any problems with halos, grain, bleed over or edge enhancement. Each shot had deep black levels, and was mind-blowingly sharp. It’s not up to the same quality as Finding Nemo, but believe it or not, it is close. Oh, why must it be so?
Special Features
As seems to be the theme on this disc, there appears to be much more here than there actually is. First up is a shocking thirteen trailers for various new movie products, some of which are presented with the benefit of a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. I never have a bad thing to say about trailers. As long as the viewer has the option to view them at their leisure, and they are not forced to view them upon inserting the disc, there can never be too many trailers included on a disc. Curiously, there is not a single trailer for the feature presentation, though.
Two unfunny deleted scenes are also on this disc, as well as four dull filler featurettes, entitled Man-Ho 101, A Burger and a Bentley, So You Want to be a Man-Whore and TJ’s Float Crib. All four of these extras amount to nothing more than incoherent rambling and lame attempts at humor. The same could be said for the two deleted scenes that are included on this disc.
The Casting Lounge is a featurette that shows the auditions for the role of the girl who washes windows in a wet t-shirt. Basically, this just amounts to a cheap ploy to see large breasted actresses in wet t-shirts. The scene wasn’t funny in the movie, and it is a complete waste of time here.
Apparently owing Schneider a favor, Comedy Central got in on the act with a Reel Comedy special. This is basically a 20-minute infomercial for the film, which aired on Comedy Central leading up to the film’s release in theaters in an attempt to boost ticket sales. I admit that I will occasionally watch one of these shows on a lazy Saturday afternoon, but that doesn’t mean I need access to it here. The majority of this show is made up of clips from the movie, which you have presumably already watched, so this is a waste of time.
Finally, there is a two-part (!) making-of documentary, which basically takes the “fly on the wall” approach to documentary filmmaking. The inclusion of this extra on this disc is the very definition of excess. Sure, there is nothing really interesting here, and no important new information is revealed, but at least it is painfully long.
Conclusion
It is admirable that Sony would go to the trouble of putting so much effort into making this as good of a product they can now, but I just have to ask why Columbia didn’t put this much effort into the original film in the first place. No matter how much they dress it up, a dog is still a dog. Sadly, I can’t even comfortably suggest this disc as a rental, which is really saying something since I actually own the first one. I can honestly think of no good reason that anyone should watch this disc on purpose.
Special Features List
- 13 Trailers
- 2 Deleted Scenes
- Comedy Central
- Man-Ho 101 Featurette
- A Burger and a Bentley Featurette
- So You Want to be a Man-Whore Infomercials
- TJ
- The Casting Lounge Featurette
- Two-Part Making-of Featurette
