Wolff rating: FAIR
Plot summary: Two con artists need one big score off a tobacco magnate to pay off a big debt.
Biased, pithy comments: I know why this movie was made. It's got a sure-fire conceit, a rip-roaring cast of standbys and award-winners, has a seasoned veteran director at the helm, and a hefty budget. However, it's still not really all that much fun. Sure, there are a few good lines here and there, and some amusing physical comedy, but the movie never finds its heart or its center-line, instead languidly falling from situation to situation without a lot of reflection and not enough laughs. When you look at ``Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,'' you see how a classic 30s farce like this can build perfectly to a hilarious conclusion, but instead this movie just ambles along. I suppose there's something to be said for watching Hackman bite off a cement phallus, but not much. Save your pennies; watch something funnier (like, say, a good Marx Brothers film).
Other Notes: Liotta, of all people, is the funniest thing in this film. When you hear that they did 17 takes of the first penis-falling-off-the-statue gag, you realize how much better this film could have been.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee, Gene Hackman.
Directed by: David Mirkin