• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Movie Gazette

Movie reviews, news and more

Stark Raving Mad

July 12, 2003 by Gary Panton

Seann William Scott dons a distractingly large amount of facial fuzz to star alongside a cast of little-knowns in this latest attempt at latching onto the success of Pulp Fiction and Lock, Stock, etc. It might be a little harsh to suggest the beard is a last-gasp attempt by the triple-named one to hide his embarrassment at accepting a role in such a lacklustre production – but I can’t be the only viewer to have had the thought cross my mind. It’s a semi-serious role for the angular-jawed ‘American Pie’ and ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’ doofus. He plays Ben, the wild-eyed nightclub promoter roped into robbing a bank by silly-haired Chinatown mob-lord Gregory (Lou Diamond Phillips). So, along with accomplices Rikki (Timm “poor man’s Sam Rockwell” Sharp), Jeffrey (Patrick Breen), Betty (Suzy Nakamura) and Jake (John V. Crye), he sets about breaking into the bank vault whilst simultaneously fighting off the attentions of various dance-floor hussies and under-cover Feds. The plot is reasonable enough if never in any danger of becoming even slightly original, and the unfolding of the climax is just about interesting enough to hold the attention. But directorial duo Drew Daywalt and David Schneider seem obsessed with throwing in various camera tricks and self-indulgent stylistics wherever possible, and though some of it is impressively done, it adds little to the film as a whole. Similarly off-putting are Ben’s intermittent asides to the camera, which tell us nothing we can’t suss out for ourselves and largely just seem to be excuses for SWS to spout nonsense directly to the viewer. The movie does contain a couple of funny moments, but allowing this into the comedy genre is a bit of a squeeze. You’re much more likely to find it filed in your video store’s “instantly forgettable” category.

Filed Under: Comedy, Crime

Primary Sidebar

Monthly Archives

Categories

Search

Copyright © 2025 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in