Not much to say about THE MAN (well, not much positive), but there's a really odd, homo-erotic moment when the bad guy offers Levy to check him for a body mic. When the villain makes Levy pat down his crotch he (the villain) gets this proud, pleased look on his face, like "Yeah, I'm packing a big somethin' somethin' down there, ain't I?" (There are a few other, smaller h.e. moments too, like when Levy checks out Jackson's back tattoo, and is there some sort of subtext with all the talk about being shot in the butt?)
The movie itself is poorly directed, blandly photographed, and the illegal-gun-running plot would be confusing if either the audience or the writer cared. And Sam Jackson's I.A. agent character was really unpleasant some of the time. Are we supposed to like him, or at least think he's a good cop? I dunno. It's not funny to see him repeatedly beat on the informant with garbage can lids and phone books and hit him with his car again and again, or the way he treats the local cops when they pull him over.
Some big, isolated laughs (highlight: Levy's "He's my bitch" bit), but it's less of a movie than an experiment to see how Jackson and Levy play off each other. Levy gets most of the laughs (is it an inside joke or typecasting that he's in the dental field again after WAITING FOR GUFFMAN?), but they ain't no Riggs and Murtaugh.
Oh, and would you believe the movie contains the most played-out scene in action movies: the one wherein the cop's superior demands his gun and badge. Can this please be retired, please? Since the movie looks really cheap I assume the producers got a bargain deal for it--and others--at the Movie Cliché Store. (Like, has anyone ever had their vehicle commandeered by a cop? According to cop movies, it happens all the time.)
The movie itself is poorly directed, blandly photographed, and the illegal-gun-running plot would be confusing if either the audience or the writer cared. And Sam Jackson's I.A. agent character was really unpleasant some of the time. Are we supposed to like him, or at least think he's a good cop? I dunno. It's not funny to see him repeatedly beat on the informant with garbage can lids and phone books and hit him with his car again and again, or the way he treats the local cops when they pull him over.
Some big, isolated laughs (highlight: Levy's "He's my bitch" bit), but it's less of a movie than an experiment to see how Jackson and Levy play off each other. Levy gets most of the laughs (is it an inside joke or typecasting that he's in the dental field again after WAITING FOR GUFFMAN?), but they ain't no Riggs and Murtaugh.
Oh, and would you believe the movie contains the most played-out scene in action movies: the one wherein the cop's superior demands his gun and badge. Can this please be retired, please? Since the movie looks really cheap I assume the producers got a bargain deal for it--and others--at the Movie Cliché Store. (Like, has anyone ever had their vehicle commandeered by a cop? According to cop movies, it happens all the time.)