The Man

Though it’s clearly been designed to replicate the experience of watching an ’80s buddy comedy (as evidenced by, among other things, the Eurotrash villain and finale that transpires in an abandoned warehouse), The Man, saddled with an unfortunate PG-13 rating, ultimately comes off as a watered-down and egregiously silly example of the genre. The premise, which finds Samuel L. Jackson’s grizzled cop forced to team up with a chatty dental salesman (Eugene Levy’s Andy Fiddler), is certainly sound, but it becomes increasingly difficult to look past the inclusion of overwhelmingly puerile comedic elements by scripters Jim Piddock, Margaret Oberman, and Steve Carpenter. (It’s worth noting, ultimately, that such shenanigans might’ve been easier to swallow had the writers been aiming for the vibe of a flat-out parody.) That both Levy and Jackson are trapped within the confines of extremely one-note characters doesn’t help matters, although the two do admittedly work well off one another (eg the film’s few laughs come courtesy of their expectedly off-the-wall arguments, including Levy’s suggestion that Jackson say “for crying out loud” in place of a certain curse word). But The Man‘s relentlessly toothless atmosphere ultimately renders its positive attributes moot, which does, in the end, cement the picture’s place as a mindlessly diverting yet wholly forgettable piece of work.

** out of ****