New Line Cinema brings us yet another cop comedy movie, where the duo is an unlikely pair — Samuel L. Jackson as Special Agent Derrick Vann and Eugene Levy (of "American Pie" fame) as Andy Fiddler.
What makes "The Man" unique is that director Les Mayfield and producer Robert N. Fried spare viewers by making the movie a mere 79 minutes long.
In one of these buddy-cop films there always has to be a tough and demanding cop and a sissy who hides behind every rock they can find. "The Man" is no exception to this rule.
Agent Vann is a cop whose partner was found murdered. He later learns that this partner was part of an un-heist that took place in the ATF lock-room.
All eyes are on Vann, who has 24-hours to recover the stolen guns and capture the cop killers.
As ridiculous as it might sound, a dental supply man who is in town for a convention, Fiddler in this case, is caught in the middle of a sting operation. Fiddler was mistaken by the bad guys as one of their own. Naturally Agent Vann has no other choice, but to use the nerdy supply man to his advantage in order to meet his agenda.
Jackson obviously throughout the movie is trying to live up to his hardcore "Shaft" image and it might have actually worked if the movie was any good. One way of proving the image was to shoot Levy's character in the derriere while he was attempting to escape from the whole situation. Obviously, it failed.
There is no other man like Levy whose characters create such awkward moments. The movie can have that much accreditation when it came to Levy's moments, whether it's peeing in a pool, whining and moaning about everything, constantly passing gas in the car or just simply Levy living up to his role as "Jim's Dad."
Just about every movie has to have its soft and heart-warming moments. Like every other career-driven man, Agent Vann is caught in the middle of his action-filled job and his family life with his wife and daughter. There to help him deal with the horrendous ordeal and to soften him up is sidekick Fiddler.
If you want to sit through a short and pointless movie, then by all means, watch "The Man." Then again save some money and head to the nearest video store and rent a movie like "Lethal Weapon," because that will actually be more worthy of your time.
The capper to the movie is the ending, which is so predictable that there is no reason to even try to endure this so-called movie.
Hopefully next time around Mayfield will provide actual entertainment.
Grade: F
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