“What’s the Worst That Could Happen?” (2001) is a rhetorical question, but there is an answer. The worst that could happen is you could assemble an incredibly deep cast (Nora Dunn, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Bernie Mac and many more) for an interesting story pitting white collar and streetwise crooks against each other in a match of masculine one-upmanship – but then have Martin Lawrence as the star. Lawrence’s schtick and some horrible impersonations by he and John Leguizamo are a lowest-common-denominator drag that exacerbates an uneven performance by co-star Danny DeVito as a lascivious corporate raider who spars with Lawrence’s burglar.
Archives for posts with tag: John Leguizamo
The lead character’s Asperger syndrome is weaponized to drive the plot of a murder mystery in “The Night Clerk” (2020). I don’t know whether that’s progress because it normalizes the condition or whether that’s disgusting because it exploits the condition. Tye Sheridan works hard as the eponymous hotel employee, Helen Hunt is the protective mother and John Leguizamo is the detective who knows the socially awkward clerk knows a secret. They and other characters are irritatingly conflicted and the ending leaves many unanswered questions. So, if you ask me how it was, I’d have to say that’s a complicated question.
The core audience for “American Ultra” (2015) is 20-year-old gamer types, not 50-year-old stay-at-home-on-a-Friday-night types. I get that. It was a wise move, since the gamers paid $10 to watch it in a theater, while I paid 60 cents to rent it from Redbox (and stay at home on a Friday night). So the fact I thought the violence was waaay too cartoonishly bloody means little. The fact I thought said violence put a damper on the ingeniously compelling story of a sleeper-cell stoner means little. I’m sure the gamers ate it up. My reward? Friday night with Connie Britton.
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