Themes: Playing the Field, Single Life, Infidelity
Main Cast: Tim Meadows, Karyn Parsons, Billy Dee Williams, Will Ferrell, Lee Evans, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen
Release Year: 2000
Country: US
Run Time: 84 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Yet another recurring character from Saturday Night Live makes the jump to the big screen in this comedy. Leon Phelps (Tim Meadows) is the host of a radio call-in show in which he dispenses advice on the fine art of seduction, for which he seems to have quite a talent -- rather surprising, seeing that he's usually broke, nearly everything he says sounds crass and obvious, and he possesses a fashion sense that would have been gauche in the mid-1970s but seems just plain freakish today. After finally going too far during a broadcast, Leon is fired, but he receives a note from one of his former flames who wants him to come back to her -- and is willing to support him in high style. This sounds just fine with Leon, except she hasn't signed her name, and now Leon has to backtrack through his numerous conquests of the past and figure out who wants him to work his love magic. Meanwhile, a group of husbands who've been cuckolded by Leon, led by Barney (Lee Evans) and Lance (Will Ferrell), are hot on his trail, eager to get revenge. The Ladies' Man also stars Tiffani Thiessen and Karyn Parsons as two of the ladies in Leon's life and Billy Dee Williams as the ultra-smooth proprietor of Lester's Straight-Up Lounge. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Lorne Michaels is at it again, giving another of his babies a big-screen promotion, unaware that the mildly amusing premise of a short sketch faces a tougher task over the course of 90 minutes. Tim Meadows was always strictly a supporting player on Saturday Night Live, so it's no surprise he seems to be looking for help as The Ladies Man -- a lisping, sexually incorrect loveline host who swills Courvoisier and ends sentences with "in the butt." All this could be cheeky and outré in a good way, but Meadows is too passive to make the character outrageous -- which would still leave things short of a good movie. The central joke doesn't work well, either. The character is supposed to be so irresistible that he lures women out of happy marriages and into bed, but what earned the limited laughs on the show was the knowledge that his braggadocio must be totally imagined, because his pickup methods are so bluntly ineffective. Having him actually succeed not only misunderstands the quiddity of Leon Phelps, it also snaps the link to realism, an essential anchor in the best SNL films (such as Wayne's World). But to probe so deeply overlooks the obvious surface problem: The Ladies Man is silly and simplistic, written with little momentum and no insight. Several game supporting actors try in vain to elevate the material -- most successfully, Will Ferrell; most bizarrely, Julianne Moore. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Cheryl Toy - Art Director, Albert Botha - Associate Producer, Rick Montgomery - Casting, Clarence Ford - Choreography, Eydi Caines-Floyd - Costume Designer, C. Lewin Webb - First Assistant Director, Reginald Hudlin - Director, Earl Watson - Editor, Robert Weiss - Executive Producer, Erin Fraser - Executive Producer, Thomas K. Levine - Executive Producer, Marcus Miller - Composer (Music Score), Bill Stephney - Musical Direction/Supervision, Heidi Smith - Musical Direction/Supervision, Franco DeCotiis - Production Designer, Johnny E. Jensen - Cinematographer, Lorne Michaels - Producer, Zeljka Alosiniac - Set Designer, Doug Johnston - Sound/Sound Designer, Tim Meadows - Screenwriter, Andrew Steele - Screenwriter, Dennis McNicholas - Screenwriter, Terry Wilson - Music Editor, Ron Eng - Supervising Sound Editor, Beth Sterner - Supervising Sound Editor, Zeljka Alosiniac - Set Decorator
Leon Phelps (the "Ladies Man") was a Saturday Night Live character played by Tim Meadows during the 1990s. The sketch was that of a broadcast program in which Phelps, a young, suave black man, would give dubious romantic advice and lovemaking tips.[1] The Ladies Man openly proclaimed that he would court any woman at all, including skanks, providing the woman weighs no more than 250 pounds. A night of romance would generally center around a bottle of Courvoisier.
Critical reception
The film was heavily panned by critics, with only 11% of reviews being positive on the internet review website Rotten Tomatoes.[2] Based on a sample of 65 reviews, the average score the film achieved was 3.1 out of a possible 10 by critics. The film achieved a slightly higher rating within the Rotten Tomatoes community, with 30% of reviews being positive.[3]
