Main Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy, Luke Goss, Miguel Ferrer, Susie Essman
Release Year: 2005
Country: US
Run Time: 83 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Les Mayfield directs Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy in the buddy action comedy The Man. Jackson plays ATF agent Derrick Vann. His partner, who it turns out was corrupt, has been killed after a cache of guns were stolen from the ATF office in Detroit. Internal affairs believe Derrick was in on the gun theft, forcing him to go off on his own to bring the bad guys to justice. Dental supply salesman Andy Fiddler (Levy) happens to be in Detroit for a business convention. During the course of figuring out who is responsible for his partner's death, Derrick arrests Andy because of a miscommunication. Soon the hard-edged law enforcer and the meek businessman team up to extricate themselves from their life-threatening predicament. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Review
By teaming up for the mismatched buddy comedy The Man, Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy have once again reinforced their reputations for taking each and every role they're offered. At least in this case, both actors are absolutely suited for their parts -- in fact, it's hard to imagine anyone else playing Derrick Vann, the short-tempered ATF agent, or Andy Fiddler, the loquacious dental equipment salesman. Perfect casting does not a perfect movie make, but The Man is better than it should have been, which is as much as anyone can hope for. Yes, there's a lot of humor about flatulence, cavity searches and getting shot in the butt, but Jackson and Levy embrace their parts enough to make the most of their odd-couple pairing. In particular, it's nice to see Levy's character portrayed as something other than a total doofus. It's an easy joke to make the painfully white guy in the glasses a coward and a blowhard, and while Andy Fiddler does display those traits to some degree, he's also reasonably courageous and perceptive. Derrick Vann is more of a one-dimensional Jacksonian character, with plenty of the badass yelling that's been Jackson's trademark since Pulp Fiction. His police skills are also questionable, but not because he bends the rules like rogue officers always do -- rather, he repeatedly and brazenly jeopardizes what should be a delicate undercover operation. (Most prominently: He gets on a bullhorn at a crowded intersection and bellows at a gathering of police officers for hampering a federal investigation). The Man wraps itself up in a scant 83 minutes, lending more credence to the notion that director Les Mayfield et al were just trying to get it out the door as quickly as possible. Still, even comedy snobs will probably find themselves laughing here and there. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Anthony Mackie - Booty; Horatio Sanz - Diaz; Rachael Crawford - Dara Vann; Tomorrow Baldwin Montgomery - Kate Vann
Credit
James McAteer - Art Director, Amanda Mackey-Johnson - Casting, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond - Casting, Bill Straus - Co-producer, Delphine White - Costume Designer, Les Mayfield - Director, John Stoneham Jr. - Second Unit Director, Jeffery Wolf - Editor, Toby Emmerich - Executive Producer, Kent Alterman - Executive Producer, Matthew Hart - Executive Producer, John Murphy - Composer (Music Score), Dana Sano - Musical Direction/Supervision, Carol Spier - Production Designer, Adam Kane - Cinematographer, Rob Fried - Producer, Bruce Carwardine - Sound/Sound Designer, John Stoneham Jr. - Stunts Coordinator, Jim Piddock - Screen Story, Margaret Oberman - Screen Story, Jim Piddock - Screenwriter, Stephen W. Carpenter - Screenwriter, Margaret Oberman - Screenwriter, David Moxness - Second Unit Camera, Chris Tammaro - Second Unit Camera, Mark Dornfeld - Visual Effects Supervisor, Raymond Gieringer - Visual Effects Supervisor, Mark Stoeckinger - Supervising Sound Editor, Victor Ennis - Supervising Sound Editor, Custom Film Effects - Visual Effects, Intelligent Creatures - Visual Effects, Peter P. Nicolakakos - Set Decorator, J.J. Authors - Assistant Director
