Where to watch Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
3 1/2 Stars
Deuce Bigalow is a less than attractive, down on his luck aquarium cleaner. One day he runs into a male gigolo who asks him to look after his precious fish while he is away on business. However, he wrecks the house and needs quick money to repair it. The only way he can make it is to become a gigolo himself, taking on an unusual mix of female clients. He encounters a couple of problems, though. He falls in love with one of his unusual clients, and a sleazy police officer his hot on his trail.
Deuce Bigalow is the perfect screen vehicle for comedian Rob Schneider. The film represents Schneider’s attempt to step out from his role as perpetually cast sidekick to leading man status, and Deuce Bigalow perfectly suits the funnyman’s strengths. With a title that includes the word gigolo, and while appropriately raunchy, one wouldn’t expect a comedy this good-natured. The movie has a breezy tone and lighting fast pace, which should be credited to director Mike Mitchell, who also made the criminally overlooked holiday comedy Surviving Christmas.
Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions brand dominated the late 1990s and early 2000s. Deuce Bigalow and Grandma’s Boy are the most memorable of the lot. By 2010, audiences rejected comedies by Schneider, Spade, Pauly Shore, and other names that were once able to sell a lot of tickets. But for a stretch of about seven years, Rob Schneider delivered some stone-cold classics, and Deuce Bigalow is, arguably, the high point.
Directed by: Mike Mitchell
Written by: Harris Goldberg, Rob Schneider
Starring: Rob Schneider, William Forsythe, Eddie Griffin