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When Eugene Levy looks back on his career and wonders why he never evolved past being Jim’s dad from “American Pie,” he’ll have movies like “The Man” to blame. Here he plays Andy Fiddler, a dental supply salesman from Wisconsin who on a trip to Detroit gets caught up in an undercover, black-market arms bust gone awry. “Just bring yourself back, Detroit ain’t Wisconsin,” Andy’s wife tells him before he leaves. No, and this ain’t a good movie.
For an idea of how hideously stupid this movie is, note the scene in which Andy gets himself inextricably involved. Undercover Federal Agent Derrick Vann (Samuel L. Jackson) has set up a meeting with Joey (Luke Goss), the gunrunner, in a diner. Vann is told to be reading the “USA Today;” when he can’t find a copy upon arrival, but Joey sees Andy at the counter with one, the game of mistaken identity has begun, and Andy must now be “the man” on Vann’s behalf so he can make the bust.
But that’s not the stupid part. The real kicker is that Joey gives Andy a bag with a cell phone and gun inside. Andy pulls the gun out, and in his shock he shocks everyone in the diner into thinking he’s going to rob the place by holding the gun aloft. But he doesn’t just hold it: He also points it at everyone while saying “No, no, it’s not my gun” in one of those moments that is so manufactured that it can’t possibly be funny. Really — would it have been that hard for him to just put the gun down and walk away? Later, in another moment of inspired genius, Vann leaves Andy alone in the car, handcuffed to the steering wheel. But, ha ha, the federal agent also leaves the keys in the ignition, prompting a sub-par car chase that adds absolutely nothing to the already unfunny movie.
With both the villains and Internal Affairs officers believing Andy is an international criminal because he’s wanted for trafficking in Turkey (all a big misunderstanding regarding rugs, he insists, and this we can believe), no one trusts Vann’s decision to essentially kidnap Andy and force him to help with the sting. So here we have the defiant cop (who’s also a neglectful dad), incompetent feds, mismatched buddies with no chemistry and a paper-thin plot, not to mention countless fart and fecal jokes. Good movies have been made out of such formulas (“48 Hours”), but more often than not it’s a bad idea to begin with. And what Jackson is doing in drivel like this is anyone’s guess — my money is on the involvement of a hefty paycheck.
In a way, “The Man” is a cheap rip-off of Bill Murray’s 1997 dud “The Man Who Knew Too Little,” which also sucked. Murray’s career has rebounded quite nicely since then; hopefully Jackson’s will do the same. As for Levy, he has to find the right situation for his distinct style to be effective, and indeed it could have worked here with a better script and chemistry. Instead, it’s one big, colossal failure.
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