The Man

Director Les Mayfield is on automatic pilot in this by-the-numbers formulaic snoozer. You’ve seen it before: mistaken identity, fish out of water, opposites eventually attract, etc. Eugene Levy co-stars as a nerdy dental supplies salesman with bug eyes and no street sense whatsoever who gets mistaken as the middle man in a major gun-running deal. Cue Samuel L. Jackson’s bad-boy hybrid of himself in Shaft and Denzel Washington in Training Day to intervene with his federal cop status and pimp ride. As the two try to work together by working apart, Levy babbles endlessly about the moral high ground and how to curb your predilection towards swearing. Meanwhile, Jackson beats people up and looks cool. Because of the tired clichés, juvenile flatulence jokes and careless script writing—especially the film’s unrealistic conclusion—The Man should be demoted to The Dorky Boy With Pimples and Chess Club Credits.