Man, The

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Entertainment: +1 1/2

Content: -2 1/2

In this action comedy, dental-supply salesman Andy Fidler (Eugene Levy) arrives in Detroit to receive an award. While sipping coffee and reading the newspaper in a busy coffee shop, he is mistaken to be the contact for an illegal sale of firearms. Confused, Andy accepts a sample of the illegal product with instructions for making payment on the entire shipment. The drop is meant for Derrick Vann (Samuel L. Jackson), a federal agent performing a sting operation. Andy’s naďve and simple-minded logic confronts Vann’s calculated schedule to draw the crime king (Luke Goss) into the arms of the law. Hilarity ensues as Andy and Vann become reluctant partners. Andy is a marked man until the gangsters get their money, and Vann must nab the crooks or else be labeled a dirty cop and conspirator with criminals that killed his partner.

While Levy and Jackson bring out the best in each other as they repeatedly get themselves in and out of trouble with the criminals, there is really nothing comically fresh in this film. It’s all been done before. Andy finds some confidence that he didn’t know that he had, and Vann realizes that there is more to life than just catching the crook. A particularly touching moment is when Andy gets Vann to attend his daughter’s ballet recital. It means so much to the little girl to have her father participating in her life rather than just working to pay the bills. Crude and obscene words number in the eighties, proof that this film’s value is not to be found in its dialog. The Man earns a negative rating from Preview due to this element and a scene showing a dead man with a gunshot wound to the head. Unless a viewer is a Levy or Jackson fan, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would sit through this movie.

Preview Reviewer: Brian Hughes
Distributor: New Line

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: Many times (53) – mild (hell 11, damn 2); strong (-ss 25, b-tch 11, SOB 4)

Obscene Language: Several times (29) – moderate (cr-p 1, scr-w 5); strong (f-word 4, s-word 19)

Profanity: Few times (3) – strong (GD 2, J 1)

Violence: Many times – mild (man hits another man in the face with a garbage-can lid, threat – “I’ll beat you like a runaway slave,” two men struggle over a paper bag that is meant for a gangster to pick up, man hits his head on the top of a car as he gets into the vehicle, several car chases, shoving and struggling); moderate (man is shot with a taser gun in the rear end, several occurrences of gunfire, man is shot in the chest, man is shot in the thigh); strong (man is dead on the ground with a gunshot to the head)

Sex: None

Nudity: Few times – mild (man stands in the road in his underwear, man sits on the toilet)

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Few times – mild (discussion about the perfect weight of a gun in relation to the perfect weight of a woman’s breasts and figure)

Drugs: Few times – mild (alcohol use)

Other: Crude humor involving flatulence

Running Time: 87 minutes
Intended Audience: Adults and Older Teens

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