Rating of
2.5/4
Good, but not enough laughs for a comedy
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/01/08
"Agent Derrick Vann" (Samuel L. Jackson) is a street-wise federal agent with a bad attitude and is not well liked by anybody except his daughter. He is on the hunt of weapons dealer responsible for the murder of his partner, who was on the take.
"Andy Fiddler" (Eugene Levy) is a dental equipment salesman who is in town for a convention, and inadvertently gets directly involved with "Agent Vann's" case when the arms dealer's apparent liaison mistakes him for the undercover ATF agent.
This movie was marketed as a comedy, but the laughs are few and far between. In my opinion, if it were marketed as something other than a comedy it probably would have made more than the $8-million-plus in the US box office.
Also, with Jackson's character being an ATF agent, you would think there would be more gun-play. However, this is not the case. And the only good one is the one near the end of the movie. And none of the gunfights standout, and appear the gunfights in every other movie -- quite typical.
The only good part of this film, in my opinion is the teaming of Jackson and Levy. They worked well together with Jackson being the straight man to Levy as the comic of the two.
Another interesting part of the movie is the plot twist that directly affects the two main characters.
The story itself is not bad, but there are a few plot holes and little character development on the supporting cast.
To sum things up, The Man is not a good comedy. It's also only a fair cop/buddy movie where only the lead actors are the only good thing about it.
