Rob Schneider- you pretty much know what you are getting with one of his movies. Yeah, it'll be scatological and dumb, but at least there will be lots of cringe-inducing humor. The formula that worked for him was that he was essentially playing 'straight man' to a cast of larger-than-life characters- though he was often not the brightest bulb in the fixture, his sweetness and will to do good won the day. Not Oscar-contending, but one knew what to expect. Then, this came along.
Big Stan features a cast of recognizable (and/or great character) actors- David Carradine, Jennifer Morrison, Sally Kirkland, M. Emmet Walsh, Richard Kind, Marcia Wallace, Dan Haggerty (yup, Grizzly Adams), Jim Cody Williams, Brandon T. Jackson (Tropic Thunder's Alpha Chino) and others. Solid enough, thought I, but as I recently discovered in another film, cast is not enough.
The departure in this begins in the first scene- Schneider's character is a self-involved huckster, one who preys on the elderly. When he is sentenced to be punished by the state for crimes that he committed (willingly), he contrives a way to prevent harm to his person- hilarity ensues, or would, except that... it just doesn't.
While one can level many complaints about this film, the most glaring is that 'rape' is used as a both set-up and punch-line. It is used so often, one almost becomes inured to it, but from the moment Stan is sentenced, it feels like there isn't a single scene in which it is not referenced or said outright- statistics* prove that this has the greatest concentration of the word 'rape' ever used in a film. Yeah, so, what if you don't find that funny? Then the well is dry- fear of (or reference to) prison violation motivates most scenes... yeah, really not much here other than 'rape' jokes.
I guess it does bear mention that in addition to actors, this movie also features some MMA (Bob Sapp, Randy Couture, Don Frye, etc.) and notable traditional martial arts practitioners (Guru Dan Inosanto... why?!?) who do pretty well for themselves as actors, but nothing could have been done to save such a one-note movie. While I was personally never a big fan of David Carradine's, it is sad to think that this was one of his last completed films...
Anyways, this deserves some new rating system, but apathy has come to claim me... help. Oh no. Eeek. Until next time-
I remain,
Ashida Kimchee
*a completely made-up number from the Journal of StA Research Laboratory, based on a sampling of 1 film and our opinion.
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