Warning, first-time-filmmaker in progress.
That phrase should be the sub-header for every debut director's film because audiences should have some clue about the crap-shoot they're in for when they plunk down their fifteen dollars.
As is most frequently the case with first appearance directors, writer/director Hue Rhodes makes a painfully mediocre film on his first outing.
With a title seemingly unrelated to the material Rhodes compiles a cool-school cast (Steve Buscemi, Romany Malco, Peter Dinklage, and Sarah Silverman) for a bogus story about John (Buscemi), a compulsive-gambler-turned-insurance-investigator.
John strikes up an unlikely affair with co-worker cubical neighbor Jill (Silverman) before hitting the road for Vegas with the company's best fraud debunker Virgil (Malco).
The smell of betting intoxicates John as he battles constantly with Virgil about his per diem. The two car-sleeping misfits are on a mission to investigate a stripper who got rear-ended in the desert.
The humor is sophomoric in this road movie where a midnight confrontation with a group of all-male nudists in the desert is one of many such dispensable plot points.
Rated R. 85 mins.
