Alert, first-time-filmmaker-warning. 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. (C) (Two Stars
