Review of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) by David L — 29 Jul 2016

I've only previously seen fleeting bits of this movie before now, but I still thought I would know how it all unfolded - I was wrong, so clearly I'd not been paying that much attention. It basically sees Caine and Martin go head to head in a battle to see who can con their way into getting £50k out of unsuspecting women, with the loser having to suffer the loss of their pride, as well as having to leave the holiday island for good.

The comedy is then all injected into the remainder of the story with it showcasing the amusing extremes they will both go to get what they want. Martin poses as a disabled war veteran and mentally disabled Prince, whilst Caine is a highly sought after Psychiatrist from Lichtenstein.

Morally this is all completely wrong but the competitiveness between the two drives them into inflicting embarrassment and a lot of pain into one another. It's very tongue in cheek, corny and predictable to an extent, but having said that I was too engrossed in the tasteless humour to suspect what was just around the corner in the concluding scenes.

That's just a subtle way of saying I'm unbelievably thick and didn't spot the twist a mile off (even if it was obvious). It's quite a classic from the 80's which doesn't really have a negative element to it.

I think the final scenes were not particularly necessary in the sense that the 'Jackal' returned to the island to gloat about their success and start up what is deemed to be another profitable scheme.

In my eyes the ending would have been more apt after the bombshell had been dropped and it is the audience that is left with the realisation that they had also been conned throughout. Other than that, its effortless comedy is most fulfilling.