Review of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) by Richard T — 28 Jun 2009

The comedic duo has long been a staple of comedy I suppose, so seeing what appears on the surface to be another tandem of talent, Steve Martin and Michael Caine, in what I assume must be a comedic film had me expecting great things despite only seeing Martin once before in The Jerk. Well, as a straight up comedy I must say that I finished this film immensely disappointed. I don't know if I just was not in the mood for comedy, if the humor just wasn't my style, or if I was still having a Duckie hangover from earlier, but aside from one or two scenes I did not really have many big laughs and could only chuckle ever ten minutes or so as one of Martin's or Caine's jokes hit. Luckily, the film does not fall back on the Step Brothers mentality of just letting guys go for laughs without any sort of plot. In fact, the plot is what helps keep the film very much afloat during the comedic gaps. Now I'm not one who has much exposure to conman movies, actually The Brothers Bloom may be the only one I have ever watched, but I really enjoyed the way the film always kept me on my toes and guessing what was going on without, usually, abandoning logical explanations for some of the events that were occurring. The plot is really compelling and ties together well with an ending that, completely opposite of Pretty in Pink, had me mostly surprised and really impressed that it never took an easy way out while still delivering a satisfying conclusion.

The leads were pretty spectacular as well. Martin was a shot of electricity to compliment Caine nicely and the constant competition between the two con men was incredibly fun to watch and made for a rather compelling film. The introduction of Headly's character allowed for another pretty good performance that really helps keep things fresh between the two men and assuring that the plot does not dull, she really does exactly what she needs to and she does it incredibly well. The other thing that I wanted to compliment was the direction. While it is nothing spectacular, though I guess the cinematography is really good, it is above solid and there is a certain visual flair to the film that makes it pretty interesting to watch from a technical level. This visual flair proves really helpful with the humor as well because a fair amount of what Martin does is visual humor and it is always good if a director makes things easy on the eyes and interesting to watch instead of just telling to audience to watch and be content. The film is really enjoyable and a good deal of fun. Nothing spectacular or mind blowing, but pretty good.

B or 4.019237219847230851723857120581732.