Review of The Distinguished Gentleman (1992) by Martin D — 19 Apr 2010

Ebert's suggestion that The Distinguished Gentleman is simply an unglorified, slower-witted, and less humorous attempt at what The Player already achieved, just with Eddie Murphy's weakened version of his own brand of humor is unwarranted. The Distinguished Gentleman makes every effort to be taken as a family film while attempting, and I think successfully, to pay a toned-down respect to many of Murphy's R-rated, audience favorites.

On the other hand, thank you, Roger Ebert, for re-introducing me to "The Player". Add me to the long list of this film's admirers. From start to finish, I tried to keep track of the intricate layerings, double- triple- and quadruple-entandres, hints from the director, winks to the audience from the actors playing themselves, cinematcophic nods to famous scenes- which themselves establish new famous scenes, tributes to movie legends, references and quote-usages, twists and overlays of well-known genres... suffice to say it's worth the time to check out Ebert's recommendation, just not worthwhile to attempt to compare them.