Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Directed by Frank Oz
Con artist Lawrence Jamieson is a longtime resident of a luxurious coastal resort, where he enjoys the lavish fruits of his deceptions -- that is, until a competitor, Freddy Benson, shows up. When the new guy's lowbrow tactics impinge on his own sophisticated work and believing him to be the infamous conman 'The Jackal', Lawrence resolves to get rid of him. Confident of his own duplicitous talents, he challenges Freddy to a winner-takes-all competition: whoever swindles their latest mark, American heiress Janet Colgate, out of $50,000 first can stay, while the other must leave town.
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What critics compared Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to
Story-wise it is a patchwork pastiche of To Catch A Thief , Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Bond, with a bit of National Treasure and Raiders Of The Lost Ark thrown in for good measure (Ryan Reynolds even whistles the Raiders theme at one point).
And while this kid’s adventure starts in the Tarantino zone, it quickly switches to the charming criminality of an Ocean’s heist movie, with a touch of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels thrown in to keep the adults laughing alongside the kids.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels re-imagined as a Korean class-warfare dramedy.
Then it’s three years later, in Buenos Aires, where Nicky is pulling a job on a millionaire racing engineer (Rodrigo Santoro: Rio 2) and Jess shows up unexpectedly, and for a while I could cling to a small hope that perhaps she is playing a really long con on Nicky, or will at least pull a Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on him (which he definitely deserves).
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The movie, a madcap British farce from director Frank Oz ("Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "In & Out," the voice of Miss Piggy), offers a few solid laughs and is generally fun, but it's nothing great.
Let’s hope the Muppet man-turned-director has another Bowfinger or Dirty Rotten Scoundrels left in him.
At the helm of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, he paired Steve Martin and Michael Caine to comedic effect, ditto Martin and Eddie Murphy in Bowfinger .
(God bless Ingmar!) Instead, this broad farce blows the coffin lid off dignified send-offs, thanks to Dean Craig’s screwball script and the deft direction by Frank Oz, who previously helmed Bowfinger, In & Out and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Three more very solid comedies would follow -- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob? and Housesitter -- before Frank tackled family fare once more with The Indian in the Cupboard.
But when turned loose on accessible, not-altogether-insincere dark-comedy scenarios — “What About Bob?,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” “In & Out” — Oz understands humor at a molecular level of structure, volume and timing.
Call it “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” on the wedding circuit.
It’s one part Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and one part Ocean’s Eleven to two parts Boogie Nights ; it takes a while to find the film beneath all that familiarity.
Examples that immediately leap to mind are some '80s faves like "Tootsie," "Fletch," "Trading Places," "A Fish Called Wanda," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," and your pick of the John Hughes teenage years flicks.
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The surprises pretty much end there in My Cousin Vinny, written by Dale Launer (Ruthless People, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and directed by Jonathan Lynn (Clue).
Director Jonathan Lynn ("Nuns on the Run") and screenwriter Dale Launer ("Ruthless People," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels") have both done better.
It was written by Dale Launer, who wrote "Ruthless People" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," and directed by Jonathan Lynn, the Englishman who wrote and directed "Nuns on the Run" and collaborated on the scripts for the English television series "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister."
This turns on some neat subtleties regarding automotive topography and the script, by Dale Launer (who wrote the better "Ruthless People" and the worse "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"), develops a nice line as it reveals Tomei, initially a fairly standard issue arm decoration, to be sharp as a tack and quick as an adder.