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Tomcats 2001 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by Gregory Poirier
R, 95 min. (strong sexual content including dialogue, language) |
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Starring: Jerry O'Connell, Shannon Elizabeth, Jake Busey, Horatio Sanz, Jaime Pressly, Bill Maher
Producers: Paul Kurta, Tony Ludwig, Alan Riche
Screenplay: Gregory Poirier
Cinematography: Charles Minsky
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Released: 3.30.01 (Wide) |
Rating:
 (out of  ) |
Tomcats is astonishing in its shameless exercise of gutter and sexual humor; it uses its charactes as vehicles of
unfunny perversion that reeks of desperation. Director/writer Gregory Poirier has followed abysmal efforts such as
See Spot Run and Gossip with his worst creation to date, a film that accomplishes its goal of becoming
the worst sex comedy in recent memory. In this limited sub-genre, made popular by the likes of American Pie
and There's Something About Mary, the ability to garner laughs at the expense of socially acceptable norms
becomes a fine line between amusing and detestable. Tomcats earns the latter description, not only because it
gleefully crosses the threshold of bad taste, but because of its unwarranted determination to offend everyone in the audience.
This could be the year's worst film.
The "tomcats" refer to a group of buddies - led by Michael (Jerry O'Connell) and Kyle (Jake Busey) - who pledge a monetary
oath to the credence of staying single for life, with the winner taking the pot (which has reached upwards of $500,000).
Of course, they all fall by the wayside except for Michael and Kyle, who
sees women as disposable sex objects that seem more useful as golfing caddies to run over with the cart than any real
relationship material. Michael is supposedly a sweet guy but incredibly naive to the point of silliness (in an early scene
he mistakes a signal to mean oral sex instead of a proclamation of love). When Michael loses $50,000 in a casino, he must
come up with the money in short order or be eliminated by a gangster (Bill Maher). So, in order to win the pot, Michael
must find Natalie (Shannon Elizabeth), a long-lost infatuation of Kyle's who claims he might have married her. But when
Natalie discovers his plot, she demands half the winnings, and the two proceed to dupe Kyle into marrying her. Of course,
things are complicated because they fall in love.
A sampling of the crude and distasteful humor reveals a level of contempt for women and moviegoers that is disturbing.
Some of the "jokes" include an encounter with an S/M librarian and her grandmother, a proctologist who suspects his
wife is a lesbian, a stripper who does amazing things with Ping-Pong balls, the obligatory scene where semen is procured
for liberal use, and to top things off a scene where Micheal is seen chasing Kyle's surgically removed testicle down hospital
hallways and staircases, where it eventually lands on the surgeon's lunch plate in the cafeteria (he eats it with relish).
Apparently Poirier believes this type of humor indicative of America's yearning for ever-increasing outlandish
pranks on characters who seem to enjoy being humiliated. Well, Tomcats certainly detests its audience and
characters, and in the process becomes the object of ire that it clearly warrants.
© 2001 Jonathan Cornwell
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 |
 | Masterpiece - Film perfection |
| Excellent - A Must See |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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