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Man, The
New Line Cinema


5.9

based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language, rude dialogue and some violence

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy, Luke Goss, Anthony Mackie, Miguel Ferrer, Susie Essman, and Horatio Sanz

A comedy about an affable dental salesman (Levy) and a hard-edged federal agent (Jackson) who are forced to work together and who eventually grow to tolerate each other. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Comedy \| Crime
WRITTEN BY:	Jim Piddock (also story) Margaret Oberman (also story) Stephen Carpenter
DIRECTED BY:	Les Mayfield
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 17, 2006 Theatrical: September 9, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	83 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Who knew Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy would make such a dynamic comic duo?

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

An action buddy comedy is such an offbeat and inspired notion that it's impossible not to think of it without smiling.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Levy and Jackson save the day, and the film. The Man isn't great entertainment, but it contains enough laughter-provoking material to make it worth a look.

Variety Robert Koehler

Functional if thoroughly uninspired movie. Because it clings to the comedy-action template of "48 Hrs.," pic feels like it could have been made 15 years ago.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Both Jackson and Levy are better than director Les Mayfield's ("Blue Streak") meandering comedy.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

While nothing in the movie - least of all the two main performances - is especially fresh or original, it does have a few decent gags and amusing moments.

Slate David Edelstein

Passable--just.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Les Mayfield doesn't know how to stage showdowns and chases so they're exciting or funny.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Laugh? Well, once.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

If it weren't for the running flatulence gag, the whole silly business might be mistaken for slight, clean, fast-moving fun.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

It's the kind of featherweight slot-filler people turn off after 15 minutes on a plane or have on in the background on cable while they vacuum the floor.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The only characters in this formulaic crime comedy that I halfway liked were a couple of barely glimpsed wives, but the two leads keep it going through sheer determination.

LA Weekly John Patterson

Jackson and Levy strike only damp sparks off each other, and they seem to have been introduced to each other --without benefit of rehearsal -- mere moments before the director cried "Action!"

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Yet another screwed-up mess that will give audiences another excuse to shun the multiplexes this weekend.

USA Today Mike Clark

In Roy Orbison terms, enduring this movie is like working for The Man.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Nobody needed to make it, nobody needs to see it, Jackson and Levy are too successful to waste time with it. It plays less like a film than like a deal.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Dreadful.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The screenplay has no idea how to modulate the banter between the movie's talented stars so that it approximates affectionate and playful sparring.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Most of The Man is as awful as last year's debacle, "Taxi," yet Levy, stuck in a no-brainer variation on Billy Crystal's predicament in "Analyze This," shows just enough noodgy passive-aggression to suggest what the movie might have been were it not shackled to buddy-action clichés.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Unfortunately, The Man makes the mistake of assuming casting is all it takes to make a good comedy.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

In some ways, The Man plays like a sequel to some terrible movie that was mercifully destroyed before it was ever released.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Less a movie than a longform, live-action Celebrity Death Match between its leads, this wheezing comedy may herald the death knell of the interracial buddy-cop farce.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Arrives in theaters today with a sheet over its head and a tag on its toe. So to speak. What we have here is a complete systemic failure, a comedy that's not funny, with action that's not thrilling.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

I haven't seen such meaningful insight into the nature of human cooperation since this morning's "Sesame Street."

Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg

Fuu . . . cryin' out loud, this movie's dumb.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Indeed, this is the very kind of lame-brained folly Levy and his SCTV cohorts used to mock on their old show; now it's how he makes rent.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

It's just awful. Pointless, lazy, derivative and paralyzingly dull.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jerash J. gave it a9:
I liked it. Sure doesn't deserve all those pro reviewers who slammed it.

Malcom M. gave it a3:
It's no wonder the critics bombed this film. The producers got the wrong man as The Man. Coz I'm the man. Yeah, that's right, me. I am The Man. I would have made a much better Man. Ya dig?

Jon D. gave it a9:
This movie was HILARIOUS. I can't understand the bad reviews. I think part of it is understanding Eugene Levy's sense of humor. The humor is in his expressions & hand gestures (It's very much a Jewish sense of humor.) He is a perfect foil for Samuel Jackon's kick-ass no-nonsense. So if you don't get, you lose!

Kevin gave it a9:
Dumb but funny.

Cosmo P. gave it a10:
A brilliant slice of movie magic. A landmark motion picture.

Hinckley A. gave it a0:
Oh my God was this terrible. Were they working without a script? It was if they took two excellent actors threw them in front of the camera and said do whatever you want for two hours? The movie must have been shot in two days. Absolutely inept.

Man, The New Line Cinema

Man, The
New Line Cinema