The Ladies Man

Sometimes they get lucky and have a hit on their hands (Wayne's World, the first one, not the second). But most often they have duds (It's Pat comes to mind rather quickly). This time out it's Tim Meadows as The Ladies Man. This movie falls somewhere in between a hit and a dud. It was very funny for the first 20 minutes, but then, as usually happens with SNL skits, it starts to slow down, before finally ending, long after it should have.

Tim Meadows is Leon Phelps, a radio DJ with a nightly show called The Ladies Man. He answers any and all questions dealing with sex and relationships, usually in the crudest way possible. Everything seems to ultimately come down to the butt. After pushing the buttons of the station manager, Leon, along with his producer Julie (Karyn Parsons) gets fired, and needs to find another job. Out of the random blue, comes a letter from one of his ex-ladies. The letter offers him wealth and luxury for the rest of his life, the only problem being that the letter isn't signed. So Leon needs to track down all the women he's been with to find the woman of his dreams. But sometimes, as Billy Dee Williams says in the film, the woman of your dreams is standing right in front of you. There is also a sub-plot about a bunch of guys who's wives/girlfriends have all slept with Leon, and they want to first figure out who he is (by a tattoo he has on a part of his anatomy), then kill him. Leading this bunch of guys is, surprise! Will Ferrell from SNL. First off, I thought the sub-plot was rather lame. The singing and dancing stuff was just completely worthless. I usually like Will Ferrell but here he just never clicked for me. And the rest of the guys were just schlubs who tagged along, and in the end all decided that having their wives/girlfriends cheat on them was in fact their fault. So back to the main story. The story basically centers around Leon and sex. So what it comes down to is, if you don't like the character of Leon, you won't like the movie. His voice, his mannerisms, his dialogue is what carries the movie. I am not a big fan of Tim Meadows. I never thought he was a particularly good actor on SNL. The only thing I ever really liked of his, was his Ladies Man skits. But the best thing about those, is that they usually involved the guest host (remember the one with Cameron Diaz?), and they were short. For about 5 minutes, they were pretty funny. And here, for about 20 minutes, it's really funny. What I thought was good about the character in the movie, is that he stayed in character throughout. He never wavered from his wanted to just get laid persona. Until right at the end where there was this transformation, and the ever present speech to tie things up. Other than that, it was pretty good at keeping Leon as Leon, and not changing him into something less crude than he was. There isn't a lot of substance to this movie, if you couldn't guess. But like I said earlier, the beginning of the movie I found to be very funny. Some real laugh out loud moments, all revolving around sex and his crudeness. The problem of course with this movie, and most other SNL spin offs, is that these are characters that are only supposed to be shown for a few minutes at a time. Stretching the concept into 80 minutes is very difficult. That difficulty is obviously why they needed the sub-plot, because without it, this movie would have been a little under an hour. When it was good, it was good, but when it wasn't good, it got to be boring.

So overall, The Ladies Man wasn't as bad as other SNL films, but it wasn't as good as others. It had some funny moments, the first 20 minutes was pretty good, but the rest of it dragged on. There was an unnecessary sub-plot whose only purpose was to lengthen the film. The bottom line is, if you like Tim Meadows and his Leon Phelps character, you'll be able to watch the film. If he annoys you, don't even bother going. Unless you just want to see Tiffani Theissen in some nice revealing clothing.

I honestly don't understand how tripe like this gets made. The worst junior-high talent show skit you've ever seen is more entertaining than this film. Will Ferrell's wrestling fetish provides the only (briefly) humorous moments. Utterly horrible.

The fact that The Ladies Man originated from a skit on Saturday Night Live should surprise no one who has seen and disliked the film. The film feels exactly like a character who belongs in skits roughly five to eight minutes long, who will occasionally say something funny in those five to eight minutes, and then end on a comic-bang before the screenwriter decides to cut over to another sketch. The sad thing about The Ladies Man is it focuses on its title character (played by a clearly inspired Tim Meadows) for eighty long, often tedious minutes, completely deluding the character's comic effect because it must be referenced with almost every line he says.

I've discussed how tedious and often frustratingly unfunny Saturday Night Live films can often be (I wrote a whole blog on it three years back, so that should give an idea of how opinionated I was). Their main complaint links most of their films (with notable exceptions of the Wayne's World titles) in that they have difficultly giving their character's antics enough to do for a film's runtime. "The Ladies Man" character already has enough energy to be in a eighty minute film, but does he have the humor, plot, and charisma capabilities of carrying such precious minutes? How far does a sexist, afro-rockin' radio host go? The answer is not very far, but the film is at least buoyed by the competence and appeal of Tim Meadows, who can do no wrong in films as far as I'm concerned. His presence is casual and his attitude often laidback, even when he's playing a character as tiresome as this one. He plays Leon "The Ladies Man" Phelps, a studly black radio host who is known for his outspoken sexism on air during his nighttime show where he gives female callers shallow advice about relationships. The first thirty minutes of the film show his attitude and serve as nothing but a showcase for redundant jokes akin to that of modern Saturday Night Life sketches.

When the story finally does get going, it's lame and serves more as filler than as a significant plot. It follows a man who finds his wife cheating on him, only to spot a naked black man running outside his home with a smiley face tattooed on his rear. Turns out, there is a website dedicated to finding this man and a group of angry husbands meet up to try and track down the man who pleasures their wives. The result is a tiresome array of unfunny marital jokes and a predictable but slightly catchy song and dance number.

Tim Meadows (who serves as co-write on this film) is clearly inspired when playing "The Ladies Man." His personality is always energetic and here he plays a character he completely created and "perfected" himself. There is a genuine sense of fun and comfortableness when playing this role. The issue is that "The Ladies Man" is so thin and uninteresting as a character that he's more of an idea. In that regard, Meadows does a great job at playing an idea.

I return full circle to my point that I made in the beginning that stated that the films focuses on a character that feels exactly like he belongs in concise skits on Television. It's no surprise that after about fifteen minutes of laughing with and at the character, I began to be burdened with feelings of tedium. This only influences my point that a character with this personality belongs in shorts seventy-five minutes shorter than the film The Ladies Man.

Starring: Tim Meadows, Karyn Parsons, Billy Dee Williams, John Witherspoon, Will Ferrell, and Eugene Levy. Directed by: Reginald Hudlin.

I loved it. It was just what I needed after a hard day at work. Tim Meadows was freaky and disgusting. Heehee! He is so dang cute, I could hardly contain myself. He says some great one-liners and I laughed out loud a few times. This movie was hands down "craptacular" in my book and definitely in keeping with several other fine SNL films.

The Ladies Man was never made to win awards, or put Tim Meadows at the top of the hottest actors list. What it was made to do, is to make you laugh. Now, if you are still interested in seeing this movie, please do so. Not only is Tim Meadows a riot as the fish sandwich eating, houseboat living, stud muffin, but "Wrestling" Will Ferrell, and the rest of the cast are great as well.

I'd give this movie 6 out of 10, just for the goofy jokes, and laughs it got out of me.