Bad Boy

Leary and Hurley hook up again for this fun little romcom romp which aired on cable under the title "Dawg". IMHO better than their previous collaboration "Double Whammy", this flick tells of a womanizer who will inherit a fortune if he can be forgiven his sexual trespasses by a dozen of his womanized victims. Hurley, attorney for the estate, tags along to bear witness leading to much fun, silly moments, a whiff of romance, a sentimental thread, and a kicker at the end. "Dawg" may not be Oscar material but it is quirky, unpredictable, and carries a message and a moral. Worth a look especially by romantic comedy suckers like moi. (B-)

Most of this movie is a would-be sex comedy, but it's rarely even remotely funny. The characters are unappealing, the situation is hard to accept, and the plot works itself out mechanically, with few details of any interest.



But surprisingly, near the end it unexpectedly swerves into more serious material, and is far more successful. The actual ending is unexpected and even touching. Maybe trying to make this as a comedy was a mistake.

Would you risk this embarrassment to collect inheritance money? The movie focuses on a wealthy bloke that has been a player with the women over the years. When his grandmother dies, she didn't approve of his player mentality, she made a stipulation in her will that he get 12 women to tell him they forgive him for his past transgressions before he can claim the sizable inheritance. And with Elizabeth Hurley along for the ride as the attorney to confirm the women's forgiveness, the movie sets off. Get ready for a slew of what hijinks will occur and what morals will he learn along the way and will old grandma be savvier than one may think? This is slightly better than expected with a genuine twist. Cinematically, there was zero care for cinematography as it was sitcom quality. There was occasional cause for light snickering. Something to watch while folding laundry.

I settled down for an enjoyable piece of light entertainment, but realised quickly that while it may be light, this film fails to entertain.

Contrived situations would be perfectly acceptable if funny or interesting. There were such nonsensical characters that we actually guessed what would have changed for each female character (or "victim", possibly) in the time between our "hero" bedding them and when he must ask their forgiveness - and got it right, no matter how outlandish or cliched.

As for the Girls Club situation - no spoiler - it was merely insulting and completely unconvincing.

Acting by the two main characters would have helped.

This is easily the worst movie I have seen all year - 2 out of 10.

The sex comedy is a dying breed of movie, kept alive be the

occassional success of movies such as the American Pie trilogy

and the faint memory of classics such as Nerds, Porkies, and

other 'coming of age' films.

Bad Boy (known as Dawg in Australia) has an interesting enough

premise. To inherit a million dollars womaniser Doug 'Dawg'

Munford must get apologies from twelve of his one night stands.

Doug (played by Denis Leary) is accompanied by Anne Lockheart

(Liz Hurley), who must witness these apologies for the inheritance

to be earned.

Ok, Liz Hurley looks good. She looks very good. In fact, let's take a

moment to reflect on just how good looking Liz Hurley is. Now, if

this movie was a porno, that'd be great- but it's not, it's a comedy

(or an attempt at one). Whilst drama may be seen as the 'true'

cinema, comedy takes a lot of ability to achieve, and Liz does not

have that ability. The movie would have been worse without Denis

Leary, who is at his usual sarcastic best, working as hard as he

can with a script completely devoid of any real wit.

Am I the only person in the world who finds it slightly unbelievable

that not one of his twelve 'conquests' is remotely normal. I know,

for comedic purposes it's funny that he's slept with twins, a

pornstar, a scary cat woman, and even a girl who has become a

man- but if you're going to stretch believability, it needs to be done

well. I didn't find myself laughing once during the movie, and that's

a mean feat.

So often someone decides to make a 'sex comedy' and thinks

that's all they need to do to make it funny. It's true, sex is a funny

act. It's also a big drawcard for a male audience (who we must

assume this chauvanistic piece was constructed for), but you

need to either have some funny situations or some funny

one-liners. This film had none of them.

See if you liked: Denis Leary. Liz Hurley. Strengths: Liz Hurley and a supporting cast of cute women Weaknesses: Lacks comedy. Liz Hurley's acting. My Rating: 2.5 out of 10