The comedy movie Roger Ebert called “aggressively bad”
It takes a lot for a journalist to become a household name, with very few ever being known beyond specific circles, but when it comes to the field of entertainment, music critics like Lester Bangs and Anthony Fantano, or film writers like Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert have truly excelled. Ebert, in particular, became iconic in the late 20th century for his cutting opinions on contemporary film, often helping to dictate box office numbers.
Best known for At the Movies, the film-centred talk show he hosted with Gene Siskel from 1975 to 2011, Ebert was a titan of movie criticism. Regularly seen batting their strong opinions back and forth from one another, Siskel and Ebert became truly iconic, with the latters’ rants going down in pop culture history with his style of criticism being typified by extraordinary simplicity.
Hating a wide range of movies over the years, Ebert criticised such flicks as Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society, John Waters’ Pink Flamingos and Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Particularly despising Waters’ movie, he said of the cult picture: “I am not giving a star rating to Pink Flamingos, because stars simply seem not to apply. It should be considered not as a film but as a fact, or perhaps as an object”.
But there was another movie that he hated even more, calling the 2005 comedy film Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo “aggressively bad”.
Starring the likes of Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin and Hanna Verboom, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo told the story of a man who becomes a sex worker in Amsterdam, all while a murderer torments the city. Directed by Mike Bigelow, who would never direct anything else after the movie, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo was nominated for ‘Worst Picture’ at the 2006 Razzie Awards.
“Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo makes a living prostituting himself,” Ebert said of the movie, “How much he charges I’m not sure, but the price is worth it if it keeps him off the streets and out of another movie. Deuce Bigalow is aggressively bad, as if it wants to cause suffering to the audience. The best thing about it is that it runs for only 75 minutes… Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks”.
Take a look at the trailer for the comedy movie below, which has only been seen by a handful of movie lovers.
