Double Whammy

A film review by Christopher Null - Copyright © 2002 Filmcritic.com

Has any film director fallen quite as far as Tom DiCillo? After a masterful debut with his tongue-in-cheek look at filmmaking, Living in Oblivion, DiCillo has turned in a series of progressively more-ignored features, including Box of Moon Light and The Real Blonde. His latest, Double Whammy, is going straight to video, despite a cast that includes Denis Leary and Elizabeth Hurley -- and not in bit parts, either!

The silly, one-joke story is reason enough to find Whammy (not a movie about Press Your Luck!) so inspiring. Leary plays a cop who, only through some fault of his own, is never able to bust a perp. It starts out in a fast food joint, when a gunman drives through the wall and starts shooting. Leary slips and hits his head, and a little bespectacled kid uses his gun to save the day. Later, his apartment supervisor is killed while he's oblivious in the building. Various quirky characters (like Hurley's masseuse) try to distract you into thinking this movie is actually about something, but the deception never works too well.

Forgettable.

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Rating

2.0 out of 5 Stars

Cast and Crew

  • Director: Tom DiCillo
  • Producer: Larry Katz, David Kronemeyer, Jim Serpico, Marcus Viscidi
  • Screenwriter: Tom DiCillo
  • Stars: Denis Leary, Maurice G. Smith, Elizabeth Hurley, Daniel Margotta, Steve Buscemi, Luis Guzmán, Victor Argo, Chris Noth
  • MPAA Rating: R