Master of Disguise

PLOT:

The plot is centered on Carvey as “Pistachio Disguisey”, a simple-minded member of an Italian family with supernatural skills of disguise. The patriarch of the Disguisey family (Brolin), Pistachio’s father, is kidnapped by archvillian Devlin Bowman (Spiner), who plans on brainwashing him to steal a variety of priceless artifacts and sell them on the black market.

A prominent subplot in the film is Pistachio’s propensity to be attracted to women with unusually big butts, and his frustrations in love. Despite initial hesitation, he is eventually drawn to his assistant (Jennifer Esposito), despite her relatively small backside. The film also acknowledges “The Godfather” when the grandfather comes out of a car in the night with blue light and Tubular Bells played.”That is crazy… so crazy it just might work.” an overused catchphrase of Disguisey.

REVIEW:

Ever have one of those films that holds special memories for you, no matter how good or bad it is? Well, for me, Master of Disguise is such a picture. When this came out in theaters, I didn’t see it in a theater, but rather at a drive-in. Yes, I said drive-in. It was actually a double feature with Men in Black II.

So, nostalgia aside, this comedy vehicle is meant to do one thing and one thing only, showcase Dana Carvey’s talent at doing voices. It does that successfully, but every other aspect of the film falls flat

Jennifer Esposito makes for good eye candy, but that’s about it. She makes an attempt to actually give her character some depth nad feeling, but it just doesn’t work.

Brent Spiner looks hilarious with the goatee, but for some reason he works as a villain. At the same time, I can’t help but think that he’s just Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation gone haywire.

Harold Gould is good as the grandfather, but why did they make him disappear for more than half the film? He could have been used for so much more during the picture.

Plotwise…well,it has its ups and downs. I like the fact that he’s trying to live up to the family name and save his parents, but were all the big butt jokes necessary? On top of that, the mind control drugs just didn’t work for me. I’m not sure if it was the fact that they only mentioned them in passing or if I just didn’t belive them, but something didn’t click about that part of th plot.

There are funny moments. This is Dana Carvey after all. The best of which is the scene in the turtle club, but for the most part, I was let down on the comedy front.

It is so hard to find a good family comedy these days. This could be one of those, if you take out the butt jokes. I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch this, though. Save for a couple of redeeming factors here and there, you’d really be wasting your time. I hate to sound like I’m bashing this film, but I honestly can’t find enough redeeming qualities to give it a good rating.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

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