THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 10, 1995 TAG: 9504100179
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
HOW STUPID is ``Tommy Boy''?
Farley stupid. In fact, mucho stupid.
``Tommy Boy'' will reign as the dumbest movie around until ``Stuart Smalley Saves His Family'' opens next week. Before that, ``Billy Madison'' was a prime candidate. All of them have something in common. They all star ``Saturday Night Live'' players. Apparently, every ``SNL'' comic is entitled to make at least one truly bad movie.
``Tommy Boy'' trots out a multiplicity of fat jokes, a few masturbation jokes, toilet jokes, urination jokes, flatulence jokes, jokes about rotting deer carcasses, and a running gag about an obese guy who keeps bumping into steel doors. None of it is funny.
Chris Farley, a likably vulnerable guy and an energetic comic, has the title role. It's taken Tommy Callahan seven years to get through college. With his D average, he's headed back to Ohio where he's promptly called upon to save the family business, Callahan Auto Parts. He goes on a sales trip with a nerdish and sarcastic executive, played by David Spade, another ``SNL'' veteran who already had his flopperoo, ``Coneheads.''
Farley lacks the creative edge of that other famous ``SNL'' fat guy, John Belushi. He is asked mainly to just be fat and get so intense that his face turns red. That's it.
Co-star Spade is in a much lesser role and clearly resents the fact that Farley has all the broad, physical routines. This duo is no Abbott and Costello.
The rest of the cast is, at best, curious. Bo Derek plays Farley's new stepmom and proves that she is still a ``10.'' She looks mah-velous but is required to do no acting. Rob Lowe is her ``son.'' Brian Dennehy appears briefly as the father of Farley.
Strangely, there are moments played seriously. This is particularly embarrassing to watch, since the characters have not been developed. Among these is a funeral scene and one in which the family business is due to close.
The plot is regrettably similar to that of ``Billy Madison,'' a miserable mess from a few weeks back, featuring Adam Sandler of ``SNL.'' With ``Saturday Night Live'' itself experiencing the worst year in its run, wouldn't Hollywood be well advised to do some talent scouting of its own rather than depending on this fading TV corps?
Farley has a great deal of energy and a cheerful screen presence. It's impossible not to like him at the same time that you can merely shake your head at this flick. ILLUSTRATION: PARAMOUNT
Chris Farley, right, embarks on a sales expedition with David Spade
in ``Tommy Boy.''
MOVIE REVIEW
``Tommy Boy''
Cast: Chris Farley, David Spade, Bo Derek, Brian Dennehy, Rob
Lowe, Dan Akykroyd
Director: Peter Segal
Screenplay: Bonnie Turner and Terri Turner
MPAA rating: PG-13 (sexual references and toilet jokes)
Mal's rating: *
Locations: Chesapeake Square in Chesapeake, Janaf, R/C Main Gate
in Norfolk, Lynnhaven, Surf-N-Sand in Virginia Beach
by CNB