THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 TAG: 9702050041
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 59 lines
IF RODNEY DANGERFIELD ever got respect, he'd be out of a job. ``Meet Wally Sparks,'' a group of lame crotch jokes and lewd, leering puns unconnected by any semblance of plot, seems calculated to preserve his low esteem.
This isn't so much a movie as it is a group of film clips from his age-old nightclub act - one-liners about his lack of sexual prowess, the way women have put him down, and, in general, his problems in the bedroom. Of course, we never actually get to the bedroom, but that doesn't mean it's not a snooze.
Some of these jokes are so old they have whiskers.
But in spite of yourself, you can't help but like Rodney. Anyone who volunteers to make a movie this bad has got to be either totally masochistic or all heart.
Wally Sparks is the host of a sleaze-infested tabloid talk show. All America is wincing at Wally's outrageous breaches of taste. His latest theme is ``Men Who Love Their Wives' Dogs.'' Rodney comments, with mock boastfulness, ``Siskel and Ebert caught my show and gave it one finger up.''
David Ogden Stiers, playing the right-wing governor of Georgia, calls for the FCC to brand the show indecent and kick it off the air. Burt Reynolds, the network boss, is bent on pulling the plug on Wally. With pot belly extended and eyes bugging, Rodney heads south in an effort to make a fool out of the governor.
This, of course, is an excuse for yet more geographic put-downs of some mystic place Hollywood vaguely recognizes as ``the South.'' It seems that Hollywood feels Southerners are the only safe targets for this lower-than-low humor. They wouldn't dare use the same jokes in relation to any ethnic group, yet they persistently picture Southerners as no-brained fanatics. It's getting a little old, and more than a little synthetic.
Borrowing from ``The Man Who Came to Dinner,'' a classic Broadway comedy, Rodney is injured and has to stay over in the governor's mansion.
The rest of the cast is not spared the embarrassment. Reynolds, who sold out his career to money-grubbing repeats of the ``Smokey and the Bandit'' and the ``Cannonball Runs,'' even looks embarrassed. Cindy Williams' pathetic role as the naive governor's wife is even sadder. The film opened the same week as the ``Star Wars'' re-release - a reminder that she was almost cast as Princess Leia.
Dangerfield's movie career is an opportunity missed. With ``Back to School,'' and even the slapstick ``Ladybugs,'' he seemed to have found a niche - the hip old guy who talks dirty and is constantly put down. He failed to capitalize on it, however. It's been three years since he made a movie, and this one seems a reversion to his stand-up routine rather than any effort to find a character.
The groaners are so abundant that you can't help but laugh, but you might feel a little cruel about it. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW
``Meet Wally Sparks''
Cast: Rodney Dangerfield, David Ogden Stiers, Cindy Williams,
Burt Reynolds, Tony Danza
Director: Peter Baldwin
MPAA rating: R (language, lewdness)
Mal's rating: one star