PLOT: In a case of mistaken identity, a mild-manned dental equipment salesman gets mixed up in an arms deal and tangles with a tough cop. The laughs come from the nerdy salesman (Eugene Levy), who preaches clean teeth, clean language and no guns.
Take a federal agent in pursuit of stolen guns, mix with a nerdish dental supply salesman, add toilet jokes, viola!
That's The Man, an alleged laff-riot with Samuel L. Jackson as a tough-talking Detroit agent and Eugene Levy as a fish-out-of-water dental equipment salesman. They are forced to work together, which leads to many comic misunderstandings, as you'd guess. Eventually, they become friends, just like you anticipated. Yes, yes, yes -- you've seen all this before, but The Man has a special element that keeps you watching: Eugene Levy.
The movie was mostly shot here, with Toronto standing in for Detroit but looking remarkably like Toronto nonetheless. (Detroit also has a CN Tower and a Royal York Hotel? Who knew?)
Anyway, maybe the fact that The Man was shot here is crucial, because everything that's funny about the movie seems to be rooted in a subversive underlay of Canadian sensibility. Levy's mild-manned salesman character, for example, can't stop trying to correct bad behaviour. He's polite, friendly, anti-violence, careful about personal space, much too chatty and somewhat passive/aggressive, the very things for which Canadians are famed. And it's funny.
A case of mistaken identity puts Levy in the company of Jackson's snarly policeman character. They can't stand each other, but they're forced to ride around together in search of a shipment of stolen guns.
Much of the humour is pathetic -- Levy's pants fall down, farts occur, someone pees in a pool -- but there are also a couple of brilliant laughs. Levy gets to lecture Jackson on bad language and he gets to play the tough guy, and bits like that work well.
The Man is based on a tired idea. Jackson's cop character is so badly written that even Jackson can't make the guy three-dimensional. Only Levy gets out of this one looking good. Blame Canada.
(This film is rated PG)
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