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Two out of Five stars
Running time: 83 mins

An underlying sweetness and a smattering of good jokes ensure that this stays watchable, although none of the gags are as funny as the poster.

The Background
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo has the dubious distinction of being Rob Schneider’s funniest film. The sequel just about succeeds thanks to a handful of good gags, Schneider’s likeable screen persona and a strong comic performance by Eddie Griffin.

The Story
Following an embarrassing incident with some dolphins and some pensioners, pool-cleaner Deuce Bigalow (Rob Schneider) decides to hide out in Amsterdam with his pimp friend TJ (Eddie Griffin). However, when TJ somehow finds himself implicated in a string of prostidude murders, he asks Deuce to go undercover as a gigolo and help clear his name. To do so, Deuce has to infiltrate the International Society of Man-Whores.

The Bad
The first film worked because of Schneider’s likeable screen persona – he played Deuce with an innate sweetness that somehow made up for the worst excesses of gross-out humour. Unfortunately, the sequel doesn’t quite attain the same balance. Deuce is still likeable, but there’s a barrage of jokes that are either racist, sexist, homophobic or just plain disgusting. Similarly, the disability jokes play like rejects from the first film and are a lot less funny than the film-makers think they are.

The Good
That said, there are more than enough laugh-out-loud gags to ensure that Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo passes The Rule Of The Animal (ie: if a lowest-common-denominator comedy makes you laugh out loud more than three times then it has succeeded as a comedy, no matter how rubbish it is).

Schneider and Griffin make a great comedy double-act. It’s a shame Griffin keeps making dreadful comedies like Double Take or Undercover Brother, given his obvious comic talent. There are also the obligatory cameos from Schneider’s buddies Norm Macdonald (whose ridiculously thick Irish accent is, admittedly, pretty funny) and Adam Sandler.

British audiences may be surprised to see British faces Alex Zane and Johnny Vaughan pop up in the cast, alongside more obvious casting decisions such as Kelly Brook (as a buxom fantasy milkmaid) and Rachel Stevens, who plays a very dirty girl indeed (and contributes the closing credits song).

The Conclusion
In short, the plot may be rubbish, but Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo remains watchable thanks to Schneider and Griffin, as well as a decent amount of successful gags. And, hey, at least it’s short.