Dudley Do-Right
1999 Universal Pictures
Written and Directed by: Hugh Wilson
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker Alfred Molina Eric Idle Robert Prosky Alex Rocco
MPAA Rating: PG; Running Time: 77 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 6/10
Dudley Do--Right is a hapless Canadian Mounty who's just as likely to step on a rake as catch a bad guy. His quiet existence is interrupted by the return of childhood love, Nell, and childhood friend turned bad guy, Snidely Whiplash. Snidely has faked a gold discovery in a remote area, then created a town around the fake discovery to milk aspiring gold diggers out of their cash. Can Dudley and his incredible horse, Horse, stop Snidely? Can Dudley win Nell's heart? Does the movie even care?
1999's Dudley Do-Right is a critically-panned flop that failed to register with just about anyone.
I like it. It's incredibly stupid, SO incredibly stupid. However, at least to me, this is the kind of stupidity only smart people can create. Then again, I laughed really hard at the shockingly stated line, "Canadian Bacon is nothing but ordinary ham!" at a character being described as "A grown man with an extensive Pokémon collection," at the villain of the film exasperatingly shouting, "No fair, they have rocks and all we have are these machine guns!" and at someone saying of a tribe of "Native North Americans" with strong Brooklyn accents who perform Broadway plays in the woods, "They haven't faced this much resistance since their all-male revival of Little Women." I'm not sure if you can trust my opinion here.
As for performances, they're perfectly stupid. There's a scene where, as Dudley, Brendan Fraser meticulously and as if under great duress, appears to be ordering a pizza, only to end the call with "Thanks, mom, I love you too," and I believed him. As Nell, Sarah Jessica Parker leaps to rapturous applause at the end of a Native North American musical number like she's just seen Laurence Olivier performing Shakespeare, and I believed her. As Snidely, Alfred Molina, an honest to God Shakespearean actor, cackles and tip-toes around, tirelessly playing immature practical jokes on the dumb-dumbs around him, while speaking in a nutty, nasally voice, and I believed him.
As for performances, they're perfectly stupid. There's a scene where, as Dudley, Brendan Fraser meticulously and as if under great duress, appears to be ordering a pizza, only to end the call with "Thanks, mom, I love you too," and I believed him. As Nell, Sarah Jessica Parker leaps to rapturous applause at the end of a Native North American musical number like she's just seen Laurence Olivier performing Shakespeare, and I believed her. As Snidely, Alfred Molina, an honest to God Shakespearean actor, cackles and tip-toes around, tirelessly playing immature practical jokes on the dumb-dumbs around him, while speaking in a nutty, nasally voice, and I believed him.
You will probably not like this movie. But I do. I do.
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