What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) *

Directed by:  Sam Weisman

Starring:  Martin Lawrence, Danny DeVito, Bernie Mac, John Leguizamo, Carmen Ejogo, Richard Schiff, Nora Dunn, William Fichtner, Larry Miller

This movie, for one thing.    What a disjointed film; a so-called comedy devoid of laughs and coherence.    The "plot" is about two thieves, one a petty thief named Kevin (Lawrence) and a corporate thief named Max (DeVito) involved in a war of oneupmanship over a ring which Max stole from Kevin during Kevin's attempted robbery of Max's summer mansion.    Hi-jinks ensue which are totally unfunny, with the actors screaming their dialogue at each other.    It is trying to be comedy noir, with both actors playing unlikable people and surrounded by even more unlikable people in a plot we couldn't care less about. 

It becomes a test of the will to last through til the end of the movie and it is one I barely passed.   The cast is full of talented people who were done no favors by the witless script.    The film is a free-for-all, as if the story was written after Lawrence and DeVito were cast as the leads.    The thinking must have been that comic actors this successful would be able to make anything funny, and that is surely not the case here.    I am as big a Danny DeVito fan as there is.    He takes over a scene with the sheer force of his personality.     In this film, he is forced to carry too heavy a load because there is nothing funny for him to do.     Even an actor as talented as he can't make this work.

I was never a big Martin Lawrence fan.    His grating comic style just never worked for me.    His stand-up comedy film You So Crazy is one I watched in appalled silence while others insisted it was funny and I somehow missed its genius.    That is possible, but it isn't worth a second viewing to find out.     I am curious to see what type of response the same folks who liked You So Crazy would think of What's the Worst That Could Happen?, which is full of inexplicable scenes, missed comic opportunities, and is a film which I'm sure most of the viewing public including the actors have long forgotten about.