Review – The Master of Disguise

Dana Carvey and Adam Sandler must really hate each other. Because Sandler must have agreed to produce this picture only if it turned out to be a humiliating waste of Carvey’s talent, and in turn Carvey must have done his level best to make the movie as dreadful as possible to make sure Happy Madison lost as much money as possible on it. I can think of no other explanation for a movie as bad as this. Carvey plays Pistachio, the lackwit scion of a long line of disguise masters. Bad guys kidnap his parents, setting him off on a quest with all the intellectual maturity of Spy Kids but not the cleverness or even the kid orientation. Instead the entire plot is a relentless parade of offensive ethnic caricatures, fart jokes and similar “comedic” moments that seem less “that’s offbeat enough to be clever” and more “aw, quit being a jerk.” Especially the Turtle Club scene. On the avoid-this-movie scale, this resides somewhere between previous Carvey waste Opportunity Knocks and previous Happy Madison travesty You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Wish I’d skipped it