Senseless Review
by "Nathaniel R. Atcheson" (nate AT pyramid DOT net)February 23rd, 1998
Senseless (1998)
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Cast: Marlon Wayans, David Spade, Rip Torn, Brad Dourif, Patrick Ewing, Matthew Lillard, Tamara Taylor
Written by: Greg Erb, Craig Mazin
Producers: Eric L. Gold, David Hoberman
Runtime: 88 min.
Production Company: Miramax/Dimension
Rated R: language, sex
By Nathaniel R. Atcheson ([email protected])
Marlon Wayans (yet another Wayans brother?) is a pretty funny guy. He seems pretty nice, too. Even though he doesn't have a lot of screen presence, he made me laugh quite a bit as I watched Senseless. And I suppose that this is the point of the film--get us to like Marlon Wayans. Unfortunately, Wayans can't significantly overcome this dopey script. The movie has funny moments, yes, but most of them originate with the profoundly dumb idea on which Senseless is based. The comedy is an excuse for the lame story, but everything would be so much funnier and less painful if this statement were the other way around.
Wayans stars as Darryl Witherspoon, a poor (money-less) college student trying to make money in order to pay for school, and to help out his mother and his three siblings. He tries giving blood four times a day, but this proves tiresome. He does various odd jobs about campus, but none of them seem to pay well. Finally, he agrees to be part of an experiment led by Dr. Wheedon (Brad Dourif). The experiment has Darryl injecting glowing green slime into his buttocks (and we get to see this process several times!). The end result allows Darryl's senses to become hyper-alert.
He can read microscopic typing from hundreds of feet away. He can smell non-existent body odor. He can hear the ticking of a watch ten feet away as if it were church bell in his ear. Once he is able to control his senses (and the rectal itching dies down), he finds that his new heightened senses will be particularly useful to win a coveted accounting job for a big company. His primary competitor for the job is the evil Scott Butler (David Spade, who is totally hilarious here), a Rich Boy who gets everything handed to him by his rich father. Along the way, there is the obligatory love affair with a beautiful woman (Tamara Taylor).
I suppose a pretty good word to describe this film is generic. Aside from Wayans, there's nothing much new here. Not that this is necessarily bad: stock-comedies can be enjoyable, even if they aren't very original. As a story, however, Senseless is particularly bad. The screenplay doesn't even ask me to suspend my disbelief (uhhh, so what are the side effects of this miracle drug?), so I didn't feel inclined to take any of it seriously. Was I supposed to? Well, the film itself takes all the moments with Darryl's family extremely seriously. Most dopey comedies like this require that there be serious moments, even if the tone doesn't match the rest of the film.
This is where director Penelope Spheeris comes in. I remember her work on Wayne's World to be pretty good, and here it's certainly not awful. But scenes within the film clash magnificently with the rest of the film, such as all the subplots revolving around Darryl's pierced-up roommate, Tim (Matthew Lillard from Scream). And in one moment, a strange revelation is made about Janice's heritage, and I was very curious as to why. It provides an interesting sequence in which Wayans fondles Rip Torn...and I suspect that this is the sole reason that this plot detail was included.
And that's what Senseless comes down to. This is not the kind of film one can hate--it's just kind of there. There's no objectionable material (well, I suppose there's some toilet humor). Wayans is funny, Spade is funny, and all of the actors are competent, but the story is here for no other reason than to provide a few funny sequences for Wayans to run through. When the film is over--should you decide to see it--take a step away and just think about how phenomenally absurd the entire thing is. Then ask yourself if you cared as you watched the film. When I ask myself that question, I realize that I didn't care too much. I guess it deserves points for that.
>From 0-10: 5
Grade: C
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
