March 30, 2001
By Veronica Mixon
A group of buddies make a bet that the last
man to get married will win a pot of gold. Seven
years later, the yearly investment has ballooned
to half a million dollars and that cash could
save Michael Delaney's life. You see, Michael
(Jerry O'Connell) owes a Las Vegas casino owner
a lot of money and he has vowed to get paid by
any means necessary.
Meanwhile, most of the group have married with
the exception of Michael and confirmed womanizer,
Kyle (Jake Busey). Kyle is not only rich but he
runs through women like Kleenex. Nevertheless,
he confides that only one woman has ever touched
his heart - Natalie (Shannon Elizabeth), a bridesmaid
at the wedding of buddy, Steve (Horatio Sanz)
and his luscious bride, Tricia (Jaime Pressly).
Naturally, Michael sets out to convince Natalie,
a LA cop, to reprise her romance with Kyle. She
does so only with the promise of half the loot
and a chance for revenge.
Tomcats is so vile that you laugh because
you're outraged. The film is openly misogynistic
with horrific scenes like Kyle running over his
date with his golf cart for laughs. Kyle's behavior
is so reprehensible that you want to kill him.
Ok, not kill him but I didn't find his behavior
funny in the least bit! Young Jake Busey, so far,
has a long, long way to go before he begins to
gain any respect for his acting.
Other plotlines include Steve chases his horny
lesbian wife around until she invites him to join
her with their maid and his assistant nurse. And,
there is a strait-laced librarian who turns into
a dominatrix and is assisted by her grandmother.
But, the worst joke had Jerry O'Connell actually
chasing a cancerous testicle around the halls
of a hospital. Of course, it ends up on someone's
plate in the lunchroom. I had to close my eyes
because I was gagging at this ridiculous gag!
O'Connell has done some decent work in Mission
to Mars and Scream 2, but he'd better
watch out - a few more comedies like this and
he'll be lucky if he can work in television!
Writer/director, Gregory Poirer ("Gossip") is
responsible for this awful movie but the Farrelly
Brothers are definitely the inspiration. I'm surprised
that Poirer bothered to let Michael fall in love
with Natalie because she's the only normal woman
in the film. All of the other women are stereotypes
who populate the fantasies of this group of geeks.
Tomcats is a total waste of time!
