Cheap Double Take (2001) (Video) (George Gallo) Price

For reasons that are still fuzzy even by the time final credits roll for Double Take, Wall Street hotshot Daryl Chase (Orlando Jones), framed for both financial wrongdoings and murder, heads to Mexico after exchanging identities with fast-talking Freddie (Eddie Griffin), who is either the key to his freedom or the engineer of his demise. The incomprehensible and supposedly madcap twists and turns that follow make mindless buddy flicks like Rush Hour seem giants of brainy plotting in comparison. The film even features one of those unintentionally hysterical moments in which the villain stops to explain the entire charade to characters who supposedly already know what's going on--and it still doesn't make any sense. None of this would matter, of course, if everything was propelled by some sort of internal screwball logic that had it playfully bouncing over its plot holes. But writer-director George Gallo can't streamline his potential assets--Jones's suave likeability and Griffin's take-no-prisoners crassness--into something that moves. Some of the throwaway comic asides work ("You keep campaigning for this ass-whuppin', you gonna get elected"), but every single one of the extended bits is painfully strained and overdone. Griffin, in particular, becomes desperately obnoxious, and saddling him with clumsy comments on race and social status in a comedy that is ultimately about neither doesn't help. Try 48 Hours instead. --Steve Wiecking

CATEGORY:	Video
DIRECTOR:	George Gallo
THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE:	12 January, 2001
MANUFACTURER:	Walt Disney Video
MPAA RATING:	PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
FEATURES:	Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
TYPE:	Comedies & Family Ent., Feature Film-comedy, Movie
MEDIA:	VHS Tape
# OF MEDIA:	1
UPC:	786936156829