My Giant (1998)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Michael Lehmann

Writers (WGA):

Billy Crystal (story) and
David Seltzer (story) ...

Release Date:

10 April 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

A comedy of incredible proportions.

Plot:

Billy Crystal plays a Hollywood agent who stumbles upon Max, a giant living in Romania, and tries to get him into the movies.

Plot Keywords:

Giant | Romania | Monastery | Movie Agent | Monk

Cast

Billy Crystal	...	Sam 'Sammy' Kamin
Kathleen Quinlan	...	Serena Kamin
Gheorghe Muresan	...	Max Zamphirescu
Joanna Pacula	...	Lilliana Rotaru
Zane Carney	...	Nick 'Nicky' Kamin
Jere Burns	...	Weller, the Movie Director
Harold Gould	...	Milt Kaminski
Dan Castellaneta	...	Partlow
Raymond O'Connor	...	Eddie
Rider Strong	...	Justin Allen
Doris Roberts	...	Rose Kaminski
Carl Ballantine	...	Rabbi
Eric Lloyd	...	Young Sammy
Jay Black	...	Jay
Lorna Luft	...	Joanne

MPAA:

Rated PG for language, mild violence and brief crude humor.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Romanian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Australia:PG | Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12 (video premiere) | UK:PG | USA:PG | Norway:11 | Argentina:Atp | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Czech Republic

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

Billy Crystal was inspired to write this film from having worked with 'Andre The Giant' in the The Princess Bride (1987).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Sam and Max are at the bus station to get tickets to Las Vegas and argue over where to go, they leave the ticket office to make a call but never buy the ticket. In the next scene they are on the bus.

Quotes:

Sam Kamin: That's my job. I find people to be in movies.
Max Zamphirescu: They pay for this? That's so stupid!
Sam Kamin: You've been talking to my father, haven't you!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gorgo (#10.9)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

What I Did for Love

You should know something is wrong when a Steven Seagal cameo is the high point of a movie

Acting agent Sammy Kamin travels to Romania to see his one (and only) client on the set of a low budget American film. When he is fired by the actor he drives off in a rage and crashes his car only to be saved by a Romanian shepherd and taken to a monastery. When he sees his saviour is 7ft10" tall he realises the potential and gets him a job on the local movie. Together the pair set out for America – Max wanting to find the only girl ever to care for him (25 years ago) and Sammy eyeing a key part for Max as a bad guy in the new Steven Seagal movie.

I love Billy Crystal. When he is on form he is very funny and can make even average romantic comedies worth watching. He alone makes it worth sitting through an overlong Oscar ceremony when he comperes it. However this film is beyond his saving grasp as it is simply just not funny enough. The plot (and humour) is basically `oh look- here's a really tall guy'. The worst thing is that it then goes into cloying sentimentality every five minutes as Sammy learns to love again through the spirit of his gentle giant. And up comes the music that every Crystal film seems to use for `touching' moments.

At the start of the film is a scene where Sammy as a child shows his ability of persuasion by sitting down to a roast pig dinner with a rabbi. This I laughed at but that was the last time (only 100 more minutes to go!) because most of the film is just amusing and any rare good lines are lost in a sea of middling humour. A cameo by Seagal is quite good but not as funny as it could have been if he'd made more fun of himself. Even Crystal's dialogue (usually an oasis in the sea of sentimentality) is poor.

He doesn't do a good job at all here and, although he is playing his usual character, it's difficult to care less what happens to him or why. Muresan is an average basketball player who is good as a bench player but not as a starter. I saw him play in San Antonio when he was with Washington Bullets (as was) and was surprised at how slow and uncoordinated he was on court. On the screen he has the same qualities – awkward, ungainly etc. He makes a sympathetic character so it's not all bad but it doesn't seem to come naturally for him. The two don't have much chemistry and you wonder if there was much onset banter between them once Crystal had used up all his NBA questions. The rest of the cast are Ok and there's a few well known faces in there but Seagal is probably the best bit of casting in the film and he is amusing if not funny.

Overall this is a pretty average film that is just about passable but certainly not funny or enjoyable. There are a few laughs and the rest of the film either falls into fake, cloying sentimentality or just goes for laughs by having the big and the small man beside each other. I love Crystal even in poor films but I won't be watching My Giant again unless I'm tied to a chair a la `Clockwork Orange'.