The Man (2005)

Special Agent Derrick Vann is a man out to get the man who killed his partner but a case of mistaken identity leads him to Andy Fidler, a salesman with too many questions and a knack of getting in Vanns way.

Director:

Les Mayfield

Writers:

Jim Piddock (screenplay), Margaret Oberman (screenplay),

Stars:

Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy, Miguel Ferrer

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Derrick Vann
Eugene Levy	...	Andy Fiddler
Miguel Ferrer	...	Agent Peters
Luke Goss	...	Joey Kane
Susie Essman	...	Lt. Rita Carbone
Anthony Mackie	...	Booty
Gigi Rice	...	Susan
Rachael Crawford	...	Dara Vann
Philip Akin	...	Second I.A. Agent
Christopher Murray	...	Homeless Man
Joel S. Keller	...	Laptop Guy (as Joel Keller)
John Hemphill	...	Ted
Kathryn Greenwood	...	Flight Attendant
Carrie Cain-Sparks	...	Big Kim (as Carrie Cain Sparks)
George Ghali	...	Cab Driver

Storyline

A federal agent turns up dead and a hardcore undercover agent, known as Derrick Vann heads off to try and recover the stolen arms and find the killers. Andy Fiddler is an ordinary family man and a dentist, and is out heading to a conference, when he gets stuck in the same mess. Criminal Kane believes Fiddler is 'The Man' behind it all and offers him a gun. Vann spots him and drags him across town, with him posing as the actual 'Man'.

---

Plot Keywords:

mistaken identity | salesman | criminal | car chase | gun smuggling | 

---

Taglines:

One guy walks the walk. The other talks and talks.

---

Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language, rude dialogue and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

New Line Cinema [us]

Country:

Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 September 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Le boss

Filming Locations:

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$33,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$55,626 (South Africa) (4 November 2005)

Gross:

$132,547 (South Africa) (18 November 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Fried Films, Meradin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A working title for this film was "El Maninator".

---

Goofs

Toronto streetcars are visible in some scenes as well as the streetcar tracks. Detroit does not have streetcars.

---

Quotes

Special Agent Derrick Vann: If you try to run this time, I'll put a bullet in a part of your ass where you're gonna need it.

---

Connections

Spoofs Pulp Fiction (1994)

---

Soundtracks

"Bandy Bandy"
Written by Marie Daulne and Chris McHale
Performed by Zap Mama featuring Erykah Badu
Courtesy of Luaka Bop
Erykah Badu performs courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

All the production values of a Saturday afternoon action serial.

I can't say the movie was a disappointment because I got what I expected from the trailer. I hoped for Jackson to reprise the Jules character from Pulp Fiction but I knew I wouldn't get him. Instead we get someone almost as angry and a whole lot more impotent: he threw tantrums when it's obvious that his bad-ass character would beat Levy. The chemistry between Jackson and Levy never develops, it's a tired combination of the oblivious and irritating (Levy) teamed up with the dead-serious bad-ass (Jackson). The director doesn't know how to take advantage of the two as his gags are poorly set-up. There's an awful lot of lowest-common-denominator stuff in this movie. Once the movie starts to drone on, out comes the fart jokes. In the end, I amused myself by substituting my own dialogue throughout the movie and looking for references to Toronto. That's another disappointment: the movie is set in Detroit and filmed in Toronto but there was minimal effort to actually make the city FEEL like Detroit. Sure, they digitally removed the CN Tower from the city skyline but the unique Toronto streetcars and streetcar tracks, Petro-Canada gas-stations, Royal York Hotel, bilingual signposts, people walking about and NO garbage or graffiti anywhere prove that it is NOT Detroit. They should have at least avoided the skyline completely since it doesn't match Detroit at all, even with the Skydome and CN Tower removed. There you go: a poor to mediocre effort on all levels.