It's your standard Jerry Lewis directed film. While a great actor and praised by the French for how weird his directing is, Lewis is not a funny director. He's so indulgent, ego driven and dismissive of the audience. The whole thing is an obvious love letter to Dean Martin that remakes the style of the old Martin/Lewis comedies. But people expected an Ocean's 11 spinoff, not Sammy Davis Jr doing a Jerry impression for 3/4ths of the runtime.
For Jerry fans, it is one of his most bizarre and well budgeted films so Lewis makes his directing the star. It's never funny but it is experimental technically. It's dated and somewhat offensive politically: racism is treated as a joke, minorities buffoons, women are ornaments and Lewis, Sammy and Lawford are way too old to try to be hip or youthful. I enjoyed the minor action scenes which were the biggest stretch for Lewis and there is a clever plot in there (not written by Jerry) but it's trashed for long unfunny mugging takes and unoriginal slapstick that slows everything down. Some will find that genius but it's obviously Lewis exploiting the opportunity he was given and loading up on filler rather than thinking hard or saying anything or putting the sauced fun on-set on to the screen.
For Jerry fans, it is one of his most bizarre and well budgeted films so Lewis makes his directing the star. It's never funny but it is experimental technically. It's dated and somewhat offensive politically: racism is treated as a joke, minorities buffoons, women are ornaments and Lewis, Sammy and Lawford are way too old to try to be hip or youthful. I enjoyed the minor action scenes which were the biggest stretch for Lewis and there is a clever plot in there (not written by Jerry) but it's trashed for long unfunny mugging takes and unoriginal slapstick that slows everything down. Some will find that genius but it's obviously Lewis exploiting the opportunity he was given and loading up on filler rather than thinking hard or saying anything or putting the sauced fun on-set on to the screen.