| | | He'll Have to Kick Some Butt to Save His Own.
Features: DVD
In this hilarious and outrageous martial arts comedy, Rob Schneider stars as Stan Minton, a two bit con man that is found guilty of cheating mostly elderly women out of their retirement savings on fraudulent vacation properties. With the help of his crooked lawyer, Lew Popper (M. Emmet Walsh), Stan is able to postpone his jail sentence for six months in order to tidy up his affairs. Stan quickly goes into a depression that not even his gorgeous and bubbly wife, Mindy (Jennifer Morrison), can pull him out of. However, when Stan receives news from an ex-prison inmate that his frail and weak body will be targeted and "loved" by all of the large men in jail, Stan realized his "tender parts" are on the line and, as a last ditch effort, he enlists the help of a mysterious martial arts guru know only as The Master (David Carradine).Over the course of the remaining months, The Master transforms Stan into a lean and mean fighting machine much to the dismay of Mindy, who cannot see past The Master's other "abilities," such as eating Scorpions at the dinner table and smoking a hundred cigarettes a day. Stan is finally shipped off to jail, and he soon realizes that prison is not at all like he imagined, it's worse! Thankfully Stan has been trained well and he soon brings the warring gangs together and establishes peace inside the prison walls. This is much to the disgust of the prison's Warden Gasque (Scott Wilson), who has been hatching an evil plan to shut the prison down and sell off the land to a Vietnamese development company that he just so happens to be a silent partner in. Gasque offers Stan a deal that will get him out of prison far ahead of schedule if he'll help him with his diabolical plan. With the clock ticking, Stan must decide between his own freedom and protecting the lives of the inmates that he has grown to respect.
"[Schneider's] best flick since "The Hot Chick"...["Big Stan" is] a cross between "The Longest Yard", "Stir Crazy" and "Lock Up"..." Clint Morris, MovieHole
"Schneider is always good as the schlub...[and he's] supported ably by David Carradine, who turns in his best performance in years..." Johnny Web, Movie House Commentary
Editor's Note
DEUCE BIGELOW star Rob Schneider ventures behind the camera for the first time for this comedy. Schneider also plays Stan, a convicted criminal who is headed for prison. In an effort to stay safe during his time behind bars, Stan goes to a martial arts expert (KILL BILL's David Carradine) to improve his fighting skills. Jennifer Morrison (HOUSE) costars.
| Features | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: HBO |
| Release Date: 9/8/2009 |
| Catalog ID: 1000045010 | | UPC: 00883929046959 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | A Nutshell Review 6 of 10
The only other movie I remember vividly with the protagonist fearing his upcoming time spent in jail, was in Spike Lee's powerful drama 25th Hour, where we follow Edward Norton's character in his final day of freedom before being sent to the slammer. In Big Stan, Rob Schneider's crooked time-share conman Stan got arrested in the opening minutes for fraud (and you might think it's for racism), and spends much of the first act mulling over the fear of getting raped in jail, for not being part of any gang, and a first timer wussy who's easy target for the lonely tough guys behind bars...If you're looking for end to end laughter, then you're likely to be bored once Stan becomes head honcho in getting some respect in jail. With that out of the way, the movie degenerated into series of cliches, and the usual nasty warden with nasty plan routines. It didn't help that supporting characters here were stereotyped into playing stereotypes, conveniently split into the different cliques and clans...Directed by Rob Schneider himself, his films to date has somewhat been of a hit and miss for me. Lending his prowess to supporting roles like in You Don't Mess With The Zohan and Click, I thought he usually fared better in those, unlike having to carry the movie solely on his own, ala Deuce Bigelow and The Benchwarmers. What I found out unfortunately is that they usually start off strongly with quite a unique premise ripe for the cracking of some insane jokes, before fizzling out halfway and coasts through some predictable drama to the finale...Still, some laughs are better than none at all, so if you really feel that you need some light hearted medicine, then you'll find some joy in the beginning, but that's all.
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