Eine Nacht bei McCool's (2001)

Eine Nacht bei McCool’s: Directed by Harald Zwart. With Matt Dillon, Mary Jo Smith, Michael Douglas, Paul Reiser. Every man has a different recollection of the beautiful young woman who wreaked havoc on their lives during one heated night.

“One Night At McCoolu0026#39;s:u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI recently began to wonder how long it had been since a movie had really made me laugh. Not just smile, but bust a gut, wipe tears out of my eyes, clutch my side, think Iu0026#39;m going to stop breathing, roar with laughter. Frighteningly enough I realized it had been months. Ever since u0026quot;Thereu0026#39;s Something About Maryu0026quot;, directors and writers have equated super gross-out with funny. However, the recent spate of disastrous u0026quot;comediesu0026quot; – u0026quot;Tomcatsu0026quot; and u0026quot;Freddie Got Fingeredu0026quot; instantly come to mind- have hopefully shown just how wrong this thinking is. Does anyone in Hollywood remember how to make a good comedy? Iu0026#39;m still undecided.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJewel is the kind of woman that every man wishes for: tall, gorgeous, aggressive and a u0026quot;demon in the sacku0026quot;. Unfortunately as the saying goes, if something seems too good to be true… Jewelu0026#39;s charms are backed up by a penchant for philandering, double cross and murder. After one night at a back street dive of a bar, three unlucky men – a bartender, a lawyer and a police officer – learn what itu0026#39;s like to have there prayers and worst nightmares come true when theyu0026#39;re caught up in her whirlwind.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enu0026quot;One Night at McCoolu0026#39;su0026quot; plays like the Japanese classic u0026quot;Rashomonu0026quot; -different people recount their experiences of the same event and weu0026#39;re never quite sure which one to believe. This movie marks the breakout performance of Liv Tyler both literally and figuratively – as Jewel she is practically spilling out of her clothing, and abandons her innocent persona delivering one of the best vixen performances in recent memory. She is positively wicked. Matt Dillon is enjoyable as the pitiable sop who, although his life is destroyed by her conniving, canu0026#39;t seem to let her go. Paul Reiser manages not to be too annoying as a sleazy lawyer, while John Goodman, who seems to be wheezing through his lines, is quite distracting. Michael Douglasu0026#39; turn as a slimy coifed contract killer with an agenda all his own is quite amusing and you want to take a shower every time he is onscreen. Andrew Dice Clay (remember him?) and Reba McEntire round out the cast with decent performances.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAside from the aforementioned movie reference, u0026quot;One Night at McCoolu0026#39;su0026quot; borrows liberally from such classic films as u0026quot;Coolhand Lukeu0026quot; and u0026quot;Falling Downu0026quot;. While I enjoyed these and other manipulations, the movie spends a little too much time trying to be clever and consequently suffers from several noticeable lulls. What I found most disappointing however was the u0026quot;surpriseu0026quot; ending that many people have commented on – although I did laugh at it, the effect would have been much greater if it had not been revealed in the trailers (on the off chance you have not seen them, I will say no more)!! I laughed nonetheless.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e u0026quot;McCoolu0026#39;su0026quot; succeeds largely because it is subtle, well acted and most importantly, funny.”