Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

7/10

Starring

Steve Martin

Michael Caine

Glenne Headly

Directed by Frank Oz

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is one movie that takes a while to start, but when it does it just never stops giving.

This comedy film stars Steve Martin, Michael Caine and Glenne Headly all putting up a fantastic performance that will make you marvel on how the movie turns out in the end.

The movie is very funny, but you will have to be patient to get over the quite long forty minutes intro, before the laughter starts and never stops rolling in. The moment Steve Martin rolls in on a wheelchair the movie changes gear to another level.

The movie plot is about two con men who make their wealth by stealing from rich women. One was Lawrence Jameson (Michael Caine) who was a sophisticated British man and comes up with elaborate scams and has more than two supporting staff to make sure the plan is clean and clear. He is more interested in large scams and has become very wealthy in his ways.

The second con man is Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) who is a petty scammer doing small time scams to get food and some change for the day and must keep pulling stunts to survive. He is not as well-mannered or as sophisticated as Lawrence which is why he cannot pull the same kind of scams he does.

Their path crosses and Lawrence not wanting Freddy to scare off the big fish he has his eyes on while he (Freddy) is busy chasing the little fishes. Lawrence decides to keep an eye on Freddy by making him a part of his crew and promising him a percentage.

Lawrence actual game was to get rid of Freddy so the scams he pulled off made Freddy play roles that were stressful and demeaning. After a long stretch of scams, Lawrence refuses to pay Freddy stating that Freddy have no use for money since he has no proper knowledge of how to spend it.

Freddy upset by this leaves Lawrence and decides to continue with his petty scams.

Their paths cross again and they both decided to have a bet on who is best, they picked a lady (Glenne Headly) and decided to pull a scam on her and the person who can get $50,000 from her wins.

Both put their all into their story and scams and at every opportune time put road blocks on each other’s way to make sure the $50,000 is theirs. Unknown to both, there is a third player in this game.

It is a remake of the 1964 movie Bedtime Story, which starred Marlon Brando and David Niven.

The movie was written by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro, and Paul Henning. Stanley Shapiro, and Paul Henning wrote the script for Bedtime Story (1964).

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a cool movie to see to get some laughs into your blood stream.