Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector | |
---|---|
Directed by | Trent Cooper |
Written by | Jonathan Bernstein James Greer |
Produced by | Alan C. Blomquist J.P. Williams |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Kim Marks |
Edited by | Gregg Featherman |
Music by | Tim P. Stephen Phillips |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $17 million [1] |
Box office | $15.6 million |
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector is a 2006 American comedy film starring American stand-up comedian Larry the Cable Guy. Larry, a municipal restaurant health inspector, is assigned a new rookie partner after recklessly closing restaurants for code violations, Amy Butlin (Iris Bahr), by his boss, Bart Tatlock (Tom Wilson). Together, Larry and Amy work to solve a series of food poisonings at four-star restaurants.
Larry is a big city health inspector with questionable practices and his own way of doing things. Larry's boss, Bart Tatlock, in an attempt to acquire information on his activities in order to get him fired, assigns Larry a new partner, Amy Butlin, a by-the-book professional who takes the job seriously. She tries to learn the ropes of health inspection while putting up with Larry and his personality as well as getting the information Tatlock needs to get Larry fired.
As Larry and Amy do their job as city health inspection team, a serial criminal is poisoning four-star restaurants. Trying to avert a panic, and keep the matter of the poisonings under control, Tatlock puts his best people on the job, and not Larry. Larry and Amy are called in on one of the poisonings, but Tatlock forbids them from working on such an important case. Larry and Amy continue to inspect lower-profile restaurants, but the mammophilic Mayor Maurice T. Gunn is tricked into assigning Larry and Amy to the more important poison case, much to Larry and Amy's enthusiasm. Larry and Amy go undercover at one of the restaurants, and obtain a tape recording of a conversation between the Mayor Gunn and Chef Leon, in which the chef clarifies Gunn's request that the food being prepared by Chef Leon be poisoned.
Larry and Amy interrupt the mayor during an interview with their evidence, but the mayor explains that Chef Leon was reacting to the mayor's instruction to put French's mustard on the Gunn's chicken piccata, an act that the insulted Chef Leon viewed as a metaphorical act of "poisoning" to his life's work. When Larry speaks to Chef Leon over the phone, Chef Leon corroborates this interpretation. As a result, Tatlock fires Larry.
Despondent, Larry visits his old friend Big Shug, but ends up alienating him as well. Heading over to his romantic interest, Jane's house, Larry sees she and her mother (Lisa Lampanelli) are enjoying a friendly social visit by the mayor. Feeling as if his life has hit rock bottom, Larry resolves to solve the poisoning crimes. He confronts Mayor Gunn, who reveals that Lily Micelli, the owner of Micelli's restaurant, had him make sure that Larry was assigned to the poisonings case. Larry and Amy realize that Micelli did this so to ensure that case was investigated incompetently, as she is the one behind the poisonings. At a taping of the television cook-off show, Top Chef , Larry and Amy expose Micelli's culpability and arrest her, and are vindicated.
In March 2005, Paramount Home Entertainment signed Parallel Entertainment Pictures to a multiyear first-look deal involving six straight-to-DVD programs involving the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, including the in development Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector. [2] Paramount set the film for a March 31 theatrical release in December of 2005, [3] before exchanging the release to Lionsgate in February 2006. [4]
The film earned $15,680,099 at the American box office. [5]
The film was panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 5% based on reviews from 39 critics, with an average of 2.70/10. The website's consensus states: "An aggressively lowbrow vehicle for its titular star, this gross-out comedy fails to "git-r-done."" [6] On Metacritic it has a score of 21% based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "Generally unfavorable reviews". [7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "B+" on an A+ to F scale. [8] Rotten Tomatoes ranked Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector #85 on its "The 100 Worst Reviewed Films of All Time: 2000-2009" list. [9]
Joe Leydon of Variety wrote: "Entirely comfortable as the crude character he has honed in countless stand-up routines and TV appearances, Larry the Cable Guy sustains a level of likeability that enables him to get away with a lot more than he has any right to. But, he remains very much an acquired taste." [10] J. R. Jones of the Chicago Reader wrote: "Though some of his one-liners are pretty good, his shtick can't sustain this dutifully scripted comedy." [11]
The film was nominated for one Golden Raspberry Award, Larry the Cable Guy was nominated in the "Worst Actor" category. [12]
The film was released on DVD on August 8, 2006.[ citation needed ]
Lisa Lampanelli is an American former stand-up comedian, actress, and insult comic.
The Cable Guy is a 1996 American satirical black comedy thriller film directed by Ben Stiller and written by Lou Holtz Jr. It stars Jim Carrey as an eccentric cable installer who becomes overly intrusive in the life of a customer ; Leslie Mann, George Segal, Diane Baker and Jack Black appear in supporting roles. It was released in the United States on June 14, 1996.
The Big Bounce is a 2004 American comedy heist film starring Owen Wilson, Charlie Sheen, Sara Foster and Morgan Freeman. It was directed by George Armitage and based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. Leonard's novel had previously been adapted for the big screen in a 1969 film of the same name directed by Alex March and starring Ryan O'Neal.
It's Pat is a 1994 American slapstick comedy film directed by Adam Bernstein and starring Julia Sweeney, Dave Foley, Charles Rocket, and Kathy Griffin. The film was based on the Saturday Night Live (SNL) character Pat, created by Sweeney, an androgynous misfit whose gender is never revealed. Dave Foley plays Pat's partner Chris, and Charles Rocket, another SNL alumnus, plays Pat's neighbor Kyle.
Inspector Gadget 2 is a 2003 American superhero comedy film released direct-to-video on VHS and DVD on March 11, 2003 as a standalone sequel to the 1999 film Inspector Gadget. It was based on the 1983 cartoon series created by DIC Entertainment.
Krippendorf's Tribe is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Todd Holland and based on Frank Parkin's 1985 novel of the same name. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman, Natasha Lyonne, and Lily Tomlin. Its plot follows Professor James Krippendorf (Dreyfuss), an anthropologist who, with the help of his three children, creates a fictitious lost New Guinea tribe to cover up his misuse of grant money.
House Arrest is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Harry Winer, written by Michael Hitchcock, and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Pollak, Jennifer Tilly, Christopher McDonald, Wallace Shawn, and Ray Walston with supporting roles done by Kyle Howard, Amy Sakasitz, Mooky Arizona, Russel Harper, and an up-and-coming Jennifer Love Hewitt. It tells the story of two children who lock their parents in the basement upon their plans for a separation as the other children they know get involved by locking their respective problem parents in there as well.
Delta Farce is a 2007 American war comedy film directed by C. B. Harding and stars Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, DJ Qualls and Danny Trejo. The first film after the Blue Collar Comedy Tour concert films to star both Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy, the title is a play on the Delta Force, one of the United States Army's elite special operations units alongside the Army Rangers and the Green Berets.
Witless Protection is a 2008, American crime comedy film written, and directed by Charles Robert Carner, and starring Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy. Distributed by Lionsgate, the film was theatrically released on February 22, 2008, to extremely negative reviews and commercial failure, grossing $4.1 million. It was the final film appearance of Yaphet Kotto before his retirement later that year from acting, and his death in 2021.
Bitter Feast is a 2010 American psychological horror film directed and written by Joe Maggio. It stars James LeGros as a chef pushed over the edge by food critic J.T. Franks' vicious review. The film also features actors Larry Fessenden, Megan Hilty, and a cameo from real life master chef Mario Batali.
Love's Kitchen is a 2011 British romantic comedy film directed by James Hacking and starring Dougray Scott, Claire Forlani, Michelle Ryan, and featured celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in his first acting role. Hacking also wrote the script for the film, and it was the director's first feature-length film. It received a limited theatrical release in the UK, taking £121 on its opening weekend from five screens. It was released direct to DVD in the United States. Film critics gave it mostly negative reviews, and the film received a score of 19% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Derailroaded: Inside The Mind Of Wild Man Fischer is a 2005 documentary film, directed by Josh Rubin and Jeremy Lubin, aka The Ubin Twinz about outsider artist Wild Man Fischer.
Chef is a 2014 American road comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Jon Favreau, who also stars in the film as a celebrity chef who loses his job at a popular Los Angeles restaurant following a public altercation with a food critic and begins to operate a food truck with his friends and his young son. It co-stars Sofía Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Amy Sedaris, and Dustin Hoffman, along with Robert Downey Jr. in a cameo role.
Papa: Hemingway in Cuba is a 2015 Canadian-American biographical film. It was written by Denne Bart Petitclerc, and directed by Bob Yari. The film is based on events from Ernest Hemingway's life in Havana, Cuba in the 1950s, and on a friendship that developed there between Hemingway and Petitclerc, who was then a young journalist. The film received generally unfavorable reviews.
Gridlocked is a 2015 Canadian action thriller film directed by Allan Ungar and co-written by Ungar and Rob Robol. It had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 26, 2015, and stars Dominic Purcell, Stephen Lang, Danny Glover, Trish Stratus, and Saul Rubinek. The film was purchased by Netflix and became available worldwide on July 14, 2016.
Christmas Eve is a 2015 American Christmas comedy film, directed by Mitch Davis, written by Davis and Tyler McKellar, and produced by Davis and Larry King. The film features a large ensemble cast led by Patrick Stewart, James Roday, Julianna Guill, Jon Heder, Cheryl Hines, and Gary Cole.
3 Days with Dad is a 2019 American comedy film written and directed by Larry Clarke and starring Clarke, Tom Arnold, Julie Ann Emery, Mo Gaffney, Jon Gries, Eric Edelstein, J. K. Simmons, Lesley Ann Warren and Brian Dennehy.
Boiling Point is a 2021 British drama film directed by Philip Barantini and written by Barantini and James Cummings, based on a 2019 short film of the same name. It stars Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Ray Panthaki, and Hannah Walters. It is a one-shot film set in a restaurant kitchen. It is an expansion of a 2019 short film of the same name, also directed by Barantini and starring Graham. It was originally planned to record eight takes of the film, but it was only possible to film half of these before a COVID-19 lockdown led to the end of the shoot.
Hunger is a 2023 Thai drama film directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri and written by Kongdej Jaturanrasamee. It stars Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying as Aoy, a street-food cook who is invited to join the fine-dining industry under the tutelage of the infamous Chef Paul, played by Nopachai Jayanama, with Gunn Svasti as Tone, a supportive sous chef. The film was announced by Netflix in 2022 as one of its six upcoming Thai original productions, and was released on the platform in April 2023. The film received mostly positive reviews.
Bob Funk is a 2009 American comedy drama film written and directed by Craig Carlisle and starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Grace Zabriskie and Amy Ryan.