''Senseless'' is a 1998 American buddy comedy science fiction film directed by Penelope Spheeris and written by Greg Erb and

Craig Mazin Craig Mazin (born 1971) is an American writer, director, and producer. He is best known for creating, writing, and producing the HBO historical disaster drama miniseries ''Chernobyl (miniseries), Chernobyl'' (2019) and co-creating, co-writing, an ...

. The film stars Marlon Wayans and David Spade alongside Matthew Lillard, Brad Dourif, Tamara Taylor, and Rip Torn.

Plot

Darryl Witherspoon ( Marlon Wayans) is an

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

student at Stratford University, who does not have the advantages of his wealthy nemesis, Scott Thorpe ( David Spade), or his best friend Tim LaFlour ( Matthew Lillard), straight edge

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

er who has a hockey

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

. Darryl is so broke he donates four pints of blood in one day (playing a different character each time) and four vials of sperm in one day. Darryl's big break comes when he enters a competition, where the winner gets a high-paying

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

job. But when Scott enters the competition, it seems Darryl's break has gone down the drain. He takes on a high-paying

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

to test a drug that enhances the five senses. Darryl uses it to his advantage and he impresses the competition's supervisor, Mr. Tyson ( Rip Torn) and he even joins the hockey team as a goalie. But after taking an extra dose one night, he experiences

side effect In medicine, a side effect is an effect of the use of a medicinal drug or other treatment, usually adverse but sometimes beneficial, that is unintended. Herbal and traditional medicines also have side effects. A drug or procedure usually use ...

s. The experiment's supervisor, Dr. Thomas Wheedon ( Brad Dourif), tells Darryl only four of his senses will work at a time until the drug leaves his body. As Darryl struggles, Tim thinks that his friend is on

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

and gets worried about him. Darryl's luck then starts going down the drain as he loses the hockey game because his sense of sight is lost. He also mistakenly confesses love to his girlfriend's father who he thinks is his girlfriend as his sense of sight is lost. Her father turns out to be Mr. Tyson. He also acts very clumsily (because of the loss of the ability to see) during the basketball game he is invited to see with a client who needs to be impressed in order for Darryl to score some points with the Smythe-Bates guys. Luckily, the client thinks Darryl is just funny and signs a contract with the company. As the story progresses, Darryl asks his friend Tim to help him study for the next day's interview. At that exact moment, Scott studies for the test with the aid of his rich father's employees. Scott is shown to answer a question correctly but he does not know the reason behind it, he ignores the question. The next day, the drug leaves Darryl's system and now all his five senses operate normally. During the interview, it comes down to Darryl and Scott, Scott is asked the same question he was asked last night, he answers it correctly, but when asked the reason, he does not know, Darryl steps in, gives the correct reason and scores the position of junior analyst at Smythe-Bates. But in his speech, he confesses that he cheated by taking an experimental drug. A meeting is called to decide his fate and Mr. Tyson tells him that he himself started out in the mail room and Darryl should too, if he serves one year duty in the mail room, he will score the position of junior analyst. The story skips a year and Darryl is shown to ask his mom to move into a deluxe apartment. The movie ends with Darryl entering the Smythe-Bates building on his first day, with a familiar-looking doorman ( Sherman Hemsley).

Cast

* Marlon Wayans as Darryl Witherspoon * David Spade as Scott Thorpe * Matthew Lillard as Tim LaFlour * Brad Dourif as Dr. Thomas Wheedon * Tamara Taylor as Janice Tyson * Rip Torn as Randall Tyson * Esther Scott as Denise Witherspoon * Richard McGonagle as Robert Bellwether * Kenya Moore as Lorraine * Vicellous Shannon as Carter *

Ernie Lively Ernie Lively (born Ernest Wilson Brown Jr.; January 29, 1947 – June 3, 2021) was an American actor and acting coach, the adoptive father of actors Lori Lively, Jason Lively, and Robyn Lively, and father of actors Eric Lively and Blake Live ...

as Coach Brandau * Patrick Ewing as Himself * Greg Grunberg as Steve the commentator * Debra Jo Rupp as Fertility clinic attendant * Mark Christopher Lawrence as Wig shop owner * Sherman Hemsley as Smythe-Bates Doorman * John Ingle as Economics professor * Jeanette Goldstein as Nurse Alvarez * Ken Lerner as Dean Barlow * Cee Cee Michaela as Tonya * Orlando Brown as Steve Witherspoon *

Jeff Garlin Jeffrey Garlin (born June 5, 1962) is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for playing List of Curb Your Enthusiasm characters#Jeff Greene, Jeff Greene on the HBO sitcom ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', and Murray ...

as Arlo Vickers *Darrel Heath as Shady guy

Production

''Senseless'' was financed by Dimension Films/

Miramax Miramax, LLC, formerly known as Miramax Films, is an American independent film and television production and distribution company owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount Global. Based in Los Angeles, California, it was founded on December 19, ...

, and was the second movie idea

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

comedy writers

and Greg Erb had successfully pitched, with their first being the 1997 Buena Vista comedy '' RocketMan''. Filming began during June 1997 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Reception

Box office

''Senseless'' opened on February 20, 1998 and, in its opening weekend, made $5,337,651 at #5 behind '' Titanic''s tenth weekend, ''

The Wedding Singer ''The Wedding Singer'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci, written by Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. The film stars Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, and Christine Taylor, and tells th ...

''s second, ''

Sphere A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

''s second, and '' Good Will Hunting''s twelfth.

Critical response

The film received negative reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gave the film an approval rating of 6% based on reviews from 17 critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a score of 36% based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film 2.5 out of 4.

Soundtrack

The ''Senseless'' soundtrack was released February 10, 1998 by Gee Street Records. # " Busy Child" -

The Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in 1993. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, v ...

# "Song for Lindy" -

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of Sampling (music), samples from eclectic ...

# "Absurd" - Fluke # "Together" -

Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...

# "Do You Want to Freak?" - The Freak Brothers # "Unexplained" - Gravediggaz # "Graciosa" - Moby # "Reeferendrum" - Fluke # "Set Back" - Fluke # "Jungle Brother (True Blue)" - Jungle Brothers # "Spacefunk" - Headrillaz # "Perfect for You" - P.M. Dawn # " Atom Bomb" - Fluke # "Look Around My Window" - Ambersunshower # "Mucho Dinero" - Yankee B. # "Smash the State" - Naked Aggression # "Gotta Be...Movin' on Up" - Prince Be of P.M. Dawn featuring Ky-Mani and John Forté

References

External links

* * {{Craig Mazin 1998 films 1990s buddy comedy films 1998 romantic comedy films African-American comedy films American buddy comedy films American independent films American romantic comedy films Dimension Films films Films directed by Penelope Spheeris Films produced by Don Carmody Films set in universities and colleges Mandeville Films films Films produced by David Hoberman 1990s English-language films 1990s American films Films with screenplays by Craig Mazin English-language romantic comedy films English-language buddy comedy films