''Simon Sez'' is a 1999

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

starring

Dennis Rodman Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. Known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities, his biography on the official NBA website states that he is "arguably the best rebounding ...

Dane Cook Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He has released six comedy albums: ''Harmful If Swallowed''; ''Retaliation''; '' Vicious Circle''; '' Rough Around the Edges: Live from Madison Square Garde ...

, and

John Pinette John Paul Pinette ( ) (March 23, 1964 – April 5, 2014) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and Broadway performer. He toured the comedy club circuit beginning in the 1980s and appeared in cinema and on television. Besides stand-up, Pinet ...

. The film was directed by Kevin Alyn Elders, and the score was composed by

Brian Tyler Brian Theodore Tyler (born May 8, 1972) is an American composer, conductor, arranger, and record producer, best known for his film, television, and video game scores. In his 24-year career, Tyler has scored '' Transformers: Prime'', ''Eagle ...

. The film received extremely negative reviews and became a

box office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

Premise

Interpol agent Simon goes on a mission in France to save a kidnapped girl and defeat an arms dealer.

Cast

as Simon. *

as Nick Miranda. *

as Micro, a fellow cyber-monk *

Ricky Harris Richard George Harris II (October 5, 1965 – December 26, 2016) was an American producer, actor, and comedian. He was known for his role as Malvo in the UPN/The CW sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris''. Life and career Harris played his first movi ...

as Macro, a fellow cyber-monk *

Filip Nikolic Filip Nikolic ( Serbian: Филип Николић, ''Filip Nikolić''; 1 September 1974 – 16 September 2009) was a French actor and singer of Serbian extraction, best known as the lead of the French boy-band 2Be3. Born at Saint-Ouen, Seine-S ...

as Michael Gabrielli *

Natalia Cigliuti Natalia Cigliuti (born September 6, 1978) is a Uruguayan- American actress, best known for her roles as Lindsay Warner on '' Saved by the Bell: The New Class'' and as Anita Santos Warner on '' All My Children''. Career Cigliuti was born in M ...

as Claire Fence * Emma Wiklund as The Dancer *

Jérôme Pradon Jérôme Pradon (born 3 June 1964) is a French actor and singer who has performed in the West End, in Paris and in various other places around the world. He was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Theatre In 1991, Pradon ...

as Ashton * Xiong Xin Xin as Xin Xin

Production

On June 18, 1998, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' reported that Rodman had entered into an agreement with

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

to star in an action film, yet to be titled. ''Variety'' characterized the deal as a "byproduct of the 998lockout by

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

owners," as the work stoppage had temporarily put on hold Rodman's commitments to the league. Originally,

Ringo Lam Ringo Lam Ling-Tung (, Cantonese: Lam Ling-tung, 8 December 1955 – 29 December 2018) was a Hong Kong film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Hong Kong in 1955, Lam initially went to acting school. After finding he preferred making f ...

was set to direct along with Elders, with Lam, Moshe Diamont, and Dwight Manley producing. Ultimately, however, only Elders was credited as director, and only Lam and Diamont as producers.

Release

The film was released in 1999, opening in Los Angeles on September 24 and then in New York on September 25. The film grossed a total of $292,152 on a $10 million budget, making the film a

Reception

''Simon Sez'' has a 0% rating on review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 1.85 out of 10. The website's consensus reads, "''Simon Sez'' no matter how starved you are for something to watch, there has to be a better option than this dreadfully misguided action thriller." Writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Lawrence Van Gelder Lawrence Ralph Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor in journalism who worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Ar ...

gave a scathing review of the movie, stating that "its plot seems as if it had been fished out of the wastebaskets of writers who have written scores of better examples of the genre dating at least as far back as '' Dr. No'' in 1962", though he did find Rodman "inescapably watchable". ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' gave the film a D− rating, calling it "a shoddy mess" and "a bargain-basement rip-off of '' Ronin''," and adding that Rodman was "yesterday's threatening omni-sexual exhibitionist turned today’s overexposed cliché."

References

External links

* 1999 films 1999 action thriller films American action thriller films Films scored by Brian Tyler 1990s English-language films 1990s American films {{action-thriller-film-stub