''Simon Sez'' is a 1999 action film 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, 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, Pine ...

. The film was directed by

Kevin Alyn Elders Kevin Alyn Elders is an American writer, film director, and producer whose work includes novels and screenplays for film and television. Career Elders began his career in the 1980s as a screenwriter based in Southern California. In the length ...

, and the score was composed by Brian Tyler. 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. * Dane Cook as Nick Miranda. *

as Micro, a fellow cyber-monk * Ricky Harris as Macro, a fellow cyber-monk * Filip Nikolic as Michael Gabrielli * Natalia Cigliuti as Claire Fence *

Emma Wiklund Emma Wiklund (née Sjöberg; 13 September 1968) is a Sweden, Swedish fashion model and actress. She appeared on several covers of ''Elle (magazine), Elle'' magazine and in the 1992 George Michael music video for "Too Funky". Her acting roles ...

as The Dancer * Jérôme Pradon as Ashton *

Xiong Xin Xin Hung Yan-yan (born 25 February 1965, also credited as 熊欣欣 or Xiong Xin Xin) is a Hong Kong martial artist, actor, stuntman and action director originally from Liuzhou, Guangxi, China. He was the stunt double for martial arts superstar Jet L ...

as Xin Xin

Production

On June 18, 1998, '' Variety'' 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 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 ...

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 Wan ...

, 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 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 cult ...

'' 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