The Master of Disguise

''The Master of Disguise'' is a 2002 American adventure comedy film directed by Perry Andelin Blake in his directorial debut, written by Dana Carvey and Harris Goldberg, and starring Carvey, Brent Spiner, Jennifer Esposito, Harold Gould and James Brolin. The film was produced by Carvey's fellow ''Saturday Night Live'' alumnus, Adam Sandler, through his Happy Madison production company. It tells the story of a man who is trained to become a "Master of Disguise" by his grandfather when a master criminal kidnaps his parents.

The film grossed $43.4 million on a $16 million budget but was panned by critics, having a 1% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics have called it one of the worst movies ever made.

Plot

In 1979 Palermo, Italy, Fabbrizio Disguisey, the latest in a long line of secret agents known as "Masters of Disguise", breaks up a smuggling ring run by the evil Devlin Bowman while disguised as Bo Derek. Not wanting his infant son Pistachio to receive the same dangerous future lifestyle as he and his lineage, Fabbrizio decides to keep his family's nature a secret.

Twenty-three years later, Fabbrizio runs an Italian restaurant in an unnamed town in America with his wife and son Pistachio. Released from prison three years earlier, Bowman and his henchmen kidnap Fabbrizio and his wife, forcing Fabbrizio to use his talents to steal legendary artifacts around the world to reestablish Bowman's smuggling ring. After Fabbrizio's disappearance, Pistachio is visited by his grandfather, who reveals Pistachio's heritage and begins training him.

Pistachio gets the basics down and his grandfather gets him an assistant, Jennifer Baker, who is a little confused about what the job entails. The two find one of Bowman's cigars in the alley where his parents were kidnapped which leads them to the Turtle Club where it was made and they learn of Bowman's scheme, as well as that he will be at an antiques fair the next day.

Pistachio and Jennifer go to the fair, with Pistachio disguised as an elderly woman. Bowman invites Jennifer to a party at his house. Pistachio goes to the party in disguise and distracts Bowman while Jennifer looks for clues.

That night, Pistachio and Jennifer look through the clues. Bowman's men kidnap Jennifer, so Pistachio talks to his grandfather via a crystal ball and comes up with a scheme to break into Bowman's lair to rescue Jennifer and his parents. They confront Bowman who has attached a mask of his face to Fabbrizio's head. While the real Bowman escapes, Pistachio fights his father, who is brainwashed to think he is Bowman.

In the end, Pistachio helps his father snap out of his trance, and they free Pistachio's mother and return the artifacts. Pistachio marries Jennifer and becomes an official Master of Disguise. However, they eventually realize that Bowman still got away and has the United States Constitution with him. The Disguiseys locate Bowman in Costa Rica, defeat him in their disguises, and retrieve the Constitution.

Cast

Appearing as themselves

* Kenan Thompson
* Bo Derek
* Michael Johnson
* Jessica Simpson
* Jesse Ventura (uncredited)

Production

There is a longstanding rumor that the filming of the scene in the Turtle Club took place on September 11, 2001, causing production to stop and observe a moment of silence during the terrorist attacks. The rumor includes that Carvey was in the full turtle outfit and makeup during the solemn moment. The rumor is believed to have stemmed from a piece of trivia on the movie's IMDb page, a section that includes user-generated content and is not subject to rigorous fact-checking. A ''Defector Media'' interview with director Perry Blake confirmed that a moment of silence for the victims of the attack was held and that Carvey was in the turtle outfit during the moment of silence, but that the moment took place a few weeks after the attacks. The morning of 9/11, the movie was still in pre-production, and filming was scheduled to begin in a couple weeks.

Release

''The Master of Disguise'' was granted a PG certificate by the British Board of Film Classification for "mild language and mild comic violence". To obtain the PG certificate, seven seconds of material was cut, the reasons being "dangerous imitable technique, a series of head butts".

Box office

The film opened in Australia on July 31, 2002, in the United States on August 2, 2002, and in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2003 in 2,565 theaters and earned $12,554,650 in the domestic box office, ranking third for the weekend, behind '' Signs'' and the second weekend of ''Austin Powers in Goldmember''. The film closed on November 28, 2002, having grossed $40,388,794 domestically and $3,022,207 internationally for a worldwide total of $43,411,001. When the film was released in the United Kingdom, it originally opened at #14, before falling out of the charts completely by the next weekend.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film as the 18th worst of the 2000s. It has a 1% rating based on 104 reviews and a 2.60/10 average. Its consensus reads: "An ill conceived attempt to utilize Dana Carvey's talent for mimicry, ''The Master of Disguise'' is an irritating, witless farce weighted down by sophomoric gags." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 12 out of 100 based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert, awarding the film a rating of one star out of four, reserved some praise for director Perry Andelin Blake's production design, as well as for Carvey's imitative abilities, but saw the overall movie as being "like a party guest who thinks he is funny and is wrong". Ebert also noted that the film is only 65 minutes long, but includes 15 minutes of credit cookies in order to qualify as a feature presentation. Jamie Russell at the BBC
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