''Longshot'' is a 2001 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Lionel C. Martin, and co-written by

Lou Pearlman Louis Jay Pearlman (June 19, 1954 – August 19, 2016) was an American music manager and scam artist. He was the person behind many successful 1990s boy bands, having formed and funded the Backstreet Boys. After their massive success, he then dev ...

, as a promotional tool to promote the acting debuts of his succession of successful boybands and girl groups, such as

NSYNC NSYNC ( ; also stylized as *NSYNC or N Sync) was an American vocal group and pop boy band formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich. The group consists of Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez, ...

O-Town O-Town is an American boy band formed from the first season of the reality television series '' Making the Band'' in 2000. As of 2015, the group consists of Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor Penick, Jacob Underwood, and Dan Miller. The original lin ...

and

Natural Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...

, as well as singer

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...

, girlband

Innosense Innosense was an American girl group that were active from 1997 to 2003. History 1997–1999: Formation and "Wherever You Are" The band was managed by Lou Pearlman and Janet Lynn Harless (mother of Justin Timberlake). The original members were ...

and pop-hip hop trio LFO, all of whom had cameo appearances in the film, as Pearlman had worked with all of them during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hunter Tylo,

Paul Sorvino Paul Anthony Sorvino (, ; April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022) was an American actor. He often portrayed authority figures on both the criminal and the law enforcement sides of the law. Sorvino was particularly known for his roles as Lucchese cri ...

Antonio Sabato Jr.,

Zachery Ty Bryan Zachery Tyler Bryan (born October 9, 1981) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for his role as Brad Taylor on the ABC sitcom ''Home Improvement''. He also appeared in the films '' First Kid'' and '' The Fast and the Furiou ...

, and

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (born Kenneth Donald Rogers) (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particul ...

star in the film and Spears has a cameo. The plot recounts the tale of a young boy, Alex Taylor, who gets caught up in his brother's activities as a gigolo, and uses each of the said pop acts as a tool within the film.

Plot

Alex Taylor lives 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, ...

with his older brother, Jack, who works as a personal fitness trainer and sometime gigolo. Alex's classmates begin to harass him after he misses the game-winning shot at the end of one of his

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

games. Meanwhile, Laszlo Pryce, a rich and corrupt businessman, discovers Jack's affair with his wife (Mitzi Martin). Laszlo threatens to kill Jack and Alex unless Jack travels to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to seduce a widow named Rachel Montgomery. On the verge of selling her company, Laszlo wants Jack to relay any inside information he can discover about the impending transaction. Fearing for his younger brother's life, Jack brings Alex with him on the trip. The con begins to unravel when Rachel and Jack fall for each other while Alex similarly falls for Rachel's daughter, Kelly. Jack reveals to Rachel why he's in New York, and the two conspire to expose Pryce. Rachel, though, needs to raise two million dollars to save her company. In a stroke of luck, Alex wins a contest to shoot a halftime, half-court shot. He makes it, Rachel keeps her company, Laszlo is arrested, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Cast

* Tony DeCamillis as Jack Taylor * Hunter Tylo as Rachel Montgomery * Joey Sculthorpe as Alex Taylor *

as Laszlo Pryce * Antonio Sabato Jr. as Tommy Sutton *

Jessica Wesson Jessica Wesson is an American former child actor. She is best known for her recurring role as Jennifer Sudarsky, Brad's (Zachery Ty Bryan) first girlfriend on the sitcom ''Home Improvement'', and having supporting roles in the Universal films '' ...

as Kelly Montgomery * Tara Davis as Vicky Thompson *

Gilbert Gottfried Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, best-known for his exaggerated shrill voice, strong New York dialect, his squint, and his edgy, often-controversial, sense of humor. Hi ...

as Mr. Chadwick *

Ellen Albertini Dow Ellen Rose Albertini Dow (November 16, 1913 – May 4, 2015) was an American film and television character actress and drama coach. She portrayed feisty old ladies and is best known as the rapping grandmother Rosie in ''The Wedding Singer'' (1 ...

as Mrs. Fleisher *

as Deke * Danielle Fishel as Gloria * Jeremy Wieand as Chip * Louis J. Pearlman as Captain Lewis * Mitzi Martin as Mrs. Pryce * Colin Bain as Hundel *

as Flight Attendant *

as Pilot * Harry "K.C." Wayne Casey as Co-Pilot * Darrin Dewitt Henson as Male Flight Attendant *

Dwayne Johnson Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on a part-time basis. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional w ...

as The Mugger *

* LFO *

* Take 5 * C-Note * Kevin Eubanks as Jazz Club Performer *

Marvin "Smitty" Smith Marvin "Smitty" Smith (born June 24, 1961) is an American jazz drummer and composer. Marvin Smith was born in Waukegan, Illinois, where his father, Marvin Sr., was a drummer. "Smitty" was exposed to music at a young age, receiving formal musical ...

as Jazz Club Performer * Charnett Moffett as Jazz Club Performer *

Full Force Full Force is an American music group of hip hop and R&B singers, songwriters and producers from Brooklyn, New York. Members *B-Fine (Brian George) – drums and drum programming, backing vocals *Shy Shy (Hugh Junior Clark) – bass guita ...

* Michael Tylo as CEO *

Dustin Diamond Dustin Neil Diamond (January 7, 1977 – February 1, 2021) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is best known for portraying Samuel "Screech" Powers throughout the '' Saved by the Bell'' franchise. Early life and family Diamond was ...

as Waiter *

Jermaine Jackson Jermaine LaJuane Jacksun (né Jackson; born December 11, 1954) is an American singer, songwriter and bassist. He is known for being a member of the Jackson family. From 1964 to 1975, Jermaine was second vocalist after his brother Michael of the ...

as himself *

Kelly Rutherford Kelly Rutherford (born November 6, 1968) is an American actress. She is known for her television roles as Stephanie "Sam" Whitmore on the NBC daytime soap opera '' Generations'' (1989–1991), as Megan Lewis on the Fox primetime soap opera '' ...

as herself * Traci Bingham as herself * Lark Voorhies as herself * Marc Piacenza as himself * Mark Breland as himself *

Art Garfunkel Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, actor and poet who is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, Garfunkel became acquainte ...

as himself * Kim Garfunkel as herself * James Garfunkel as himself * Stacey Murray as herself *

Jerod Mixon Jerod Mixon (born May 24, 1981) is an American actor, comedian, producer and writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotion ...

as himself *

Jamal Mixon Jamal Mixon (born June 17, 1983) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Ernie Klump Jr. in the film ''The Nutty Professor (1996 film), The Nutty Professor'', and its sequel, ''Nutty Professor II: The Klumps''. He is the younger ...

as himself * Yolanda "Yo-Yo" Whittaker as herself *

Chick Hearn Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (November 27, 1916 – August 5, 2002) was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association for 41 years, as well as the team's assistant ge ...

as Announcer * Robert "Kool" Bell as Announcer * JoJo Wright as Announcer * Cubby Bryant as Stock Reporter *

Brett Rice James Brett Rice (born April 20, 1954) is an American film, television, and theater actor. He is perhaps known for his roles in the films ''Forrest Gump'' (1994), ''Remember the Titans'' (2000), ''Monster'' (2003), '' Super 8'' (2011), ''Foxcatc ...

as Older Valet * Lynn Harless as Country Club Patron * Ron Yuan as Friend #4 * Carrie Stevens as Waitress * Joel Redlin as

Chippendales Chippendales is a touring dance troupe best known for its male striptease performances and for its dancers' distinctive upper body costume of a bow tie, collar, and shirt cuffs worn on an otherwise bare torso with jeans and undergarment. Est ...

Usher *

as Captain Lewis

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the film was released on March 5, 2002, via Transcontinental Records. The album features brand new recordings from

and

especially for the film. # "Feel the Love" -

# "Me (Boom Shelak, Lak, Boom)" - LFO # "See You Again" -

# " Put Your Arms Around Me" -

# "Let's Get this Party Started" - Take 5 # "Wishing on Every Star" -

# "So Often" - C-Note # "It Don't Bother Me" - Brizz # "She's a Mystery" - Becker # "In and Out" - Ali Dee # "I Just Wanna (Be with You)" - Bon Voyage # "Happy" - Keli Michaels # "Fall in Love" - Nichole Carter # "A Reason to Love Me" - Joey Sculthorpe # "Longshot Theme" -

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...

# "Longshot Theme" (Remix) -

* "Comatose" and "All Around" - Jaymeer were used in the chase scene.

Production

About one-third of the film was service-produced in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, which doubled up as

within the film, under contract with The Danforth Studios Ltd, a subsidiary of SpaceWorks Entertainment Inc. The film was a complete commercial failure, taking in nowhere near the $20 million it cost to film at the box office. The film was also panned by critics, who claimed that many of the pop acts who appeared in the film later claimed to have only appeared due to the amount of pay they would receive for a cameo appearance. Earlier on, the film was known as ''Jack of All Trades''.

Reception

Release

''Longshot'' was released in theatres on October 25, 2001 in Germany, where all of Pearlman's boybands had enjoyed success long before their international debuts. It was never released to theaters in United States, instead being shown on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

as a television movie, and later released on March 26, 2002 on video and DVD as a home entertainment release. The film was also packaged with copies of '' Crossroads'', a film which starred Spears, in selected FYE stores in the United States. The film was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on March 26, 2002, by Spartan Home Entertainment. The soundtrack was released in March 2002.

References

Notes

# Members of

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

as Valet, Joseph Fatone as Pizza Chef, Joshua Chasez as Pizza Chef, Christopher Kirkpatrick as Patron, and

Lance Bass James Lance Bass (; born May 4, 1979) is an American singer, actor, and producer. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the Bass (voice type), bass singer for the boy band NSYNC. The band has sold over 70 million records, becoming one of ...

as Flight Engineer # Members of

: Ashley Parker Angel, Daniel Miller, Erik Estrada, Trevor Penick, and Jacob Underwood # Members of LFO: Brad Fischetti, Rich Cronin, Devin Lima, and Brian 'Brizz' Gillis # Members of

: Nikki Deloach, Veronica Lee Finn, Mandy Ashford, Danay Ferrer, and Jenny Morris # Members of Take 5: Ryan Goodell, Jeffrey 'Clay' Goodell, Stevie Sculthorpe, Timothy 'T.J.' Christofore, and Tilky Jones # Members of C-Note: Jose 'Brody' Martinez, David Pérez, Andrew Rogers, and Raúl Molina # Members of

: Lou George, Paul A. George, Brian George, Curtis Bedeau, Hugh Clarke, and Gerard Charles

Citations

External links

* * * * {{Lou Pearlman 2001 films 2000s teen comedy films American teen comedy films Films scored by Lalo Schifrin Lou Pearlman 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language teen comedy films