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The Naked Man (1998)
Director: J Todd Anderson
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
'A Wacky New Comedy From the Co-Creator of Fargo and The Big Lebowski' splurges the video cover, over an appalling shot of what appears to be a skinned Michael Rapaport swinging across a wrestling ring. A chiropractor who moonlights as 'the naked man', Eddie Bliss loves the showmanship of the ring - then his family are gunned down by a psychotic drug-running cripple and his Elvis-lookalike cohort, and something snaps: The Naked Man goes on the rampage, combating evil, and preaching the virtues of 'spinal integrity'. Amazingly, Ethan Coen is credited as co-writer, along with first time director, J Todd Anderson - the Coens' storyboard artist. In as much as the Coens' comedies often play like they've been made up as they gone on, then this is truly Coenesque. It's also dismally unfunny - so unfunny you can imagine a cult audience getting off on it. Certainly I'll treasure the memory of Elvis, hypnotised into believing he's a drug enforcement officer, being shredded by a twin prop plane.Author: TCh
Cast & crew
Director: J Todd Anderson
Producer: Ben Baronholtz, Robert Graf
Cast: Joe Grifasi, Michael Rapaport, John Slattery, George R Willeman, Rachael Leigh Cook, Michael Jeter, Arija Bareikis, Traci Christofore, John Carroll Lynch full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 98 mins
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