Rating: R
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 08/15/2006
SubTitles: English/Espanol/French
Dubbed: English/Espanol/French
Sound: DD5.1/DD2
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: MCA Home Video
A case of mistaken identity forces a pair of lounge singers to pose as safecrackers in this farce.
Sam (
Sam Rockwell) and
Eddie (
Steve Zahn) are hapless musicians;
Frank (
Mark Ruffalo) and
Mitchell (
Josh Pais) are expert safecrackers. But when local Jewish gangster
Big Fat Bernie Gayle (
Michael Lerner) dispatches his henchman,
Veal Chop (
Paul Giamatti), to trick the safecrackers into service, the hapless
Veal Chop can't tell the difference. In the end,
Sam and
Eddie are forced to go along with
Veal Chop's mistake and perform three separate robberies for the imposing
Big Fat Bernie. During their very first mission -- to rob the safe of local fence
Good Stuff Leo (
Harvey Fierstein) -- they're apprehended by
Hannah (
Christina Kirk),
Leo's affable, deadpan daughter.
Hannah lets the guys go, but sparks fly between her and
Sam. It just so happens, however, that real safecracker
Frank is her ex-boyfriend, and that she's sworn off dating criminals for life. The coincidences, double crosses, and unlikely romance culminate in the bar mitzvah of
Bernie's son,
Little Big Fat Bernie (
Michael Schmidt), whose present is the Stanley Cup -- the actual hockey trophy -- which was stolen from
Good Stuff Leo by the reluctant
Sam and
Eddie. Shown at
the 1998 Sundance Film Festival,
Safe Men marked the writing and directing debut of future
Meet the Parents and
Zoolander scribe
John Hamburg. The film also gave a pre-stardom
Mark Ruffalo one of his first featured roles.
Sam Rockwell and
Josh Pais previously appeared together in
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie.
~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
