Reviewed by GREG KING.

In the original Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo (2001), Rob Schneider played an unemployed fish tank cleaner who was reluctantly forced to become a “man whore” to earn some quick cash. It was a comedy with plenty of gross out moments and a certain charm.
But it also proved an unexpected hit, and so now we get the quick sequel. Very few film sequels manage to improve on the original – indeed, most are quick and cheap attempts to cash in on the good will established by the original, and lack the charm and freshness. And so it is with Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo, a lame and embarrassing attempt to replicate the success of the earlier comedy. This follow up film is full of gross out humour that is, in equal parts, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic – in fact, there is something here guaranteed to offend just about everybody.
This time around Deuce travels to Amsterdam to join his friend and former pimp TJ (wise cracking Eddie Griffin, also reprising his role), who lives on a garishly decorated houseboat and has established a stable of “prosti-dudes” in one of the more sexually liberated cities on the continent. But Deuce unexpectedly finds himself caught up in the middle of a police investigation when a serial killer seems intent on eliminating the great gigolos of Europe. TJ becomes the prime suspect of the investigation headed by driven Dutch cop Voorsboch (Jeroen Krabbe, from The 4th Man, Ever After, etc).
Deuce bumbles his way through a range of suspects to try and uncover the truth. In this guise Deuce meets a number of deformed outcasts, and helps them overcome their problems and restore their confidence in facing an often harsh world. The loose plot device that kick starts the film is just an excuse for more formulaic comedy that often retreads ideas from the original.
Director Mike Bigelow (surely an appropriately anonymous pseudonym to disguise the real identity of the culprit responsible for this shocker) handles the material with a suitable lack of restraint and subtlety. Schneider has the sort of goofy, naive personality that audiences either warm to or find rather offputting, and your response to the film will depend largely on which camp you fall into. Griffin gets to display his versatility through a series of clever disguises, including what appears to be an African-American version of Jerry Lewis a la The Nutty Professor. And what was Alex Dimitriadis thinking, demeaning himself in a thankless role as a man-whore that gives him absolutely nothing to do.
There are some genuinely funny moments amongst the deliberately low brow humour, but it far too often tends to telegraph its punches. While teenage boys will find Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo a real chucklefest, full of smutty innuendo and crude humour that makes the Carry On films seems sophisticated, everybody else will find a return visit from the world’s dumbest “man-whore” something to be dreaded rather than savoured.