By turns pointless and pointlessly mean-spirited.
National Lampoon's Gold Diggers (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:12
Fresh:0
Rotten:12
Average Rating:2.1/10
Consensus: It aspires to Farrelly-level offensiveness, but the PG-13 rating and a dearth of decent gags renders Gold Diggers tame, toothless, and dull.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for crude and sexual humor, and some drug-related material
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Sep 17, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $392,000
Synopsis: National Lampoon's Gold Diggers explores the misadventures of two completely incompetent con men, who, in desperation, turn their attention to the art of gold digging. First time director Gary... National Lampoon's Gold Diggers explores the misadventures of two completely incompetent con men, who, in desperation, turn their attention to the art of gold digging. First time director Gary Preisler directs the cast of Will Friedle (BOY MEETS WORLD), Chris Owen (AMERICAN PIE 1 and 2), Nikki Ziering (AMERICAN WEDDING), Louise Lasser (REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) and Renee Taylor (THE NANNY, ALFIE). Cal (Friedle) and Lenny (Owen) are two con men who dream of the fabled “good life” that includes big bucks, cool parties, fast cars and hot women, especially dream girl Charlene (Ziering). After a string of failed robbery attempts including a purse snatching that goes terribly wrong, Cal and Lenny turn to gold digging. Their scheme is to marry the aging and inseparable Mundt sisters, Doris (Lasser) and Betty (Taylor), who the boys met after unsuccessfully trying to mug them. While courting the women in hopes of inheriting their Beverly Hills estate, Cal and Lenny learn that the sisters' apparent fortune came from their father's innovative use of a sausage casing back in the 20s, which resulted in the world's first condom. Unbeknownst to Cal and Lenny, the Mundt sisters have lost their condom fortune, are now destitute, and are only marrying the guys so that they can knock off their young suitors and collect on their new, generous life insurance policies. Within weeks the couples are wed, culminating in an absurdly comical honeymoon night. Once the honeymoon is over, and Cal and Lenny come out from hiding, they find themselves in a living hell. Betty and Doris are in much better shape, with much stronger libidos, than they could have ever imagined. In short, the sisters won't be dying any time soon. If they are ever going to inherit the estate and wind up with the life they've so badly dreamed of, the guys will have to speed up the Mundt sisters' natural aging process. The sisters, using their new copy of “Murder for Dummies”, need to get rid of the guys before Cal and Lenny realize that they have once again been duped. After a series of mangled murder attempts, Cal and Lenny, Betty and Doris wind up getting exactly what they had hoped for; LOVE, SEX, MONEY AND HAPPINESS – just not in the way they expected. In the end, after a series of unexpected developments, the now wealthy Cal spends a glorious night with his dream girl Charlene. With a roaring fireplace, a bearskin rug, his dream girl and a mansion, Cal has everything he's dreamed of, while Charlene quietly begins to make her own gold digging plans for Cal's newly acquired fortune. [More]
Starring: Will Friedle, Chris Owen, Louise Lasser, Renee Taylor
Starring: Will Friedle, Chris Owen, Louise Lasser, Renee Taylor, Nikki Ziering, Rudy DeLuca
Director: Gary Preisler
Director: Gary Preisler
Screenwriter: Gary Preisler
Producer: Amy Greenspun, Gary Preisler, Don Ashley
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Reviews for National Lampoon's Gold Diggers
Nothing's quite so painful as failed comedy, and this atrocity is equivalent to a compound fracture.
This is the spectacularly inept directing debut of writer-producer Gary Priesler, who is said to have 12 other movies in development. God help us.
So stupefyingly hideous that after watching it, you'll need to bathe in 10 gallons of disinfectant, get a full-body scrub and shampoo with vinegar to remove the scummy residue that remains.
Imagine a horrible parallel universe, where Pauly Shore is allowed to direct a remake of Harold and Maude.
A shapeless mass of crude sight gags barely worthy of the new release shelf, let alone theatrical distribution.
It all makes Nat Lamp's recent Van Wilder look like an instant classic.
Not only is there nothing thoughtful or interesting about this latest ultra-crass contribution to the Lampoon shelf, there's not even anything very funny.
What could have been National Lampoon's Harolds and Maudes grows dumb and dumber.
This cheap-looking, broad and ultimately unnecessary comedy makes John Landis' benchmark Animal House -- one of the earliest films to bear the National Lampoon brand name -- look like Lubitsch.
A putative comedy that manages to degrade equally those on both sides of the screen.
For the most part, The Gold Diggers is not even chuckle-producing. At best, it might warm a cockle or two or provoke a bit of a smile.
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