O Que Mais Pode Acontecer?

Well, what can I say? It's not the best Martin Lawrence film and its not even one of the top 20 best Danny De Vito films (isn't this little guy one of the biggest comic actors of our time!) but it's a nice comedy, good to rent on video or watch on TV.

Basically the plot is not very imaginative and the movie relies mostly on the actors performances. So I'll concentrate on them in this review. Here it goes:

De Vito is perfect as always. Noone could play the part of the complacent billionaire better than him! He does the best he can do with the material he's given, but his talent could have been used more appropriately if the writers had done a better job...

Martin Lawrence also playes one of his usual parts, quite similar to the part he played in Blue Streak. He does everything expected from him, including getting in disguise more than once and producing some Eddie Murphy-style jokes. But seeing Black Knight and now this, one may ask: isn't he repeating himself too much now? Sure he's funny, but he's also getting annoying to more and more people...

We also have some good-loking actresses, especially the lady playing Lawrence's girlfriend. Their parts are unfortunately too brief to be memorable.

Oh,yes, there's also William Fichtner playing one of the weirdest detectives in the history of cinema! Am I the only one who thinks he was doing a parody of Willem Defoe's character in The Boondock Saints??

As far as the plot, well, it's all about a ring...

When billionaire Danny DeVito catches burglar Martin Lawrence robbing his house, he holds him at gunpoint until the police arrive, then takes Lawrence's ring. Because it was a gift from his girlfriend, Carmen Ejogo, Lawrence wants to get it back.... and he has a large network of skilled but inept criminals to call on for help: once, that is, they stop laughing at him.

It's based on Donald Westlake's Dortmunder novel of the same name, and like most movie versions of Westlake's sad-sack crime comedies, some peculiar choices were made. The Westlake characters are all shlubs, with Dortmunder's brilliant plans being confounded by their bad luck and mistakes. Lawrence is good, and Bernie Mac is outstanding as the fence who bankrolls the operations, but while the comic actors are superb, it lacks the the disorganized doggedness of Westlake. Even so, the story is a good one, Devito plays his role right in the middle of his comfort spot, and even if you know Westlake, it's impossible to figure out what's going to happen next.

Just the name Martin Lawrence kind of makes me laugh, and this movie with Danny DeVito will give you several good belly laughs. Plain and simple, the formula for a good comedy is not all that complex, as this film clearly shows. There's no gross-out humor, or excessive vulgar language needed to make this movie a fun couple of hours. I also genuinely liked John Leguizamo's character throughout the movie. All in all this movie is a barrel of laughs from start to finish.

Generally speaking, I agree with the masses on the IMDb but in this case I must protest. This movie deserves a much higher rating than a 5. I would personally give it a 7. After viewing several mundane comedies, I found "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" to be refreshing. A quick summary of the plot: Kevin Caffrey (Martin Lawrence) attempts to burglarize billionaire Max Fairbanks' (Danny Divito) home. Max turns out to be in the house and holds Kevin at gunpoint until the police arrive. He then tells the cops that the ring on Kevin's hand belongs to him and the cops force Kevin to cough it up. The problem is that Kevin's new girlfriend had just given it to him. The rest of the movie deals with Kevin trying to get the ring back. Danny DeVito is hilarious and this is my favorite Martin Lawrence movie yet.

The plot is original and I thought the supporting actors were great. I would have given William Fichtner a bit more of a roll. He really had little to do with the plot yet I found his portrayal of gay Detective Alex Tardio to be one of the funniest parts of the movie. I read the book and will admit that the book's ending is a bit more satisfying but not a major issue. I have never seen a group of criminals and scoundrels more likable than the group in the movie. Everyone in the movie; the thief, the rich guy, the politicians, the judges and everyone in the periphery seems to be morally depraved. I guess that is what makes this movie so funny. If you enjoyed "Blue Streak" then you're going to love "What's the Worst That Could Happen?".

It made me laugh, more than once, and definitely more than other comedies made me laugh in the past. And it still makes me laugh 20 years later. And that's what a comedy is supposed to do, right?

So I was really surprised at the relatively low rating here. Definitely undeserved.