''Double Whammy'' is a 2001

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written and directed by

Tom DiCillo Thomas A. DiCillo (born August 14, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. Early life He was born in Camp Le Jeune, North Carolina. His father was Italian and his mother was from New England. He studied creative wri ...

and starring

Denis Leary Denis Colin Leary (born August 18, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. A native of Massachusetts, Leary first came to prominence as a stand-up comedian, especially through appearances on MTV (including the comedic song "Asshole (song), Assh ...

Elizabeth Hurley Elizabeth Jane Hurley (born 10 June 1965) is an English actress and model. As an actress, her best-known film roles have been as Vanessa Kensington in '' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'' (1997) and as the Devil in '' Bedazzled'' (2 ...

and

Steve Buscemi Steven Vincent Buscemi ( ,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself, some may insist that his pronunciation of his own name is "wrong" because it does not match the original Italian pronunciation as well. It is not uncommon for people to pronou ...

. Although intended to be released in theaters, it was ultimately distributed

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

Plot

Ray Pluto has horrid memories of watching his wife and child die in a traffic accident. He's also a cop who's the laughingstock of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

because his back failed while he was trying to stop a mass murderer — who was then shot by a child. For his back, he gets help from a

chiropractor Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine. It has esoteric origins and is based on several pseudoscie ...

. Meanwhile, a teenager hires thugs to kill her father, who's the super in Ray's apartment building. In the same building, two young men are writing a movie script. Ray tries to get past his grief to solve the assault on the super and also return the affections of the chiropractor.

Cast

as Detective Ray Pluto, a police detective suffering from back problems. *

as Dr. Ann Beamer, Pluto's chiropractor. *

as Detective Jerry Cubbins, Pluto's partner. *

Melonie Diaz Melonie Diaz (born April 25, 1984) is an American film and television actress who has appeared in many independent films, including four shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. She received Independent Spirit Awards nominations for performance ...

as Maribel Benitez, who hires thugs to kill her father. *

Luis Guzmán Luis Guzmán (born August 28, 1956) is a Puerto Rican actor. His career spans over 40 years and includes a number of films and television series. He has appeared in the Paul Thomas Anderson films ''Boogie Nights'' (1997), ''Magnolia'' (1999) an ...

as Juan Benitez, Maribel's father. *

Donald Faison Donald Adeosun Faison (; born June 22, 1974) is an American actor and comedian, best known for his leading role as Dr. Chris Turk in the ABC/NBC comedy-drama ''Scrubs'' (2001–2010), and a supporting role as Murray in both the film ''Clueless'' ...

as Cletis, one of the writers in the building. *

Victor Argo Victor Argo (November 5, 1934 – April 7, 2004) was an American actor of Puerto Rican descent who usually played the part of a tough bad guy in his movies. He had a career span of forty years. He is best known for ''Mean Streets'' (1973), ' ...

as Lieutenant Spigot *

Chris Noth Christopher David Noth ( ; born November 13, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Mike Logan on ''Law & Order'' (1990–95), Big on ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), and Peter Florrick on ''The ...

as Detective Chick Dimitri *

Keith Nobbs Keith Nobbs (born April 9, 1979) is an American stage, television, and film actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of Joey "Ice Cream" in the TV series ''The Black Donnellys''. Life and career A graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High Scho ...

as Duke *

Maurice Compte Maurice Compte (; born in 1969) is an American actor known for his roles as Gaff in ''Breaking Bad'', Santiago "Big Evil" Flores in ''End of Watch'', and as Colonel Carrillo in '' Narcos''. Early life Born and raised in New Orleans, Compte is ...

as Joe "Jo-Jo" *

Otto Sanchez Otto Sanchez is an American actor best known for playing Carmen Guerra in the HBO prison drama '' Oz''. He also played the role of Otto in the short-lived drama ''Kidnapped''. He appeared as a supporting character in ''Bad Boys II''. He played the ...

as "Ping Pong" * Kevin Olson as Ricky Lapinsky *

Bill Boggs William Boggs III (born July 11, 1941) is an American television host and journalist. Biography Boggs was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA. He earned a master's degree from the university's Annenbe ...

as Bill Berman *

Gerry Bamman Gerald G. Bamman (born September 18, 1941) is an American actor and playwright. He is best known for playing Uncle Frank in the films ''Home Alone'' (1990) and '' Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'' (1992), and has also guest starred in several tel ...

as The Mayor *

Sally Jessy Raphael Sally Lowenthal (born February 25, 1935), better known as Sally Jessy Raphael, is an American former tabloid talk show host known for her program ''Sally'' (originally called ''The Sally Jessy Raphael Show''). Early life and education Lowenthal ...

as herself *

Sharon Wilkins Sharon Wilkins is an American actress. Wilkins is from Newburgh, New York, and makes her home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York. She has had a number of roles on Broadway and in film and does some commercial wor ...

as Techa *

Caprice Benedetti Caprice Stella Benedetti (born August 1, 1965) is an American actress. She is best known for her role in the 2000 science fiction movie '' Timequest'' in which she played Jacqueline Kennedy. She also appeared as Maria Owens, the matriarch of the ...

as Shelley

Reception

The film holds a 36% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 11 reviews, with an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 4.67/10.

Footnotes

External links

* * * 2001 films 2001 comedy-drama films Gold Circle Films films 2001 direct-to-video films Films directed by Tom DiCillo 2000s English-language films {{2000s-comedy-drama-film-stub