''Senseless'' is a 1998 American

buddy Buddy may refer to: People *Buddy (nickname) *Buddy (rapper), real name Simmie Sims III (1993–Present) * Buddy Cage (1946–2020), American pedal steel guitarist, member of the New Riders of the Purple Sage *Buddy Holly (1936–1959), artistic ...

comedy science fiction Science fiction comedy (sci-fi comedy) or comic science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that exploits the science fiction genre's conventions for comedy, comedic effect. The genre often mocks or satirizes standard scie ...

film directed by

Penelope Spheeris Penelope Spheeris (born December 2, 1945) is an American film director, film producer, producer, and screenwriter. She has directed both documentary film, documentary and scripted films. Her best-known works include the trilogy titled ''The Decl ...

and written by Greg Erb and

Craig Mazin Craig Mazin (born 1971) is an American writer, director, and producer. He is best known for creating, writing, and producing the HBO historical disaster drama miniseries ''Chernobyl (miniseries), Chernobyl'' (2019) and co-creating, co-writing, an ...

. The film stars

Marlon Wayans Marlon Lamont Wayans (born July 23, 1972) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for his work with his brother Shawn Wayans on The WB sitcom ''The Wayans Bros.'' (1995–1999) and the comedy films ''Don't Be a M ...

and

David Spade David Wayne Spade (born July 22, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and podcaster. His comedic style, in both his stand-up material and acting roles, relies heavily on sarcasm and self-deprecation. For his roles on television, Spade h ...

alongside

Matthew Lillard Matthew Lyn Lillard (born January 24, 1970) is an American actor. His film work includes Chip Sutphin in '' Serial Mom'' (1994), Emmanuel "Cereal Killer" Goldstein in '' Hackers'' (1995), Stu Macher in '' Scream'' (1996), Stevo in '' SLC Punk!'' ...

Brad Dourif Bradford Claude Dourif (; born March 18, 1950) is an American actor. He is known for voicing Chucky in the ''Child's Play'' franchise (1988–present), portraying Gríma Wormtongue in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film series, and his Academy A ...

Tamara Taylor Tamara Taylor (born September 27, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She appeared in the role of Dr. Camille Saroyan, head of the Forensic Division, in the forensic crime drama '' Bones''. She also appeared in season seven of '' Agents of S.H.I.E.L. ...

, and

Rip Torn Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn Jr. (February 6, 1931 – July 9, 2019) was an American actor whose career spanned roughly 60 years. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing Marsh Turner in '' Cross Creek'' (1983). Tor ...

Plot

Darryl Witherspoon (

) is an

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

student at Stratford University, who does not have the advantages of his wealthy nemesis, Scott Thorpe (

), or his best friend Tim LaFlour (

straight edge Straight edge (sometimes abbreviated as sXe or signified by XXX or simply X) is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs in reaction to the punk subculture's excesses. Some ...

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

er who has a hockey

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

. Darryl is so broke he donates four pints of blood in one day (playing a different character each time) and four vials of sperm in one day. Darryl's big break comes when he enters a competition, where the winner gets a high-paying

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

job. But when Scott enters the competition, it seems Darryl's break has gone down the drain. He takes on a high-paying

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

to test a drug that enhances the five senses. Darryl uses it to his advantage and he impresses the competition's supervisor, Mr. Tyson (

) and he even joins the hockey team as a goalie. But after taking an extra dose one night, he experiences

side effect In medicine, a side effect is an effect of the use of a medicinal drug or other treatment, usually adverse but sometimes beneficial, that is unintended. Herbal and traditional medicines also have side effects. A drug or procedure usually use ...

s. The experiment's supervisor, Dr. Thomas Wheedon (

), tells Darryl only four of his senses will work at a time until the drug leaves his body. As Darryl struggles, Tim thinks that his friend is on

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

and gets worried about him. Darryl's luck then starts going down the drain as he loses the hockey game because his sense of sight is lost. He also mistakenly confesses love to his girlfriend's father who he thinks is his girlfriend as his sense of sight is lost. Her father turns out to be Mr. Tyson. He also acts very clumsily (because of the loss of the ability to see) during the basketball game he is invited to see with a client who needs to be impressed in order for Darryl to score some points with the Smythe-Bates guys. Luckily, the client thinks Darryl is just funny and signs a contract with the company. As the story progresses, Darryl asks his friend Tim to help him study for the next day's interview. At that exact moment, Scott studies for the test with the aid of his rich father's employees. Scott is shown to answer a question correctly but he does not know the reason behind it, he ignores the question. The next day, the drug leaves Darryl's system and now all his five senses operate normally. During the interview, it comes down to Darryl and Scott, Scott is asked the same question he was asked last night, he answers it correctly, but when asked the reason, he does not know, Darryl steps in, gives the correct reason and scores the position of junior analyst at Smythe-Bates. But in his speech, he confesses that he cheated by taking an experimental drug. A meeting is called to decide his fate and Mr. Tyson tells him that he himself started out in the mail room and Darryl should too, if he serves one year duty in the mail room, he will score the position of junior analyst. The story skips a year and Darryl is shown to ask his mom to move into a deluxe apartment. The movie ends with Darryl entering the Smythe-Bates building on his first day, with a familiar-looking doorman (

Sherman Hemsley Sherman Alexander Hemsley (February 1, 1938 – July 24, 2012) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for his roles as George Jefferson on the CBS television series ''All in the Family'' (1973–1975; 1978) and ''The Jeffersons'' (1975 ...

Cast

as Darryl Witherspoon *

as Scott Thorpe *

as Tim LaFlour *

as Dr. Thomas Wheedon *

as Janice Tyson *

as Randall Tyson *

Esther Scott Esther Scott (April 13, 1953 – February 14, 2020) was an American actress. Early years Scott was born in Flushing, Queens, New York, on April 13, 1953. When she was a child the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. She developed an interest in ...

as Denise Witherspoon *

Richard McGonagle Richard Francis McGonagle (born October 22, 1946) is an American actor, voice actor and motion-capture performer. He is most known for his voice work in various video games, movies and television shows. He is also known for his work by voicing C ...

as Robert Bellwether *

Kenya Moore Kenya Summer Moore (born January 24, 1971) is an American actress, author, entrepreneur, television personality and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 1993. Since 2012, she stars on the reality TV series, ''The Real Housewives of Atlant ...

as Lorraine * Vicellous Shannon as Carter *

Ernie Lively Ernie Lively (born Ernest Wilson Brown Jr.; January 29, 1947 – June 3, 2021) was an American actor and acting coach, the adoptive father of actors Lori Lively, Jason Lively, and Robyn Lively, and father of actors Eric Lively and Blake Live ...

as Coach Brandau *

Patrick Ewing Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American basketball coach and former professional player who is a basketball ambassador for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he played most o ...

as Himself *

Greg Grunberg Gregory Phillip Grunberg (born July 11, 1966) is an American film and television actor known for starring as Eric Weiss in the ABC series '' Alias'', Matt Parkman in the NBC series '' Heroes'', Temmin "Snap" Wexley in '' Star Wars: The Force ...

as Steve the commentator *

Debra Jo Rupp Debra Jo Rupp (born February 24, 1951) is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as Kitty Forman in the Fox sitcom ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) and its Netflix sequel series ''That '90s Show'' (2023–2024). Rupp also ...

as Fertility clinic attendant *

Mark Christopher Lawrence Mark Christopher Lawrence (born May 22, 1964) is an American character actor, stand-up comedian and voice-over artist. He is known for his role as esoteric D.J. Tone Def in the 1994 satirical rap mockumentary '' Fear of a Black Hat''. He has ap ...

as Wig shop owner *

as Smythe-Bates Doorman *

John Ingle John Houston Ingle (May 7, 1928 – September 16, 2012) was an American actor best known for his roles as scheming patriarch Edward Quartermaine in the ABC soap opera ''General Hospital'' and Mr. Threehorn, the father of the main characte ...

as Economics professor * Jeanette Goldstein as Nurse Alvarez *

Ken Lerner Kenneth Lerner (born May 27, 1948) is an American television, stage and film actor. He is known for playing Principal Flutie in the first episodes of the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', and earlier roles on ''Happy Days'', along ...

as Dean Barlow * Cee Cee Michaela as Tonya * Orlando Brown as Steve Witherspoon *

Jeff Garlin Jeffrey Garlin (born June 5, 1962) is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for playing List of Curb Your Enthusiasm characters#Jeff Greene, Jeff Greene on the HBO sitcom ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', and Murray ...

as Arlo Vickers *Darrel Heath as Shady guy

Production

''Senseless'' was financed by

Dimension Films Dimension Films was an American independent film and television production and distribution label founded in 1992, and currently owned by independent studio Lantern Entertainment. Formally one of the American " mini-majors" (i.e., small to m ...

Miramax Miramax, LLC, formerly known as Miramax Films, is an American independent film and television production and distribution company owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount Global. Based in Los Angeles, California, it was founded on December 19, ...

, and was the second movie idea

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

comedy writers

and Greg Erb had successfully pitched, with their first being the 1997 Buena Vista comedy '' RocketMan''. Filming began during June 1997 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Reception

Box office

''Senseless'' opened on February 20, 1998 and, in its opening weekend, made $5,337,651 at #5 behind ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

''s tenth weekend, ''

The Wedding Singer ''The Wedding Singer'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci, written by Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. The film stars Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, and Christine Taylor, and tells th ...

''s second, ''

Sphere A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

''s second, and ''

Good Will Hunting ''Good Will Hunting'' is a 1997 American drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. It stars Robin Williams, Damon, Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård and Minnie Driver. The film tells the story of janitor Will Hunt ...

''s twelfth.

Critical response

The film received negative reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

gave the film an approval rating of 6% based on reviews from 17 critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a score of 36% based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film 2.5 out of 4.

Soundtrack

The ''Senseless'' soundtrack was released February 10, 1998 by

Gee Street Records Gee Street Records was a British hip hop record label started by Jon Baker, Rachel O'Neill, Stereo MC's and DJ Richie Rich in 1985. The label's name came from its original location, a converted warehouse on Gee Street (off Old Street) in Lond ...

. # "

Busy Child "Busy Child" is a breakbeat single by The Crystal Method from the album ''Vegas''. It is one of the group's most recognizable works, reaching #17 on Hot Dance Club Play charts, and remaining on even ten years later. Music videos At least two music ...

" -

The Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in 1993. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, v ...

# "Song for Lindy" -

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of Sampling (music), samples from eclectic ...

# "Absurd" - Fluke # "Together" -

Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...

# "Do You Want to Freak?" - The Freak Brothers # "Unexplained" -

Gravediggaz Gravediggaz were an American Hip hop music, hip hop group from New York. Known for their Black comedy, dark sense of humor and abrasive, menacing soundscapes, Gravediggaz blended hardcore hip hop and gangsta rap with horror elements to pioneer t ...

# "Graciosa" - Moby # "Reeferendrum" - Fluke # "Set Back" - Fluke # "Jungle Brother (True Blue)" -

Jungle Brothers Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop trio composed of Michael Small (Mike Gee), Nathaniel Hall (Afrika Baby Bam) and Sammy Burwell (DJ Sammy B). Hailed as pioneers of the fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and house music, they were the first hip-hop g ...

# "Spacefunk" - Headrillaz # "Perfect for You" -

P.M. Dawn P.M. Dawn is an American hip-hop and R&B act formed in 1988 by the brothers Attrell Cordes (known by his stage name Prince Be, sometimes credited as Prince Be the Nocturnal) and Jarrett Cordes (known as Eternal or DJ Minutemix) in Jersey City ...

# "

Atom Bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explo ...

" - Fluke # "Look Around My Window" - Ambersunshower # "Mucho Dinero" - Yankee B. # "Smash the State" - Naked Aggression # "Gotta Be...Movin' on Up" - Prince Be of P.M. Dawn featuring Ky-Mani and

John Forté John Forté (born January 30, 1975) is an American recording artist and producer. He is primarily known for being a member of the musical duo Refugee Camp All-Stars, and his production work on the Fugees album ''The Score''. He has released fo ...

References

External links

* * {{Craig Mazin 1998 films 1990s buddy comedy films 1998 romantic comedy films African-American comedy films American buddy comedy films American independent films American romantic comedy films Dimension Films films Films directed by Penelope Spheeris Films produced by Don Carmody Films set in universities and colleges Mandeville Films films Films produced by David Hoberman 1990s English-language films 1990s American films Films with screenplays by Craig Mazin English-language romantic comedy films English-language buddy comedy films