3570. Big Stan (2007)

Starring: Rob Schneider, Jennifer Morrison, Scott Wilson

Director: Rob Schneider

Running Time: 105 mins

Big Stan is an American film about a timeshare conman who is sentenced to prison, but to prevent himself becoming a target for the hardest inmates, he commits to turning himself into the most ruthless person in the jail.

Directing and starring in the lead role, Big Stan strikes me as the most Rob Schneider a movie can get. But despite a string of mishits through his career, there’s something rather more enjoyable about this movie, even if it as plainly ridiculous and stupid as you’d expect.

First things first, if you struggle to find fun in puerile Hollywood humour, then Big Stan will really annoy you. While Rob Schneider is thankfully playing a more mellow character, this film has no shortage of moronic toilet humour, idiotic personalities and more.

With all of that said, Big Stan manages to take that purely moronic brand of humour and, while not making a boring watch, tone it down just a little bit. There’s no poo or vomit flying across the screen at any point, and the violence involved is all in good jest, meaning that you can sit back and watch this film without being grossed out to the extreme.

As for the story, it seems ridiculous to say that it’s ‘unbelievable’, because realism is in no way the concern of the screenplay here. In fact, the more unbelievable Rob Schneider’s macho persona is, and the more he’s able to take on the hardest men in the prison, the funnier the film is – delivering an often enjoyably childish parody of the likes of The Shawshank Redemption.

Otherwise, there’s not all that much else to write home about with Big Stan. Its opening act takes a little too long to kick into gear, but there’s a surprising amount of charisma and laughs once we get into the prison and the main action takes hold. This movie is about as Rob Schneider-y as can be, but it’s nowhere near as annoying as you may expect, so that’s why I’m giving it a 6.8 overall.