Dingle, Barry (2005) from Tuna
Dingle, Barry is a zany comedy about date rape. Ponder that for a moment, and it will be obvious that this film wants to test the outside of the envelope of bad taste.

Barry Dingle is living at home, and spends every night in bars where he picks up women and seduces them. He uses drugs when necessary, and keeps a little black book of his conquests. Meanwhile, his mother has plans for him. She wants her son to woo the ugly daughter of a future US senator. Mom's archenemy on the Guggenheim museum board also wants her own son to woo the same young lady.

Barry ducks the ugly daughter and brings home a girl from a bar instead. She ends up charging him with date rape and he is convicted and subsequently sentenced to three years in prison. The only prison scene we see is him being raped by a big black cook while he is wearing a Chef Boyardee outfit. Meanwhile his rival has married the senator's daughter, but he dies of colon cancer, so she is free again, and her father is now running for president. Mom agrees to help Barry get even with the girl who sent him to jail as long as Barry promises to woo the candidate's daughter. Life gets worse for Barry and his mother when the rival mother teams up with the date-raped young lady, steals Barry's little black book, and recruits another willing victim to go after him.

The veteran actress Veronica Cartwright was strong as Barry's mother, but personally, I saw little reason to laugh.

 

DVD INFO

  • widescreen transfer
  • brief cast interviews

 

NUDITY REPORT
  • Linda Sebastion and Melissa Siblia show their breasts.
  • There are two other women who appear together. One of them shows her breasts. (Either Elizabeth Boehmer or Tara Grodt)

The Critics Vote ...

  • No major reviews online

 

The People Vote ...

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our own guideline:

  • A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.
  • B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
  • C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
  • C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
  • C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
  • D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
  • E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre.
  • F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

 

Based on some enthusiastic user comments at IMDb, and this surprisingly positive review, I must reluctantly conclude that this is a C-. It has its proponents

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