The Master of Disguise

Kenan Thompson, Bo Derek, Michael Johnson, Jessica Simpson, and an uncredited Jesse Ventura make cameo appearances as themselves.

Production

There is a longstanding rumor that the filming of the scene in the Turtle Club took place on September 11, 2001, the same day as the September 11 attacks, causing production to stop and observe a moment of silence during the terrorist attacks. The rumor states that Dana Carvey was in the full turtle outfit and makeup during the solemn moment. The rumor is believed to have stemmed from a piece of trivia on the film's IMDb page, a section that includes user-generated content and is not subject to rigorous fact-checking. Director Perry Andelin Blake and Carvey both later confirmed that a moment of silence for the victims of the attack was held and that Carvey was in the turtle outfit during the moment of silence, but that the moment took place a few weeks after the attacks. On the morning of September 11, the film was still in pre-production, and filming was scheduled to begin in a couple of weeks.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD on January 28, 2003, by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.

Soundtrack

Reception

Box office

The film opened in Australia on July 31, 2002, in the United States on August 2, 2002, and in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2003, in 2,565 theaters and earned $12,554,650 in the domestic box office, ranking third for the weekend, behind Signs and the second weekend of Austin Powers in Goldmember. The film closed on November 28, 2002, having grossed $40,388,794 domestically and $3,022,207 internationally for a worldwide total of $43,411,001. When the film was released in the United Kingdom, it originally opened at #14, before falling out of the charts completely by the next weekend.

Critical response

The Master of Disguise was heavily panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, The Master of Disguise has an approval rating of 1% based on 105 reviews with an average rating of 2.6/10, making it the lowest-rated film produced by Revolution Studios to date. Its consensus reads: "An ill-conceived attempt to utilize Dana Carvey's talent for mimicry, The Master of Disguise is an irritating, witless farce weighted down by sophomoric gags." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 12 out of 100 based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert, awarding the film a rating of one star out of four, reserved some praise for director Perry Andelin Blake's production design, as well as for Carvey's imitative abilities, but saw the overall film as being "like a party guest who thinks he is funny and is wrong". Ebert also noted that the film is only 65 minutes long, but includes 15 minutes of credit cookies in order to qualify as a feature presentation. Jamie Russell at the BBC described the film as being so bad as to make other films such as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo seem like comic equivalents to Citizen Kane: "Never have so many jokes clunked off the screen to such a silent audience. And never has 80 minutes seemed like such an eternity."

Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian, awarded the film two stars out of five, citing a limited number of amusing moments, but criticizing Carvey's characterizations and warning potential audience members that "you might want to put the shotgun in your mouth". Adam Smith in the Radio Times drew attention to the "lame screenplay" and "barely coherent plot", and noted that "when the nearest thing to a genuine joke is the bad guy's propensity for breaking wind whenever he laughs, you can be pretty sure that you're not in the hands of comedy geniuses".

Alan Morrison, writing for Empire, suggested that it was no more than a feeble imitation of the character comedy of the Austin Powers series, concluding that The Master of Disguise was the single worst film ever made: "a film about idiots, made by idiots, for idiots". Comedian and former Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Michael J. Nelson named the film the third-worst comedy ever made.

Accolades

Bo Derek's cameo in the film was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress, but lost to Madonna in Die Another Day.

At the 2002 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film was nominated for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Male Fake Accent – the latter two regarding Carvey. Its only win was a tie with Kung Pow: Enter the Fist for Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy.

Despite its overwhelmingly negative attention, the film was also nominated for Favorite Fart in a Movie at the 2003 Kids' Choice Awards, though it lost to Scooby-Doo.