Hugo Pool (1997)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Robert Downey Sr.

Writers:

Robert Downey Sr. (writer) and
Laura Ernst (writer)

Release Date:

12 December 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

A comedy with serious relief

Plot:

Hugo Pool is a quirky tale of a Los Angeles pool cleaner who falls in love with a young man dying of Lou Gerhig's Disease.

Plot Keywords:

Lou Gehrigs Disease | Surrealism | Gambling | Absurd | Swimming Pool

Cast

Alyssa Milano	...	Hugo Dugay
Mark Boone Junior	...	Pool Supply Man
Malcolm McDowell	...	Henry Dugay
Sean Penn	...	Strange Hitchhiker
Robert Downey Jr.	...	Franz Mazur
Cathy Moriarty	...	Minerva
Patrick Dempsey	...	Floyd Gaylen
Sean Glenn	...	Andy the Orderly
Bert Remsen	...	Sad Old Man
Kevin Dornan	...	Bad Advice Father
Michael Mazzola	...	Kid
Richard Lewis	...	Chick Chicalini
Chuck Barris	...	Irwin
Jim Shield	...	Lifeguard
Ann Magnuson	...	Drowning Matron

Also Known As:

Pool Girl (UK) (DVD title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and sex-related material.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Netherlands:AL | USA:R | Argentina:16 | UK:15

Company:

BMG Independents

Goofs:

Continuity: When the water truck comes around the corner the image is reversed. The driver is on the right side of the cab and the license plate is seen as if you were looking in a mirror.

Quotes:

Franz Mazur: I'm too superficial to be hurt.

Soundtrack:

The Flying Dutchman

Miserable plot, horrendous casting.

Alyssa Milano plays "Hugo" an overworked pool cleaning gal, who needs to clean 44 pools in one day. That is the only normal part of this movie. The rest of it has such poor casting choices and plot lines that is is painful to watch.

Along the way she picks up her father, Malcolm McDowell, who is doing the worst Jimmy Durante impression I have ever heard, and who is trying to kick his heroin habit by shooting the heroin into a puppet that he carries around. Retarded.

Jimmy Durante, er, Malcolm, then runs into a gay hitchhiker with blue shoes, played by Sean Penn. How they talked Sean Penn into this role is beyond me. He appears to be trying to be mysterious, but comes across as a whiney gay 12-year-old.

She sends her dad (and the hitchhiker) on a mission to get some water for one of her clients, a bug-eyed jabbering Richard Lewis, who is supposedly a mafioso, but comes off as threatening as a wet paper bag.

She then picks up her mother, a gambling addict. She in turn shanghais one of Hugo's clients, a man with als (Lou Gherig's Disease) and starts carrying him around in the back of a pickup truck (wheelchair and all) so he can be her gambling good luck charm. Ridiculous.

Along the way, they run into Robert Downey Jr as a wacked out film director, but Robert puts on this outrageous fakey French accent and so he comes across like a bad Inspector Clouseau. Obnoxious.

They finally meet up with Hugo's Mom's bookie, played by Chuck "Chuckie-baby" Barris from the old GONG SHOW, who is more interested in a romp in the hay than money. Strange.

The ending is more like a documentary about ALS than a comedy, and has the totally predictable typical heart wrenching ending. That didn't even get any sympathy points from me. Lame.

The only redeming virtue would have been seeing Alyssa in the buff, and that didn't even happen. What was that director thinking? Weak.

My assessment: 2 of 10 Good only for hard-core Alyssa fans.