Movies - The Pest

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	Movies - The Pest

The Pest is a 1997 comedy film based on the classic short story The Most Dangerous Game. The film was a comedic take on the story that is considered to be a box office and critical disappointment. The Pest is director Paul Miller's only feature film.

In it, comedian John Leguizamo plays a Latino con man in Miami, Florida named Pestario Vargas (also known as "Pest") who agrees to be the human target for a Neo-Nazi manhunter, in order to collect $50,000 if he survives.

The original tagline for the film was "What kind of freakazoid would let someone hunt him just to collect $50,000? Next question."

Cast

John Leguizamo
— Pestario 'Pest' Vargas
Jeffrey Jones
— Gustav
Edoardo Ballerini — Himmel
Freddy Rodríguez — Ninja
Tammy Townsend
— Xantha Kent
Aries Spears
— Chubby
Joe Morton
— Mr. Kent
Charles Hallahan
— Angus
Tom McCleister — Leo
Ivonne Coll
— Gladyz
Pat Skipper — Glen Livitt
Jorge Luis Abreu — Piercer
Jennifer Broughton — Bank Employee
Yau-Gene Chan — Cook
Judyann Elder
— Mrs. Kent
Paul Harris — Karaoke Singer
Joe Jokubeit — Laphroig
David Bar Katz — White Guy
Will Potter — White Guy
Les Lannom — Bagpipe Player
Jim Lau — Mr. Cheung
Barrie Mizerski — Host
Hugh Murphy — Emcee
Kristin Norton — Trixy
Ray Garaza — Puerto Rican Boy
Yelba Osorio
— Malaria
Tony Perez — Felix
Aviva Rosenbloom — Cantor
Julian Scott Urena — Sergio

Critical response

The film is considered to be a critical dud. Film website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 11%. While Jeff Millar of the Houston Chronicle ops "This film is utterly without discipline or focus in a way that -- to one's shame --one eventually finds oddly endearing," Dwayne E. Leslie of Boxoffice Magazine said that "The script and Leguizamo's talents don't mesh, so the actor comes off as more offensive than funny." Madeleine Williams of Cinematter calls the film "A revoltingly bad stinker that is easily in the running for the worst film of the decade."

Audience response

The film grossed a meager $4 million dollars, losing $13 million from the film's original $17 million budget. In recent years, the film has become somewhat of a cult classic on home video and DVD thanks to word of mouth and video rentals. On the Internet Movie Database, the film has an overall rating of 4.0/10 with 1,749 votes. Director Paul Miller provided an audio commentary track for the film's 2001 DVD release.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Pest ]

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