The Ladies Man

LEON PHELPS IS A SWEET-NATURED, INEXPLICABLY IRRESISTIBLE LOVEEXPERT WHO TRIES TO SOLVE THE WORLD'S ROMANTIC PROBLEMS WITHHILARIOUS RESULTS.

Over the years, Tim Meadows has proven himself to be a very funny supporting player on Saturday Night Live, but he never really had a breakout character that he and Lorne Micheals could spin off into a movie--until now. Based on his lisping "Ladies Man" character, Meadows plays Leon Phelps, a late-night sex advice host of a radio show who gets fired for racking up one too many FCC fines. His producer (Karyn Parsons) gets fired with him, and she combs the Chicago stations looking for another gig while he tries to find the one old flame who would be willing to support him for the rest of his life. You see, Phelps is a sexaholic who tends to sleep with frustrated wives, much to the chagrin of the husbands who inevitably catch them in bed together. A mob of husbands have formed a group, under the leadership of Will Ferrell (playing a tired stereotype of the closeted homosexual), dedicated to hunting down Phelps and killing him. The embodiment of the '70s swinger, Phelps personifies both the good (sexual skills) and the bad (the wardrobe and fashion sense) of that icon, though the movie ends with your standard pro-family propaganda when he inevitably finds love and stability with his producer. The laughs do not come fast and furiously, sidetracked as they are by the so-called plot, but one thing must be said and said out loud: Billy Dee Williams is fantastic as the bartender-narrator. --Andy Spletzer