The Pardoner's Tale - that's the one where some ill-assorted characters get their hands on some free money (it usually ends with banknotes wafting away across the desert sands). I saw this ages ago and as far as I can recall nobody dies in a desert in this one, though the main characters don't end up living happily ever after on the dough (they never do). I do remember it being a wacky kind of road movie as short, plain Michael Emil and the other guy drive off with a fortune stuffed in their hub caps. They run into two girls in a motel who'd like to take some of those banknotes off them. I'll never forget one of the girls' favourite pickup line: "I think you're a really sweet person. Would you like to have sex with me?" Why didn't it catch on?
4 Reviews
One of the great "scam" movies of all time.
ekohen24 November 1999
Fascinating characters, a beliveable rip-off plan, and a mixture of screwy but all-too-real personalities make Sitting Ducks a perfect "scam" movie. It's funny, exciting, a little sexy, and full of surprises. I've watched it over and over and will be watching it for a long, long time.
Artsy, Low-budget Buddy Film- Great!
indielover-0848925 July 2019
This movie is not perfect. That being stated, it is great! Henry Jaglom has never been better. Michael Emil and Zack Norman are an art theater Hope and Crosby. Richard Romanus has never been lighter and more charming. As is his style, lots of what seems to be improvisation. True indie greatness!
A bottomless joy to watch
elisereid-296663 April 2020
This is only the third film of Henry Jaglom's that I've seen, but he is easily now one of my favorite filmmakers. Here he demonstrates how to take a conventional plot and spin it in a madcap, wonderful direction that is always unpredictable.
The story is about two thieves traveling down the East Coast with their hidden stash and the women they pick up along the way. The guys strike us as pure losers from the beginning, so the fact that they so easily pick up pretty girls tips us off early on that something isn't quite kosher, that there has to be some sort of trade off. There is, but I won't even begin to spoil it, even though I, personally, saw it coming. (To be fair, prior to watching it I read a review that hinted at it, but it's still clear when you watch the film by itself that something is "off" about these women.) The film is still magnificent to watch even when you know what's coming because you can never guess *how* it's coming. It's full of surprises, and it's endless fun.
The dialogue and editing are so fast paced and unconventional that they almost seem like gifted exercises in improv, but I don't believe they (completely) were. There are times in the film where the story doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but there is never a time in the film when we're not enjoying it. And I bet that on my second viewing, I will see that those indirect moments actually *were* leading somewhere that may have been difficult to comprehend on a first viewing. It takes quite a splendid creative mind to make a script not only come alive in this way, but do it in a way that is just so damned entertaining.
The story is about two thieves traveling down the East Coast with their hidden stash and the women they pick up along the way. The guys strike us as pure losers from the beginning, so the fact that they so easily pick up pretty girls tips us off early on that something isn't quite kosher, that there has to be some sort of trade off. There is, but I won't even begin to spoil it, even though I, personally, saw it coming. (To be fair, prior to watching it I read a review that hinted at it, but it's still clear when you watch the film by itself that something is "off" about these women.) The film is still magnificent to watch even when you know what's coming because you can never guess *how* it's coming. It's full of surprises, and it's endless fun.
The dialogue and editing are so fast paced and unconventional that they almost seem like gifted exercises in improv, but I don't believe they (completely) were. There are times in the film where the story doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but there is never a time in the film when we're not enjoying it. And I bet that on my second viewing, I will see that those indirect moments actually *were* leading somewhere that may have been difficult to comprehend on a first viewing. It takes quite a splendid creative mind to make a script not only come alive in this way, but do it in a way that is just so damned entertaining.
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