Made (original) (raw)

Published on July 11, 2001 04:00AM EDT

Nobody natters like Vince Vaughn. In the bumptiously amusing Made, which reteams the tall, dark, and hambone actor with Jon Favreau, his costar from ”Swingers,” Vaughn plays Ricky, a screwup who never shuts up. He’s a chatterbox noodge, a walking deadbeat irritant whose machine gun patter is matched only by his obliviousness. Ricky and his buddy, Bobby (Favreau), land a freelance Mob assignment, and though they have no idea what the task involves, it does mean a trip to New York, complete with fancy hotel and on call limo. Vaughn, jiving and winking as only a jaw dropping loser can, makes Ricky a full fledged comic creation — a failed cool jerk whose entire, unconscious purpose in life is to talk his way into trouble.

Written and directed by Favreau, ”Made” is little more than a rambling chain of combative buddy mishaps, but the interplay between Vaughn and Favreau, who does great double takes of thrusting chin frustration, spins you through the weak patches. So does Sean Combs, as a mobster with zero patience for Ricky’s antics. In his first feature role, Combs has a volatile coal eyed magnetism.