This poster has two things going for it – Tea Leoni’s legs, and a lame tag line. Really, “The Wild Sexy Comedy!” ? That kind of gives you the indication of what kind of movie it is. Had been meaning to get back to watching it – it really started me on my Southern Culture on the Skids fandom back in the 90’s.
It came out when I worked at the movie theater back in 1996. Working in the theater, there were really only two or three types of movies. Blockbusters, critically acclaimed, and then..uhh….filler. Filler wasn’t bad per se, they just didn’t draw in the crowds. The above could be pretty much counted on for an empty theater that you could wander in and out of when you were bored.
Ben Stiller really kind of hit it big in the late 90’s and onward, this movie was one of his early outings as …..well, the same characters he has played since then. Bumbling, neurotic, clumsy. Flirting had an all-star cast, and really wasn’t too bad, but I still couldn’t make it all the way through. I was even drinking Scotch. It’s a lot like going back and watching Pulp Fiction. That style has been done better since, and watching something like that now echos the cliches that the genre creates itself as it gets more successful. So, it’s hard to watch now.
Somehow right around the time that I was getting back into rockabilly (mid 90’s), I wandered into the end of this movie – lo and behold, there was some twangy guitar. I dug it.
I immediately went to the local record store (well, CD store) that I can’t remember the name of. It was in Meyerland Plaza and eventually became a Borders which closed. The only CD they had by SCOTs happened to be Ditch Diggin’. It wasn’t as rockabilly as I wanted so I listened to it off and on for a few months.
Eventually, I picked up Dirt Track Date which included the track that was included in Flirting With Disaster, and realized that every song on every disc was solid. Very solid. So I became a fan, simple as that. Now I’m a super fan.