I hadn't been on Netflix since I binge watched the latest season of Orange Is The New Black and there are a few new movies listed in the dark comedy which I usually enjoy. I was going to re-watch War On Everyone since I enjoyed it before, but with so many new movies it makes more sense to try something new. I dove into Middle Man and it quickly sucked me in.
The story starts out with a big guy Lenny, Jerry from Parks and Rec (Jim O' Heir) talking to a lawyer. His mom has just passed away and with that, he takes the opportunity to start a new life, he is headed to Las Vegas to make it as a comedian. Along the way, he meets and begrudgingly becomes friendly with Hitch. He suspects something might be wrong, but he is so focused on becoming a hit comedian that he lets it slide. Hitch suggests he shouldn't try to hit the big stage until he practices on the smaller stage there in Lamb Chop or whatever the town is called. He is booed by a local who comes out as Lenny and Hitch are drinking and throwing up. Lenny comes too in the morning and finds the heckler dead in his trunk, Hitch convinces him he did it, and before long, they have a body count that is climbing. The big problem is that he keeps going up on stage every night, all bloody from either just having killed or trying to bury and dispose the bodies, but he deadpans about how hard it is to get rid of a dead body and even with blood all over, it appears to be an act and the audience loves it.
He ends up falling in love with a girl who works in a small bar and wants to run off with her, but in the end, once the city of Lamb Chop gets you, it doesn't let you go. There is a lot of back and forth, and it appears that Hitch is really trying to help him get his act together and making him funnier, or the truth could be that Hitch is a small time thief who enjoys killing along the way. By the end of the movie, it is hard to tell if Lenny is still the same naïve small town accountant or if he has become the new master murderer. He appears to be headed to the big show in Las Vegas, complete with a limo ride and the girl of his dreams by his side, or it is all in his head, and he is merely surrounded by all the bodies they have killed and he is just playing a comedian visiting a late night host as the cops finally figure out what has been going on.
The movie is really a dark comedy in that the jokes are in the murders, forget all the jokes he has on his cassettes by the old greats he begins the movie listening to.
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