Senseless (1998)

A secret experiment gave him super senses. Then came the side-effects.

Every so often when going through the large backlog of movies I want to write about, I come across one that my best friend always remarks on knowing that I’ve never seen it but I’d enjoy it. After months of saying “ehh maybe next time” I have decided to call Tyler’s bluff and watch a movie that sounds like something I should have seen years ago, if not when it was in theaters. This is one of the critical (and box office) stinkers from Penelope Spheeris who gave us all Wayne’s World. We will be revisiting another one of Penelope’s movies at a later date (the DVD of this particular Spheeris film is sitting on top of my pile so maybe not too much later) but today we are taking a look at her first brick after a pretty successful mid-90s run. This is one I wasn’t even aware of until last year at some point and I really have no idea how I never saw this or heard of it before. It was rated R which is maybe why I didn’t see it in theaters as I was 10 when it came out, but seriously, I can’t ever remember this being on HBO or Cinemax when I was younger. Nothing.

What are we discussing today? Senseless, the 1998 bomb starring Marlon Wayans as Darryl, a broke college senior vying for a competitive position at a financial institution after graduation, who signs up for an experimental drug research program for money which gives him extremely heightened senses and sees the implications on his race for the job. This banger also features Matthew Lillard, David Spade and Rip Torn. I know I have your mouth watering for this one so why don’t we just get into it?

Our movie begins with Darryl (Marlon Wayans) leading a tour of potential students through his university. He tricks them into doing his campus maintenance duties as he goes to the neuro lab. A regular Tom Sawyer he is. He checks out a mouse that’s glowing in the dark. He continues the tour speedily and ends it hastily right before beginning a new tour with another group of students. At night at his apartment, he gets a call from his mom (Esther Scott) who asks for money for bills even though Darryl does not currently have a job. He promises her he’s front-runner for a well-paying job and they will no longer have to worry about money soon enough. He then answers another call and pretends to be dead.

Darryl makes some money by donating blood. I guess it’d be selling not donating. A sign says you’re only supposed to donate once a month but he goes multiple times in one day under different aliases and gets very faint and passes out. He then goes to donate sperm where the receptionist is Debra Jo Rupp. She sets him up with some pornography and he wipes himself out making multiple samples. He tries to go sell his hair to a hair shop but he does not have enough and gets denied, even after showing his thick swath of pubes.

Back home, Darryl’s roommate Tim (Matthew Lillard), who has a hockey scholarship, questions Darryl about Darryl’s half of the rent. Tim is abstaining from humanly pleasures so he can feel more pleasure after deprivation. Darryl drinks a Red Bull way before it became popular. Tim dances around to display the jangle sound from his Prince Albert piercing. He tells Darryl that Darryl has an inner-hunger for success and he has faith he’ll get it because of that.

Darryl works at the school mess hall and is taunted by Scott (David Spade), a smug overachiever from a rich family who seems to be Darryl’s rival. Darryl is instantly smitten when a beautiful lady named Janice (Tamara Taylor) approaches the cafeteria window. In class, Darryl and Scott watch a video on an investment firm before hearing from a speaker from the company named Randall (Rip Torn). The students are told that five finalists will be narrowed down to one for a position at the company, the one Darryl told his mother he’s in the running for. Darryl impresses Randall with an answer responding to Scott. Scott retorts back and condescends to Darryl, telling him he’s out of his league going for this position.

Darryl tries to get on the hockey team to better ensure his running for the position and asks Tim to help him. He does terrible at his goalie tryout. Darryl goes to a signup for an experimental drug treatment, even though he sleeps through the list of side-effects that scare off all the other prospective testers. He also barely pays attention to the drug instructions, as he is more concerned with his payment ($3,000) which he will receive upon completion of the experiment. Back home, Tim is cleaning all of their liquor and weed paraphernalia out of the apartment in an attempt to go straight edge. Darryl goes to a party trying to get into a frat when he bumps into Janice from earlier. Darryl has to suck up to Scott to get accepted. Scott tries to tell Darryl that he’s “too good” for the frat because he “keeps it real” but ultimately tells him he’s not cut out for the frat before making him leave and taunting him.

Darryl goes home and injects the experimental glowing green drug. The next day in class, Darryl’s senses are heightened and he offends a woman in his class (Constance Zimmer) by remarking on her feminine odor. He begins hearing voices and sounds at amplified levels, which drives him nuts. He has to take a very important exam for the job qualification and my man is freaking out. Even sun beaming off a student’s diamond necklace nearly blinds him. Scott taunts him more because Scott’s a dick. He can taste a student’s sneeze from across the room. He finally has too much and causes an outburst and insults all the other students about what’s driving him crazy. He tells the professor he has Tourette’s but he still fails the test. He goes to the lab to report his findings to the doctor in charge, Wheedon (Brad Dourif), including the pain he’s feeling in his ass to an extreme degree which was one of the side effects that’s amplified by the sensory expansion. Darryl scratches his ass while Wheedon tells him he needs to focus and harness his super senses.

Back home, Darryl has himself covered so he doesn’t have to experience senses which makes Tim ask him what’s up. Darryl admits he’s not a finalist for the position now that he failed and wonders what he’ll tell his mother. Later, the noises of the city drive Darryl insane and he tries to focus. He manages to get a hold of himself and figures out how to hone in on one sense at a time and experience them to his advantage. Later, Darryl is serving at a benefit for the finalists for the position he wanted. He serves food to Randall and Scott but utilizes his super hearing to focus in on their conversation so he can edge in on conversation when Scott has blank spots. Randall is impressed at Darryl’s knowledge but Scott sends him off to the kitchen out of embarrassment. Darryl leaves the stock page for the newspaper in a bus tub and uses his super vision to tell Randall current stock positions while someone verifies on an electronic stock ticker machine. Darryl jokes with Randall currying favor as Scott looks worried. After dinner, Randall asks Darryl why he didn’t qualify for the position and Darryl explains he blew the exam due to working four jobs to cover rent. Randall insists a hard worker should not be punished and adds him as the sixth candidate much to Scott’s horror. Take that Scott!

Back at the lab, Wheedon tests Darryl’s abilities. Darryl is invited to a party hosted by Randall and Scott’s father where Randall and Scott, as legacies, induct Darryl as a member of the frat. Scott is getting PISSED. Darryl sees Janice and a friend at the party and uses his super hearing to eavesdrop on their conversation, which just happens to be about the ideal man for Janice. What good timing! He approaches Janice and makes good with conversation due to his eavesdropping. She is impressed with his frat badge and he offers to walk her home from the party where he charms her. He gets a kiss at her door and they plan a real date.

At home, Tim is horny and trying to abstain from masturbating as it one of the pleasures he’s been denying himself. He almost breaks his vow by entering the bathroom with a magazine but he catches Darryl shooting the experimental drug into his buttcheek and assumes Darryl is on heroin. Darryl exits all giddy and tells Tim he was taking “special medicine” which obviously sounds like he was doing drugs. Darryl is embarrassed and Tim seems heartbroken. Later, Darryl suits up and tries to get on the hockey team. He is granted another tryout and uses his senses to make him an amazing goalie somehow. I don’t get it but hey I’m not a sports guy. Darryl ends up getting a shut-out with his goalie skills and winning his team the game, making him a hero.

Darryl goes for his interview with Randall, using his hearing skills to overshadow Scott before he even enters the office. Randall gives Darryl floor seats to a Knicks game with a prospective client for the company to edge Darryl above his competition. Later at home, Darryl cooks a romantic dinner for Janice. He eavesdrops on Tim reciting poetry in his room and repeats it to Janice to woo her. Unfortunately for Darryl, his heightened sense causes him to ejaculate unbelievably prematurely. Like before they even touch. Darryl goes back to the sperm bank to donate a 5-gallon bucket. He brings Janice to his Mom’s apartment and has her meet his siblings and mother. Darryl uses his heightened senses to reprimand his siblings for their youthful transgressions. He gives his mom a bunch of money and promises them a bright future once he gets his job. Janice is impressed at Darryl’s drive and the family’s closeness.

At home, Darryl goes to shoot the drug into his ass and Tim listens in still believing his friend to be on dogfood. Darryl vows to double his dose to make himself extremely powerful as Tim reads a pamphlet for getting friends off drugs. Darryl’s double-dose worked against him as his senses are blurred due to what I assume is them being too powerful for his body to contain. Wheedon tells him he overdosed and fucked the data. He also tells Darryl that Darryl will only be able to use four senses at a time as a result of his double-dosing. Darryl will have to wait three days to get the dosage out of his system and recommends he stay in bed but Darryl has multiple important engagements over the following three days that determine his future so he can’t follow Wheedon’s advice.

At the Knicks game, the prospective client Vickers (Jeff Garlin) thinks Darryl is hilarious when his lack of senses causes embarrassment to Randall, claiming he’s happy someone has a sense of humor. Darryl loses his vision on the way back to his seat with beer for him and Vickers and sits on the bench next to Patrick Ewing, thinking he’s next to Vickers so he insults Patrick Ewing much to his horror when his sign returns. Ewing throws him across the court. In a limo later, Randall tells Darryl that Vickers agreed to sign the papers but insists Darryl would be on thin ice if Vickers wasn’t a “pig” of a man.

At home, Janice’s friend Lorraine (Kenya Moore) comes over trying to seduce Darryl. His lack of hearing causes confusion. Tim assumes she’s a drug dealer which seems racist. Darryl tells Lorraine to leave but she starts kissing him even though he protests that he’s dating Janice. He gets a boner and because of this, he can’t see. They start getting busy but Darryl’s mouth and arm go numb. Lorraine thinks he’s a nervous virgin. His numbness extends to his penis which can’t get hard. Somehow this is Lorraine’s cue to leave, not his protests or his asleep mouth. She leaves as Janice arrives. Witnessing the scene, Janice kicks Darryl and leaves, assumingly dumping him. Just then, Tim comes in with a group for an intervention and sees a passed-out Darryl thinking he OD’ed on heroin. They go to shoot epinephrine straight into his heart but Darryl wakes up before they can. He tries to explain his situation to Tim, who has trouble grasping at first.

Darryl arrives at a Hell Week party and drinks a rancid alcoholic punch Scott made with ease due to his lack of taste. Scott then goes to paddle Darryl but he feels no pain. Convenient that he can turn off the senses that would be being offended. At his big game, Darryl is effectively blind and loses drastically. Darryl, still blind, goes to Janice’s apartment to apologize but he ends up apologizing to Randall and confessing his love. I guess Randall is Janice’s dad? Janice tells Darryl to leave but he promises he’s the man he told her he was and all the weird stuff happening to him would be over soon. She tells him she wishes she could trust him and leaves him there. Darryl gets study help from Tim for his big interview while Scott gets help from the board members at his father’s bank. Totally fair.

At the big interview, Darryl goes blind outside the building and gets knocked out and robbed of his suit by a street guy. He emerges blind and nude from the alley trying to feel around. He makes it into a menswear store where the owner gives him a gold disco suit which Darryl doesn’t see until he gets to the bathroom before the interview. His tongue goes numb and he wets his pants. The puddle of urine is glowing green, showing that the drug must finally be out of his system. Darryl takes the stage and gets the crowd to laugh with him about the suit. His senses seem back to normal. As questions are asked, contestants are eliminated down to Scott and Darryl. Scott is unable to answer the last question, but Darryl nails it all while giving Janice flirty eyes while she smiles at him. Darryl is awarded the job and Scott is crushed, justly. Darryl stops the applause to tell the crowd he cheated as the experimental drug had aided him in getting to where he was.

Outside the auditorium, Scott has been cut off from his father’s trust fund. Randall tells Darryl there will be no junior analyst position this year, but Darryl is offered a job in the mailroom which is where Randall started with the promise that he could be a junior analyst in a year. One year later, Darryl is indeed a junior analyst and gets his mother a deluxe apartment in the sky on the east side. The doorman is George Jefferson, and that’s our movie.

Well, this was pretty enjoyable honestly. Sure, there were a lot of dick jokes. Like a lot. And the premise is pretty dumb, yes. But so were the premises of many amazing 90s flicks so I’m giving this one my approval. Not the best, but extremely watchable. Definitely worth more than a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. Don’t believe me? See and hear and feel for yourself as this one is currently streaming on Starz. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.