Senseless Information

Senseless is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Penelope Spheeris and written by Greg Erb and Craig Mazin. The film stars Marlon Wayans, David Spade, and Matthew Lillard as college students.

Plot

Darryl Witherspoon (Marlon Wayans) is a college economics student, who does not have the advantages of his wealthy arch-nemesis, Scott Thorpe (David Spade), or his best friend Tim LaFlour (Matthew Lillard), who has got a hockey scholarship. Darryl is so broke he donates four pints of blood in one day (playing a different character each time) and four vials of sperm in one day. Darryl's big break has come when he enters a competition, where the winner gets a high-paying Wall Street job. But when Scott enters the competition, it seems Darryl's break has gone down the drain. He takes on a high-paying experiment to test a drug that enhances the five senses. Darryl uses it to his advantage and he impresses the competition's supervisor, Mr. Tyson (Rip Torn) and he even joins the hockey team as a goalie. But after taking an extra dose one night, he experiences side effects. The experiment's supervisor, Dr. Thomas Wheedon (Brad Dourif), tells Darryl only four of his senses will work at a time until the drug leaves his body.

As Darryl struggles, Tim thinks that his friend is on heroin and gets worried about him. Darryl's luck then starts going down the drain as he loses the hockey game because his sense of sight is lost. He also mistakenly confesses love to his girlfriend's father who he thinks is his girlfriend as his sense of sight is lost. Her father turns out to be Mr. Tyson. He also acts very clumsily (because of the loss of the ability to feel) during the basketball game he is invited to see with a client who needs to be impressed in order for Darryl to score some points with the Smythe-Bates guys. Luckily, the client thinks Darryl is just funny and signs a contract with the company.

As the story progresses, Darryl asks his friend Tim to help him study for the for the next day's interview. At that exact moment, Scott studies for the test with the aid of his rich father's employees. Scott is shown to answer a question correctly but he does not know the reason behind it, he ignores the question. The next day, the drug leaves Darryl's system and now all his five senses operate normally. During the interview, it comes down to Darryl and Scott, Scott is asked the same question he was asked last night, he answers it correctly, but when asked the reason, he does not know, Darryl steps in, gives the correct reason and scores the position of junior analyst at Smythe-Bates. But in his speech, he confesses that he cheated by taking an experimental drug. A meeting is called to decide his fate and Mr. Tyson tells him that he himself started out in the mail room and Darryl should too, if he serves one year duty in the mail room, he will score the position of junior analyst. The story skips a year and Darryl is shown to ask his mom to move into a deluxe apartment. The movie ends with Darryl entering the Smythe-Bates building on his first day, with a familiar-looking doorman (Sherman Hemsley).

Cast

• Marlon Wayans as Darryl Witherspoon
• David Spade as Scott Thorpe
• Matthew Lillard as Tim LaFlour
• Brad Dourif as Dr. Thomas Wheedon
• Tamara Taylor as Janice Tyson
• Rip Torn as Randall Tyson
• Esther Scott as Denise Witherspoon
• Richard McGonagle as Robert Bellwether
• Kenya Moore as Lorraine
• Vicellous Shannon as Carter
• Ernie Lively as Coach Brandau
• Patrick Ewing as Himself
• Greg Grunberg as Steve the commentator
• Debra Jo Rupp as Fertility clinic attendant
• Mark Christopher Lawrence as Wig shop owner
• Sherman Hemsley as Smythe-Bates Doorman

Release

Critical reception

The film received negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "Rotten" rating of 6% based on 16 reviews.

Box office

Senseless opened on February 20, 1998 and, in its opening weekend, made $5,337,651 at #5 behind Titanics tenth weekend, The Wedding Singers second, Spheres second, and Good Will Huntings twelfth.

Soundtrack

The Senseless soundtrack was released February 10, 1998 by Gee Street Records.

1. "Busy Child" - The Crystal Method
2. "Song for Lindy" - Fatboy Slim
3. "Absurd" - Fluke
4. "Alone" - Moby
5. "Do You Want to Freak?" - The Freak Brothers
6. "The Unexplained" - Gravediggaz
7. "Graciosa" - Moby
8. "Reeferendrum" - Fluke
9. "Set Back" - Fluke
10. "Jungle Brother (True Blue)" - Jungle Brothers
11. "Spacefunk" - Headrillaz
12. "Perfect for You" - P.M. Dawn
13. "Atom Bomb" - Fluke
14. "Look Around My Window" - Ambersunshower
15. "Mucho Dinero" - Yankee B.
16. "Movin' on Up" (Theme Song from "The Jeffersons" (1975)) - Ja'net Dubois
17. "Smash the State" - Naked Aggression
18. "Gotta Be ... Movin' on Up" - Prince Be, Ky-Mani, and John Forté