"Pitch me."
Who is Cletis Tout? is a 2001 comedy crime film. This Troperiffic, fast-paced, and occasionally grisly send-up to the Film Noir genre also stars Portia de Rossi, Billy Connolly, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ru Paul in one of his last major film roles before he started focusing mostly on television.
Psychopathic cinephile hitman Critical Jim (Tim Allen) corners sleazy tabloid photographer Cletis Tout (Christian Slater) in an old hotel room who made the suicidal mistake of trying to blackmail the mob with a videotape he took.
A cut-and-dry encounter if not for the fact that Cletis Tout was tortured, shot, and set aflame several weeks prior.
So who’s the man Jim has tied up? And how is he connected to a million-dollar heist at the New York Diamond Exchange from over two decades ago, a jailbreak, and a kitschy furniture store drive-by shooting?
As the two wait for Jim’s bounty to transfer, “Cletis” makes what might be the deadliest elevator pitch for a motion picture in history to explain just that and maybe save his skin in the bargain.
Who is Cletis Tout? contains examples of:
- Alone with the Psycho: The Framing Device of the movie has Finch tied up in a hotel room and telling his story to Critical Jim who he quickly learns is kind of insane.
- Animal Theme Naming: Mafia head honchos Crow Gollotti and Falco. Finch, the guy they’re trying to kill, also has a bird-themed name and makes use of Micah's homing pigeons during his second time in jail.
- Animated Credits Opening: Has one after the Cold Open reminiscent of the art style of Saul Bass. A poster for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, whose cartoony intro Bass worked on, is briefly seen in a video store.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Dr. Mike Savian works with law enforcement, but he has enough underground ties that he needed Finch to bail him out of being found out.
- Chekhov's Gun: The bird cage with the latched bottom.
- Corrupt Cop: Detective Delaney, who’s on the take. He's the only villain in the movie with no comedic interactions or qualities, even willing to kill innocent old ladies to conceal his dirty dealings.
- Dodgy Toupee: Detective Rafferty has one, which is the subject of some good-natured ribbing from his fellow officers.
- The Dragon: Falco to Crow.
- Fan Disservice: Slain prostitute Merrill Candide’s rotting and recently autopsied corpse (which has had its breast implants cut out) is seen naked during Savian’s introductory scene.
- Friendly Sniper: To prove that he's Tout and that the mafia is out to get him, Finch has Tess stage an attempt on his life with rifle fire. This not only convinces the police who were escorting him to the morgue to verify his claims, but it also causes the actual hit squad that was closing in on him at that moment to scatter.
- Godzilla Threshold: When Tout seems to keep evading death, Crow reluctantly makes the call to hire Critical Jim to assassinate him. His hesitation to do so proves to be justified as Jim is not only expensive but dangerously eccentric so much so that he winds up killing all the villains in the end after Finch charms him with his story.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Paulie “the Fist” Virago, Rowdy’s father was Tout’s intended blackmail victim, the one who ordered his death, and whose bidding all the other mafia-affiliated characters follow though he never appears onscreen.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: When he turns himself in (as Tout) to a minimum security prison that was built on the hiding spot of Micah's diamond stash, Finch is not only allowed to maintain a garden on the grounds but keep homing pigeons as well. This is somewhat justified as Detective Tripp and the police are just interested both don't know about the diamonds and are just giving "Tout" what he wants within reason so he'll fork over the tape incriminating Rowdy. They do investigate the garden later - too late - and grill Finch on the purposes of the pigeons - which he shakes off with a very plausible lie.
- Hero of Another Story: Critical Jim takes a moment to explain what he got up to after Finch gave him the slip on the subway, randomly encountering and punishing some hoodlums who were vandalizing the area.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Micah taking Finch along with him during his jailbreak to save him from the enemies he made in prison starts a chain of events that indirectly lead to him getting lethally wounded by Nimble and Fife.
- Noble Demon: Tim Allan's official YouTube page featuring a clip of the character describes Critical Jim as a "morally obligated hit-man".
- Not So Harmless: Stupid and sloppy as they may be, Nimble and Fife are unrepentantly murderous gangsters responsible for the deaths of the real Cletis Tout and Micah.
- Paparazzi: The real Cletis Tout was a self-described video journalist who was described by others as a “thug with a camera”.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Ginger only has two (three, if you’re feeling generous) scenes in the movie, but him mistaking Finch for Tout and giving him his copy of the tape thwarts his and Micah’s clean getaway, necessitating the larger plot of the film.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: While he doesn't let it interfere with his job, Critical Jim tries to glean movie logic and cinematic motifs from Finch's story, and is genuinely distraught when Micah doesn't survive long enough to properly reconcile with Tess as he pegged him as a protagonist.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Micah and Finch may be criminals, but they'd rather not hurt anyone if they can help it. This lands them both into trouble they could've avoided if they had been more traditionally ruthless.
- At the start of the film, in the 1970s, rather than kill the man, Micah just ties up a security guard who spots him, which makes it possible for the police to identify him later on.
- Finch is able to scheme, scamper, and talk his way out of most situations, but when put in a do-or-die situation at the end of the movie by Critical Joe to blast his way out of the hotel room, he can't bring himself to shoot Nimble and Fife.
