‘The Pest’ Lives Up to Its Name

“The Pest” is the worst. Talented and versatile actor-comedian John Leguizamo indulges himself so totally with incessant mugging, mimicking and all-around showing off that he begins to wear out his welcome before the opening credit sequence is over.

Leguizamo collaborated with screenwriter/co-producer David Bar Katz on this joyless would-be laugh riot in which he plays a frenetic Miami con man who becomes quite literally the target of a crazed German hunter (Jeffrey Jones, with a wavering accent) who wants Leguizamo’s head for his trophy wall. Meanwhile, Leguizamo is on the run from the Scottish Mafia.

You can only wish that one or the other of them had caught up with him long before the picture’s 82 minutes were up.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for crude sexual, scatological and ethnic humor. Times guidelines: Some parents may find the film’s humor too crude for small children.

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‘The Pest’

John Leguizamo: Pest

Jeffrey Jones: Gustav

Edoardo Ballerini: Himmel

Freddy Rodriguez: Ninja

TriStar Pictures and the Bubble Factory present a Sheinberg Production. Director Paul Miller. Producers Sid Sheinberg, Jon Sheinberg and Bill Sheinberg. Executive producer Robert A. Papazian. Screenplay by David Bar Katz; story by Katz and John Leguizamo. Cinematographer Roy H. Wagner. Editors Ross Albert, David Rawlins. Costumes Tom McKinley. Music Kevin Kiner. Production designer Rodger E. Maus. Art director Suzette Ervin. Set designers Carole Lee Cole, Ray Markham. Set decorator Jim Duffy. Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.