Safe Men is a 1998 film written and directed by John Hamburg

John Hamburg

John Hamburg is an American screenwriter and film director.-Early life:Hamburg was born in New York City to a Jewish family. His mother is radio personality Joan Hamburg. He graduated from Brown University in 1992 with a degree in history...

. The crime-comedy starred Sam Rockwell

Sam Rockwell

Sam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...

 and Steve Zahn

Steve Zahn

-Early life:Zahn was born in Marshall, Minnesota, the son of Zelda, who worked for the YMCA, and Carleton E. Zahn, a retired Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor. Zahn spent part of his childhood in Mankato, Minnesota, attending Kennedy Elementary School...

 as a pair of aspiring lounge singers who are mistaken for ace safe crackers

Safe-cracking

Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or key. It may also refer to a computer hacker's attempts to break into a secured computer system, in which case it may be shortened to "cracking" or black hat hacking....

 and get mixed up with a Jewish mobster, Big Fat Bernie Gayle (Michael Lerner

Michael Lerner (actor)

-Life and career:Lerner was born in Brooklyn, New York of Romanian Jewish descent, the son of Blanche and George Lerner, who was a fisherman and antiques dealer. He was raised in Bensonhurst and Red Hook. His brother, Ken Lerner, is also an actor...

) and Big Fat's intern, Veal Chop (Paul Giamatti

Paul Giamatti

Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...

).

Safe Men was the debut film by Hamburg, who went on to write screenplays for such films as Meet the Parents

Meet the Parents

Meet the Parents is a 2000 American comedy film written by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg and directed by Jay Roach. Starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, the film chronicles a series of unfortunate events that befall a good-hearted but hapless male nurse while visiting his girlfriend's parents...

, Zoolander

Zoolander

Zoolander is a 2001 American satirical comedy film directed by and starring Ben Stiller. The film contains elements from a pair of short films directed by Russell Bates and written by Drake Sather and Stiller for the VH1 Fashion Awards television specials in 1996 and 1997. The short films and the...

, and Along Came Polly

Along Came Polly

Along Came Polly is a 2004 American romantic comedy film written and directed by John Hamburg, starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston in the lead roles.-Plot:...

which he also directed.

Reception

In August 1998, The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

called it a "low-energy comedy with sufficient signs of willingness to stray off the beaten track to indicate that somewhere down the line its writer and director, John Hamburg, will create something far better." Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 gave the film (one star out of four), saying it "whirls wildly from one bright idea to the next, trying to find a combo that will hold the movie together. No luck." Mick LaSalle

Mick LaSalle

Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...

 gave it "There's no dramatic urgency, no distinct point of view, no question of plot to keep an audience interested. All Safe Men has is the charm of the actors and the occasional friskiness of the writing. That's almost enough to keep the picture alive, minute by minute. Alive is not the same as thriving, but it's better than dead.

In March 2002, The A.V. Club

The A.V. Club

The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...

 began its review with:

The vast majority of direct-to-video films are not very good, lacking not only star power and budget, but ideas and imagination. Every once in a while, though, a movie is denied a proper theatrical release not because it's bad, but because it just isn't the sort of film for which a studio is willing to risk a multimillion-dollar advertising budget. Safe Men is one of these movies, a modest but engaging crime comedy.

A.V. Club also called the film a "sort of Bottle Rocket

Bottle Rocket

Bottle Rocket is a 1996 comedy film directed by Wes Anderson. It was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. As well as being Wes Anderson's directorial debut, Bottle Rocket was the debut feature for brothers Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson, who co-starred with James Caan and Robert Musgrave.The film...

Lite, sharing a deadpan, consistently sustained comic tone, as well as a palpable affection for its characters. Almost everyone in Safe Men is pathetic on some level, but first-time writer-director John Hamburg grants even his least significant characters a humanity that gives the film a sort of warm, fuzzy glow.

Songs from the film

Title	Performed by	Written by
"Can You Get That"	Funkadelic Funkadelic Funkadelic was an American band most prominent during the 1970s. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, began the funk music culture of that decade.-History:...	George Clinton George Clinton (musician) George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost... , Ernie Harris
"Hole In The Wall"	The Packers The Packers The Packers were an American soul group formed by tenor saxophonist Charles "Packy" Axton, who was the son of Stax Records part-owner Estelle Axton. Axton was a former member of the Mar-Keys; Leon Haywood was among those who played on the group's records...	Nathaniel Nathan, Steve Cooper, Al Jackson, Booker T. Jones Booker T. Jones Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...
"Bring It Home Daddy"	Ted Hawkins Ted Hawkins Ted Hawkins was an American singer-songwriter. He was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, United States.Hawkins was an enigmatic figure through most of his career; he split his time between his adopted hometown of Venice Beach, California where he was a mostly anonymous street performer, and Europe,...	Ted Hawkins
"Chains & Things"	B.B. King	B.B. King, Dave Clark
"Jesus Is Waiting"	Al Green Al Green Albert Greene , better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together"...	Al Green
"More Mess On My Thing"	The New Process	Whitefield, Baral, Whitefield
"Baby Come Back"	Player Player (band) Player is an American rock band that made their mark during the late 1970s. The group scored a few US Hot 100 hits, three of which went into the Top 40 -two of those single releases went Top 10, including the #1 hit "Baby Come Back". That song was written by group members Peter Beckett and J.C....	Peter Beckett, John Charles Crowley
"Shake Your Thing"	E.U.	Rudolph, Ronald, and O'Kelly Isley
"Tell Me Something Good"	Rufus & Chaka Khan	Stevie Wonder Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
"It's Your Thing"	Andy Mauro	Rudolph, Ronald, and O'Kelly Isley
"Bust a Move Bust a Move Bust a Move can refer to:in music* Bust a Move , a 1989 hip hop song by Young MC* Bust a Move, a song by Infected Mushroom from the album Classical Mushroom* BustAMove, a coverband from Germanyin video games* Bust-A-Move Bash!... "	Young MC Young MC Marvin Young , better known by his stage name Young MC, is an English-born American singer and actor. He is best known for his 1989 hit "Bust a Move"...	Michael Ross, Matt Dike, Marvin Young
"Got To Be Real"	Cheryl Lynn Cheryl Lynn Lynda Cheryl Smith , known better by her professional name Cheryl Lynn, is a female African-American disco, R&B and soul singer known best for her 1978 disco song, "Got to Be Real".-Early career:...	Cheryl Lynn, David Paich, David Foster
"Car Wash"	Rose Royce Rose Royce Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B band. The group is best known for several hit singles including "Car Wash," "I Wanna Get Next to You," "Wishing on a Star", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" and "I'm Going Down".-Career:...	Norman Whitfield
"Sirius"	Alan Parsons Project	Alan Parsons Alan Parsons Alan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor... , Eric Woolfson Eric Woolfson Eric Norman Woolfson was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and creator of The Alan Parsons Project. He has sold over 50 million albums world-wide....
"All Out Of Love All Out of Love "All Out of Love" is a pop–ballad by Air Supply, released in 1980. It reached number 2 in the US and number 11 in the UK. The song is considered to be one of the greatest love songs, placing 92nd in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Love Songs.... "	Air Supply Air Supply Air Supply is an Australian soft rock duo, consisting of Graham Russell as guitarist and singer-songwriter and Russell Hitchcock as lead vocalist. They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight Top Ten hits in the United States, in the early 1980s...	Graham Russel, Clive Davis Clive Davis Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
"Shake Your Groove Thing Shake Your Groove Thing "Shake Your Groove Thing" is a song by disco duo Peaches & Herb. It reached #2 for four weeks on the Billboard Disco chart in 1978. The single reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Billboard R&B Chart.-In pop culture:... "	Peaches & Herb Peaches & Herb Peaches & Herb was an American vocalist duo, once comprising Herb Fame and Francine "Peaches" Hurd Barker...	Fredrick Perren, Dino Fekaris

DVD release

The movie was released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

on August 15, 2006 with new commentary features and a Hamburg short film about independently contracted bomb defusers.