Runtime:
85 minutes
Directed
by: Dennis Feldman
Starring:
Jim Belushi, John Ritter, Barbara Barrie, Bill Morey
From:
United Artists
Now,
here's something that is odd to review for the 4th of July
but yet in a strange way it fits, just like how somehow this strange
and odd movie still manages to be quite funny, have some nice action,
and it deals with Americans having to deal with those evil Soviet
bastards in order to try and save the world.
I
hadn't even heard of this movie until some people on a forum watched
it a matter of some months ago and gave it some strong praise. I
recently took an interest in watching it, then discovered that
yesterday it was showing in the middle of the afternoon on Encore;
that was perfect for me.
The
plot... there's a CIA agent (Belushi) who is great at his job despite
being unconventional; he has to team up with a guy who looks just
like a recently killed fellow agent (Ritter) as that guy is needed to
complete a trade that involves ALIENS in order to save the world.
The
movie certainly is odd and has quite a few strange things to it...
not to mention, the two leads as action hero types. But, it's a good
type of odd and strange. I mean, it's never off-putting. An example
of the weirdness is that the phrase “HO-LEE SHIT, clown attack!”
is used and it's actualy appropriate for what's going on.
It's
not a movie you want to examine the plot of too closely but what
makes this fun to watch is that it moves at a fast pace, the action
stuff is entertaining, and it's often quite funny. The one-liners
work and fit with the scene. And even though this is PG-13 this was
back in the day where you could get away with quite a bit more than
you can now with that rating. Here, many people get killed and you
get to see a topless woman.
In
fact this movie may have been ahead of its time. I say that as some
gags that were used here were copied in movies that came out much
later. For example, there's a brief scene of Jim having sex with a
lady; mid-coitus, he takes out a gun and shoots a bad guy. That sort
of thing was expanded on and used in movies like Shoot Em Up and
Drive Angry. There's also the point where someone takes their finger
and shoots someone with it and the person actually dies; that was
used in movies like Crank 2.
So,
if you enjoy quirky comedies that are actually funny, then this
movie-which bombed on release and I don't think has found too large
of an audience since then-is certainly worth seeing. I'll be back Friday night.
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