Runtime: 97 minutes
Directed by: George Armitage
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Fred Ward (RIP), Jennifer Jason Leigh, Charles Naiper, Nora Dunn
From: Orion
RIP Fred Ward
While I haven't done a Letterboxd review of every movie I've even seen featuring Ward, it is still shameful that I haven't watched more considering Tremors is a favorite from my childhood and I've always enjoyed seeing him in a role. Another shameful fact is that for years I've heard strong praise for this wild-ass movie yet it took a main player passing away for me to finally hit “play.” As it was something I enjoyed-not a surprise that this movie is more for us dorks on Letterboxd than the staid general public-what a fool I was for having this in my figurative queue for so long.
Alec Baldwin plays the preposterously named Frederick J. Frenger, Jr. After arriving in Miami he meets then hooks up with prostitute Jennifer Jason Leigh and has to deal with police officer Ward. All three main players are various shades of pathetic. After all, Ward has dentures (which is an odd detail that is explained) and he has his badge/gun stolen. Frenger is a sociopath who commits some shocking crimes and Leigh is a bumpkin from Okeechobee, Florida-I've been in the town before, and it does have some bumpkins!-who stays with her new man despite some obvious warning signs.
All three are great in their roles, each having tremendous chemistry with the other two. Leigh manages to be quite sympathetic despite falling for a lunatic. As I've heard others say, this is like GTA Vice City, specifically you dicking around between missions and causing havoc. There are several shocking moments, a constant wave of crime-I've seen Cocaine Cowboys so that is not too much an exaggeration for the South Florida of the time-a nice aesthetic and a vibrant soundtrack. Thus, despite it being a story where a wild criminal is followed, it was a nice way to tip my cap to Ward, who was also an executive producer and was the one who brought one of the books based on Hoke Moseley (the police officer he played) to the silver screen. Jonathan Demme was a producer and it seemed like his presence was felt throughout.
Those novels were from author Charles Willeford, who passed away about two years before this movie was released. Apparently much of his work was of this tone or were even wilder send-ups of the genres they resided in; in a perfect world Ward would have brought more Moseley tales to the silver screen but alas...
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