And I'm not going to take it anymore!
The Out-Of-Towners A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1999 By Michael Redman
*1/2 (Out of ****)
To quote a cinematic sage from years ago: I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!
Perhaps it's just my recent choices of films, but all I've seen during the past few weeks has been dreck ("Mod Squad", "Cruel Intentions") or well-crafted but dismal ("Affliction", "8mm").
Desperate for a good time in the theater, I chose what appeared to be a sure thing. A re-make of a film that I enjoyed years ago, this time staring Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn and John Cleese. All personal favorites. How could it go wrong?
I don't know how, but it does.
Procrastinating writing this column, I stole some time to drink a couple of beers and dance to Buckwheat Zydeco in a hot sweaty bar. Walking home in the chilling but invigorating spring rain, I was struck by the fact that fun still exists.
And that's what this film doesn't have: fun.
Henry (Martin) and Nancy (Hawn) Clark are in the midst of their mid-life crisis. Their youngest child just left home and the nest is empty. He's been fired from this advertising job. In a desperate attempt to save his career, he's heading to New York for an interview.
Everything goes wrong. Their plane is diverted to Boston. They miss the train to the city. Once they reach Manhattan, the Columbus, Ohio couple are strangers in a strange land. They're mugged. Their credit card is declined at the hotel. They have no place to stay and no food. You know the drill.
Unfortunately everything goes wrong with the film too. Martin is one of the best comedic actors alive, but he doesn't connect. The timing is off and the jokes are old and tired. Remarkably Hawn fails at her ditzy blonde role, a persona she has built a career upon. Their chemistry is non-existent. In scenes that could be from Warner Brothers cartoons, the usually over-the-top actors are oddly hesitant.
The storyline is one disconnected episode after another. Any scene could be dropped and the tale would make as much sense. In fact, nearly all the scenes could be eliminated and it would be a better film. I spent most of the movie drumming my fingers on the armrest waiting for something humorous.
To be fair, there are a few bits that work. After Henry is slipped a hallucinogenic in jail, he dances down the streets to "Age Of Aquarius". That's funny for about 15 seconds. The few moments Cleese is on-screen are hilarious, but ten minutes don't make a movie.
So that does it. I'm not wasting my time writing another column until I see a film that's fun. Or until next week's deadline arrives -- whichever comes first.
(Michael Redman has written this column for well over 23 years and he's thinking about spending more time dancing.)
[This appeared in the 4/8/99 "Bloomington Independent", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at Redman@indepen.com] -- mailto:redman@indepen.com This week's film review: http://www.indepen.com/ Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman Y2K articles: http://www.indepen.com/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews