THE CHASE
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1994 Michael John Legeros
Written and directed by Adam Rifkin Starring Charlie Sheen and Kristie Swanson MPAA Rating PG-13 Running Time Approx. 85 minutes
---
"Rule number one is no burning the guy with the gun."
- Charlie Sheen acting "tough" to
Kristie Swanson
Ah, the Seventies. The era of truck chases (CONVOY), car races (THE GUMBALL RALLY), and even truck/car chases (SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT). Remember those fast, funny, throwaway movies? They were perfect popcorn entertainment in a way-too-serious time. But after John Landis filmed the definitive everything-but-the-kitchen-sink car-chase in THE BLUES BROTHERS, the genre died a quiet death. Stuntman cum director Hal Needham filmed THE CANNONBALL RUN II in 1984 and that was that.
Now, ten years too late, comes THE CHASE. This roadkill of a picture is truly awful entertainment--especially in comparison of what came before. In their heyday, even the *worst* chase films had a few things going for them. Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise were usually close. And, sometimes, so were Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. There were some buxom babes, some decent stunts, and a ton of bad jokes.
THE CHASE *also* has a ton of bad jokes. But instead of Burt Reynolds and his hairpiece, there's Charlie Sheen and his what-I-am-I-doing-here stare. He's a man on the lam, wrongly convicted for a robbery he didn't do. He's kidnapped a daddy's rich daughter (Swanson) and her red BMW.
Exhibit A: a babe and a fast car.
Hot on his heels are the cops as comic relief. But don't look for ol' Pink Eyes here. Pop stars have given way to rock stars and Dean Martin has been replaced by Henry Rollins. Who sucks. For added "enjoyment," a couple Red Hot Chili Peppers wander through as a pair of "Beavis and Butthead" types trying to capture Charlie.
Heh heh heh.
Writer/director Adam Rifkin doesn't have a clue on how to stage a car chase. His MTV-style quick-cuts make the action virtually impossible to follow. But does the director compensate with anything even *resembling* snappy dialogue?
Not.
Sample wit: Swanson gets car-sick and heaves a load onto a police
car windshield. A character then observes: "That is a
lot of puke."
With no decent dialogue *or* action to speak of, the film's saving grace are a few good slams on media mentality. Every so often, Rifkin cuts to a tabloid-news program promoting something along the lines of "Kidnapped at 100 MPH." These are good bits that are boosted by a nifty cameo that I won't reveal here.
(The secret is: he's a man.)
Most of this race is a drag. Ray Wise and Claudia Christian are scene-killers as the pompous parents. Plot-holes are the size of pot-holes, from exploding helicopters to disappearing vomit. Or, my favorite, a day that turns to night in under eight minutes.
There's even a thrash-metal soundtrack to help accentuate the negative.
THE CHASE may be *someone's* idea of hip wit. But it bears little resemblance to those great chases of not-so-long-ago when a road film was not highway robbery.
NOTE: Believe it or not, there's one gag in THE CHASE that redeems
the entire experience. And it's not even in the film! Stay
through the closing credits and see a joke that, for my money,
is the funniest I've seen this season. Go figure.
Bottom line: THE CHASE is an awful action-comedy from writer-director
Alan Rifkin. Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson make a cute
couple, but there's not a stitch of decent dialogue or
admirable action to support them.
Grade: D+
.
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