METRO
A film review by Michael Redman
Copyright 1997 Michael Redman
*1/2 (out of ****)
Eddie Murphy=92s latest comedy action film owes much of its commercial appeal to his previous "48 Hours". Unfortunately director Thomas Carter and writer Randy Feldman seem to have forgotten that the earlier movie not only had a plot, but had at least a few scenes that were not time-worn cliches.
Murphy is police hostage negotiator Roper who forms an arch-enemy relationship with a sadistic psycho played by Michael Wincott. Although the two turn in more than adequate performances, as does girlfriend Carmen Ejogo and partner Michael Rapaport, the story goes where _every_ cop buddy movie has gone before.
The story was so predictable that I found myself in a time warp, watching the film ten minutes beyond what was on the screen. When Roper=92s older police mentor goes into an apartment building to "just talk" to a suspect and tells Murphy to wait in the car because it=92s no big deal, you know what=92s about to happen. After the inevitable, Murphy=
wants to track down the killer and is ordered off the case by his boss. What do you think he does?
Early in the film, streetwise tough guy Roper is assigned a white partner with no experience but lots of book learning. Ever seen this before? Wincott escapes from jail eager for vengeance and Roper and girlfriend are about to leave for a vacation when she goes back to her apartment alone. You can guess the next plot development.
And it goes on and on. =
There are so many plot lines that are not followed up that I suspect there are five films on the cutting room floor where these scenes made sense. The cop pals spend an afternoon at a race track for some reason. Ejogo=92s boyfriend makes a brief appearance and then vanishes.
Murphy=92s performance makes the movie watchable. Miraculously he is able=
to wring some freshness out of most tired scenes by his over-the-top persona. Looking leaner and meaner than in past films, he does a commendable job in the dramatic role. Rapaport turns in a decent job, but his character is underused and goes nowhere.
Like all good cop films, there are car chases and explosions aplenty. After the popular chase sequences in "Bullet", every action movie filmed in San Francisco has an obligatory high-speed-flying-through-the-air spectacle through the city of hills. Here we are treated to that sight so many times that it bores rather than thrills.
There is an out of control cable car chase that is more interesting and features a unique method of applying the brakes to the picturesque means of transportation. The scene would have been even more exciting if it had an hour or two trimmed from it.
[This appeared in the 1/23/97 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at mredman@bvoice.com ]
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