FOOLS RUSH IN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
FOOLS RUSH IN is a romantic comedy about the clash of the Mexican and Anglo cultures. Director Andy Tennant (IT TAKES TWO and THE AMY FISHER STORY) has two attractive, young leads, Salma Hayek and Matthew L. Perry with whom to work. The basic ingredients are present, but it takes more than good looks to make a love story and more than tacky sets to create a comedy. Although after seeing it you may think the title FOOLS RUSH IN refers to the audience's entrance, it actually refers to two people getting married quickly without thinking through the consequences.
Perry plays Alex Whitman. Poor Alex has a flock of miniskirted lasses who want to take him to bed. Alex's buddy and coworker Jeff (Jon Tenney) has already been divorced, and he preaches the advantages of a single life to Alex. Alex is in charge of nightclub construction projects, and his boss has given Jeff and him a big club to build in Las Vegas. Although he had hoped for the Tokyo assignment, he leaves his beloved Manhattan for Vegas.
On one of his first nights in Vegas, he meets Isabel Fuentes (Hayek) in a line for the restroom. With typical 90's movie morals, the next scene has them waking up in his bed the following morning. We have a quick cut to three months later, and one-night-stand Isabel is back to see Alex. She tells him she is pregnant. He then runs through the usual excuse that it was only one night and other reasons why what has happened, couldn't. When she tells him she knows what she has to do, he is relieved. "I always believe in a woman's right to choose," he righteously reassures her. "That's good", she says, "because I choose to keep the baby." He is reduced to an, "Oh."
Soon we have the obligatory scene where she takes him to meet her parents. "Whatever you do, don't tell them I picked you up outside a restroom," she admonishes him. There is never any genuine chemistry between the leads, and the movie goes further downhill when they get to her parent's house.
The meeting setup is a cornucopia of cliches. The house is decorated with the tackiest collection of Mexican artifacts I have ever seen in a film. There is enough food to feed an army. There are loud Mexican folk singers who stop singing when they arrive. Worst of all is the pseudo-anger the men express against the gringo. If it were either genuine or if they have tried for parody, it might have worked, but as delivered, the jokes fell like stones. "They're great," Alex says when he and Isabel leave. "I had no idea that families talked at dinner."
He instantly decides that her lifestyle is so wonderful that he wants to get married. They do this in a tacky wedding chapel complete with an Elvis impersonator.
The script by Katherine Reback relies on ideas that are retreads. A typical scene finds Alex being taken on a trip to go shooting with the men of his new family. After many ominous glares at him as they all ride in the back of a truck, they arrive in the desert. Once there, Alex finds himself standing in a colony of rattlesnakes. The men tell him to hold still as they start shooting their rifles at his feet. This causes him to dance and then fall into a cactus. When he gets back to his house drunk, he pours the tequila on the rug and licks it up with his tongue. My reaction to this scene and, indeed to most of the film was to stare in disbelief.
The picture does have two unique features. It is the first film that I can remember in which the characters in Vegas are smart enough to leave that most plastic of cities and take a day trip to one of the great natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon. Consistent with the quality of the rest of the picture, however, it is also the first film that manages to make the Grand Canyon look unimpressive and dull. They accomplish this feat by overexposing the image and by rushing the shooting and not waiting for the proper natural light. The filming of the Grand Canyon sequence yields another possible interpretation of the film's title.
FOOLS RUSH IN runs about an hour and a half. It is rated PG-13 for some profanity and for sexual situations. The show would be fine for kids 10 and up. I found little fresh or funny material in the show, so thumbs down from me. I give it * 1/2.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: February 11, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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