8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Orion) Starring: Joe Pesci, Andy Comeau, Kristy Swanson, David Spade, Todd Louiso, Dyan Cannon, George Hamilton. Screenplay: Tom Schulman. Producers: Brad Krevoy, Steve Stabler, John Bertolli Director: Tom Schulman. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 93 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Clueless college students on holiday inadvertently cross paths with mobsters, and end up having to tote around a lot of dead flesh in order to stay alive; macabre wackiness ensues. Is this the plot to WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S III. No, no, thank merciful God in heaven, no. The film in question is 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG, and it's not nearly as awful as its plot or direct-to-video-style title might suggest. It's the story of a low level mobster named Tommy Spinelli (Joe Pesci) who is given the assignment of carrying the titular crania from New Jersey to San Diego as proof for the Big Boss that a contract hit has been completed. Unfortunately for Tommy, his bag is mixed up with one belonging to aimless but affable medical student Charlie Prichett (Andy Comeau), who is accompanying his girlfriend Laurie Bennett (Kristy Swanson) and her parents (Dyan Cannon and George Hamilton) on a trip to Mexico. That leaves Tommy only 24 hours to track down his heads, with the unwilling assistance of Charlie's two best friends (David Spade and Todd Louiso).
It comes as quite a surprise to realize that twisted plot was created by Tom Schulman, the screenwriter behind the decidedly not-twisted DEAD POETS SOCIETY. There area few moments of gruesome comic brilliance in 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG, most of them involving the strange fates which continuously befall the heads. One ends up in the laundry, tumbling dry; another is carried off by a coyote. Makeup artist Greg Cannom (THE MASK) does a delightful job of creating the heads, which keep turning up at inconvenient moments and end up providing the film's best scene during a sweet rendition of "Mr. Sandman."
When Schulman is willing to push the limits of good taste, 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG produces some big laughs, but he should have been willing to push those limits even further, and more often. For the first half of the film, Charlie and the Bennett family scream and fumble around in a posh Mexican hotel in a strained manner, with newcomer Comeau trying to carry the farce on his thin shoulders. He needs a lot more help than can be provided by Dyan Cannon and George Hamilton, however; their presence only serves to give you the feeling that you're watching a dark-humored episode of "The Love Boat." While he has a bizarre and original plot device at his disposal, Schulman inexplicably resorts to unpleasant Mexican stereotypes, Cannon's incessant shrieking and a parade of pratfalls.
Joe Pesci, on the other hand, is wonderfully relaxed, and his character does a lot to save 8 HEADS. For most of the film, Tommy is busy threatening Charlie's freaked-out buddies, and we expect Pesci to become the amped-up sadist he made famous in GOODFELLAS and CASINO. The great gag in Pesci's scenes with Spade and Comeau is that he's much more simple and creative in the tortures he devises for his wimpy captives. With the reserve of a veteran, Tommy gets the information he needs by whipping the two men with wet towels, hanging them upside-down from gravity boots, and twisting their ears. It's a great, goofy spin on Pesci's stock character, and it gives 8 HEADS some of its best moments.
Too bad only Pesci seems to realize that fact. Schulman actually doesn't seem to know what he wants to do with the characters, resulting sloppy and fairly pointless attempts at providing motivation. Charlie, we learn, is unable to decide on an academic direction, probably because he really wants to be a writer; Laurie thinks she wants to break up with him because of his lack of stability; Tommy is decent enough guy who just wants to retire after this one last delivery. None of these snippets of personality amount to anything, however; they're stock situations which don't even yield stock resolutions. Schulman just lets his direction and script wander, getting terribly conventional at the oddest moments and pulling back when he should have been ready to go for the jugular. 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG is just too uneven to be satisfying, even if some individual gags work to perfection. When you're throwing body parts at the audience, you've got to offer more than half-hearted whimsy.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 severance plays: 5.
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