GONE FISHIN'
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Touchstone) Starring: Joe Pesci, Danny Glover, Rosanna Arquette, Nick Brimble, Lynn Whitfield. Screenplay: Jill Mazursky Cody and Jeffrey Abrams. Producer: Roger Birnbaum and Julie Bergman Sender Director: Christopher Cain. MPAA Rating: PG (mild profanity, violent situations) Running Time: 92 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
I was sitting next to a Laugher as I watched GONE FISHIN'. When I say "Laugher," I don't just mean someone who laughs loudly, or someone who laughs frequently. I mean someone who laughs loudly _and_ frequently. The most innocuous line of dialogue was greeted with a hearty chuckle, while a full-fledged sight gag inspired the kind of explosive bellow which I was certain would cause a loss of bladder control. If Disney had test-screened GONE FISHIN' for an audience comprised entirely of clones of this fellow, the champagne corks would have been popping like bubble wrap in the hands of a 10-year-old.
Under most circumstances, the Laugher would have annoyed me to distraction. In the case of GONE FISHIN', the distraction was welcome. The film's breathtaking awfulness forced my mind to wander in sheer self-defense, leading me to spend a lot of time thinking about what a splendid time the Laugher was having. As a critic, it is sometimes useful for me to confront how uniquely personal the movie-going experience can be, particularly when it comes to comedy. In my world, GONE FISHIN' was a complete catastrophe. In the Laugher's world, it was an unqualified delight.
There's certainly nothing inherently clever about the premise. Joe Pesci and Danny Glover play a couple of life-long pals named Joe Waters and Gus Green, who share a love of fishing and a talent for leaving heaping piles of rubble in their wake. And that, ultimately, is what GONE FISHIN' is about. Forget the contest which sends Joe and Gus to the Florida Everglades from their New Jersey home, forget the run-ins with a creepy con artist (Nick Brimble) and the search for his hidden loot, forget the cameos by Louise Fletcher and Willie Nelson (they'll certainly hope you do). GONE FISHIN' is about boats crashing through plate glass windows, exploding gas stations, exploding hotel rooms, and wild rides on runaway vehicles of every possible kind. In other words, it's in the tradition of the slapstick-y live-action comedies Disney made when Dean Jones and Kurt Russell were foiling the nefarious schemes of Joe Flynn and Cesar Romero in various permutations.
At least those concoctions were fast-paced and enthusiastically silly. For every two minutes of action in GONE FISHIN' there are at least twenty minutes of inane chatter between Pesci and Glover. The two are supposed to be lovable, incurably optimistic simpletons, but someone forgot to spend any script time on the "lovable" part. Joe and Gus are dull, immature and, worst of all, they simply refuse to shut up. They're like two long-lost Howard brothers, a pair of Stooges whose suburban upbringing bred most of the malice out of them and left them garrulous, well-intentioned accidental anarchists.
Thoughts of the Three Stooges led me back to the Laugher, and his enjoyment suddenly made a lot more sense. He was laughing at Joe and Gus because they were losers who managed to take con men and slick-talking salesmen down along with them. They were Everymen looking for a break, but they were also trouble-makers. The were rebels without a clue, making an id-level connection the way the Stooges have made id-level connections for sixty years. It's actually a bit of an insult to the Stooges to compare them to the ponderous shenanigans of Joe and Gus, except to note that the audience may find the mayhem similarly appealing. For the Laugher, Joe and Gus's adventures were a riotous 10+. The less Stooge-inclined may consider them nothing but a pair of foreheads waiting for a swinging two-by-four. Now _that_ would be comedy.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 fish shticks: 2.
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