NOTHING TO LOSE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
Sometimes an audience can work against you. For the press screening of the comedy NOTHING TO LOSE, the studio and the hosting radio station had given out more tickets than seats. And the vast majority of those fortunate enough to find a place acted like card carrying members of the Martin Lawrence fan club. Lawrence, from A THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE and the HOUSE PARTY series, has a happy demeanor to go with his fast and sometimes foul mouth. He's quite a likable star so I can understand part of his attraction.
When Lawrence, playing robber Terrence Paul Davidson, said two words, any two words, the audience went into pandemonium. Since I thought the first part was only sporadically funny, I felt strangely isolated. As pleased as I was that the audience was having such a great time, I found the audience's riotous attitude off-putting since I thought most of the initial gags in the movie only barely worked.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was that writer and director Steve Oedekerk (ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS) eventually won me over by sheer audacity. The broadly written comedy in NOTHING TO LOSE takes many risks and some of them pay off beautifully. And then again, some sink like a stone.
Tim Robbins, who had many fewer fans at my screening, was much funnier than Lawrence. Although most people associate him with his more serious parts, as in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, he has a wide comedic pedigree from the hilarious (BULL DURHAM) to the comedically- challenged (HOWARD THE DUCK). In NOTHING TO LOSE he has the delayed reaction down pat. After a pregnant pause, he delivers his lines with great deadpan humor.
In NOTHING TO LOSE Robbins plays rich advertising executive Nick Beam, who works out of a palatial suite of offices in Los Angeles. The story starts simply but lovingly with him and his wife, Ann (played by Kelly Preston from CITIZEN RUTH), engaged in make-believe while sitting on their bed. She would make up a lie that she was having an affair, and he would have to try to keep a straight face, and then they would switch sides. The chemistry and love between them seems genuine from the first scene. They call each other on the phone during their hectic work schedules just to flirt with all the passion of two new lovers. In short, a perfect marriage.
Nick comes home early one day to find his lecherous boss, Philip Barrow (Michael McKean), whose office contains arguably the funniest fertility statue ever, having sex with his wife. Rather than speak up, Nick slips out the door in a state of utter devastation. His drives 16 MPH on the freeway and in town oblivious to the world he no longer cares about. When Terrence hops in Nick's car to rob him, Nick looks at him with a vacant stare and declares, "Boy, you picked the wrong guy, on the wrong day." Nick starts his sport utility vehicle on a kamikaze mission. When he fails at getting them both killed, he heads for the Arizona desert, turning the robber into a crying hostage.
Slowly the two leads begin the inevitable bonding process which culminates with Nick's concocting a scheme to steal money from his boss's safe as a way to get back at his boss for ruining his life.
Not content with having Lawrence play a robber, the writer had to design a Norman Rockwell family for him and let us in on his secret. The reason he has turned to a life of crime is that people will not hire him. Although he has the skills to make it in the computer industry, people will not give him a chance because he is black and inexperienced. We are even shown a stack of rejection letters. Why can't a robber in a comedy just be a robber? (Still, it does make for one joke that people in the computer field will appreciate. Terrence wants to know exactly what kind of computers they have in Nick's office. "NT?" Terrence asks. Looking like someone who has just wasted their money on the wrong designer shoes, Nick sheepishly replies, "No, just Windows.")
Along the way to their big crime, Terrence and Nick run into two lowlife criminals named Rig (John C. McGinley) and Charlie (Giancarlo Esposito), whose purpose is to supply a plot device to complicate the big burglary.
Of the movie's farcical scenes that work, two stand out. In one, Terrence and Nick steal two flashlights from a hardware store and use the owner as a focus group of one to evaluate the fright factor of various ways of holding people up. In another, the guard watching the boss's office does a late night John Travolta-style dance number that our two would-be robbers worry will never end.
NOTHING TO LOSE's name says it all. Not a great comedy, but one worth trying.
NOTHING TO LOSE runs a fast 1:37. It is rated R for profanity and sex. Although we were shocked to see a large part of our audience under 9 and many under 6, kids under 13 have no business being there. For teenagers, the show should be fine. I give the picture thumbs up and ** 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: July 10, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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