Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Chelsea Field, Noble Willingham
Have I Seen It Before: Never. It’s been sitting on my to-be-watched disc shelf for over a year, but then Circle’s Graveyard shift decided to close out the year with a Tony Scott double feature, and here we are.
Did I Like It: I’m reasonably sure I was over-hyped on this. Everyone talked to made it seem like it was such an insane example of a 1990s action movie, that by all rights it should have no business even existing.
It isn’t. It’s a pretty basic 90s action movie. Parts of it are funny, never less so than when I realized in the film’s opening minutes that we’re looking at what a Brit thinks of the American fascination with American Helmeted Rugby. Other parts of it don’t age so great, but no less. There are moments where the Michael Kamen score starts to get going, and I can almost imagine that this is a lost Die Hard film.
But it is, ultimately, just a movie, and another in a long line of similarly paced buddy action films written by Shane Black. The essential quality of this genre is accomplished, as Willis and Wayans have good chemistry, made all the more impressive—and unsurprising—that they didn’t get along. Did either of these two guys ever get along with their co-stars?
The moments where it is more a neo-noir piece centered on Bruce Willis’ private detective character, are intermittently clever. It’s not enough that an old friend (Bruce McGill) sets him on a routine job that turns out to be a massive case, but the old friend was hoping he’d get killed in the process, so that he can keep sleeping with Willis’ wife. The old friend promptly explodes.
I enjoyed myself, but make no mistake: you’re just watching a film. It won’t re-wrinkle your brain. What’s more, it’s not terribly interested in trying to do so, nor should it be.