The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Sometimes reviews are here to help encourage others to seek out films that are relatively unknown. Sometimes I'm pretty much preaching to the converted. This review of The Last Boy Scout falls into the latter camp. 

Bruce Willis is Joe Hallenbeck, a detective who is nothing more than a crumpled heap of neo-noir tropes. He gets dragged into a case that involves a stripper named Cory (Halle Berry) and her boyfriend, ex-quarterback Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans). People start dying as they start to untangle a plot that involves gambling, corruption, and a ruthless businessman named Sheldon Marcone (Noble Willingham).

Starting with a hell of a set-piece that shows a football player tearing through a field of opponents and pulling a gun as he continues to run towards some points he desperately needs to placate some dangerous blackmailers, The Last Boy Scout is a small-scale film that works as well as it does thanks to the mix of characters and the impact of the many moments that have Hallenbeck cornered by deadly thugs.

Director Tony Scott brings his usual flair for this kind of material, without his usual love of excessively hyperactive editing (oh, you can tell it is HIS film, but it's much less headache-inducing than some of his later movie), and Shane Black is on form with his use of tropes and witty one-liners, making Hallenbeck one of his most memorable characters in a filmography that is just crammed with memorable characters.

Willis and Wayans are a good central pairing, with the former being older and cynical while the latter is a flawed wannabe-hero who perhaps isn't as familiar with how bad people can truly be. That's not to say that the character played by Willis isn't flawed, but his flaws are shown as part of the whole package that helps to make him so good at his job (or, at least, a stereotype who nobody expects to be able to achieve great things until he starts to defy the odds). Willingham is a charismatic villain, as is Taylor Negron (playing one of his right hand men), and Danielle Harris steals a couple of scenes, playing Hallenbeck's moody, but also smart and brave, daughter. Berry doesn't do too bad in her role, Chelsea Field is Hallenbeck's suffering wife, and there are one or two scenes for the great Bruce McGill.

You can predict a lot of the main plot beats here, and Black has never been bothered about being predictable, his focus is always on the dialogue and pacing, but this is yet another film that gives you joy through the actual journey, rather than the main destination. Which isn't to say that the finale is a disappointment. It brings everything together beautifully, and keeps the stakes high for all involved.

Willis gives one of his best, grizzled, turns (this performance sits just below the better Die Hard movies and Twelve Monkeys, in my opinion, if only for the pure fun of it), Wayans is on good form, there's a great score from Michael Kamen, and Scott and Black make a great team. It's a shame that this was their only film together. It's a high point for both of them.

8/10

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Look Who's Talking Too (1990)

I knew there had to be a reason for me having never seen any of the sequels to Look Who's Talking before now. That would be because they may be awful (the verdict on the next one is due next week). Where the first film had the novelty of allowing viewers hear what a baby may be thinking as they make sense of the world around them, this sequel decides to . . . ummmm . . . actually, it decides to just keep doing that more. In a way that is much less entertaining.

James (John Travolta) and Mollie (Kirstie Alley) are now an item. There's another baby on the way. It's a girl. So Mikey (still voiced by Bruce Willis) has to figure out what is required of him in his new role of big brother to Julie (voiced by Roseanne Barr). Meanwhile, things start to become strained between James and Mollie, a situation not helped by the arrival of Mollie's brother, Stuart (Elias Koteas).

With Amy Heckerling returning to the director's chair, this time co-writing the script with Neal Israel, you would hope that she had an idea good enough to help her recapture the magic of the first film. That's not the case. Look Who's Talking Too isn't without very occasional moments of fun (one being the unexpected treat of watching Gilbert Gottfried dancing alongside Travolta), but it generally tries to rework elements of the first film with less wit and smarts. That's what many sequels do, of course, but it's harder to enjoy something that feels a lot lazier and poorly handled.

The adults don't do a bad job. Travolta and Alley still work well together, and I am always happy to see Koteas have some screentime. The aforementioned Gottfried cameo is as bewildering as it is highly amusing. If the film somehow managed to sideline the kids and stay focused on the adults then it could have been an okay, if unspectacular, comedy about parents dealing with the various issues that life throws at them. But this is a film trying to focus on the kids, and it's the kids who do the worst work. To be fair, they're not exactly to blame. Remember when Mikey seemed a bit too old by the end of Look Who's Talking to continue communicating with the inner monologue of Bruce Willis and not his own words? Yeah, that's a much bigger problem here, what with him being an older character, and the child seemingly unable to stop wanting to babytalk to anyone close enough to him in every scene. Although Julie is younger, it also feels as if she has already gone beyond the point of just having an inner voice. Willis and Barr deliver their lines in a fairly perfunctory manner, which also doesn't help, but there are a couple of fun voice cameos from Damon Wayans and Mel Brooks, with the latter portraying a bizarre "talking" toilet.

It's a shame that they didn't decide to either do away with the inner voice gimmick, or perhaps mix that inner voice with whatever the kids might have been able to say in person, because this could have been more bearable if that hadn't been the focus. As it is, you will end up smiling far too infrequently, rolling your eyes at the contrived finale, and being glad when it's all over.

3/10

You can buy this set here.
Americans can also buy that, or get this set here.

Netflix And Chill: Mo' Money (1992)

We've all got movies that we've sat through because, well, a partner enjoys it and relationships are about compromise. Sometimes that leads you to some new favourites, sometimes you end up seeing every single Twilight movie, and sometimes you sit there with a smile plastered on your face while trying to figure out what is so entertaining about Mo' Money. I found myself in that last situation a couple of decades ago, and have studiously avoided the film ever since. But I decided that I would revisit it when I saw it on Netflix. Maybe my memory of it was all wrong. Maybe it was actually a good film. Neither of those statements proved to be correct.

The plot revolves around a couple of crooks that viewers are supposed to root for, two brothers named Johnny (Damon Wayans) and Seymour (Marlon Wayans). Johnny, in an attempt to win over a beautiful woman (Amber, played by Stacey Dash), gets a job in a credit card company. He eventually realises that he can use the returned cards, which are all sent out pre-authorised, to treat himself to the good life. This quickly gets him in trouble, but he doesn't realise how much trouble. The head of security (Keith, played by John Diehl) is already working a very profitable scam, and the first scenes show that he will kill to keep himself safe.

Okay, I'm not a big fan of any of the Wayans brothers, although Damon is probably the one I dislike the least (he did at least star in the greatness that is The Last Boy Scout), but even that factor isn't enough to explain why Mo' Money is such a bad film, and it is a BAD film. As much as I may not mind Wayans onscreen, his script here is atrocious. It must have been bad back in the early '90s but it seems a hell of a lot worse now. The plot and characters give you nothing to invest in, the comedic set-pieces include the Wayans brothers pretending that one of them has a mental health issue causing him to throw food around a store until they get a free sandwich to help calm him down, the Wayans brothers pretending to be a simple "foreigner" who could be easily ripped-off by a cab driver (distracting the driver while the other man tries to rob his takings), and the Wayans brothers pretending to be supremely gay as they misuse a credit card in a jewellery store. And that's before we start to look at the way the character played by Dash is viewed at one point (willing to endure a bad relationship for the money), the jokes derided from the look/longing of a woman named Charlotte (played by Almayvonne), or the simple fact that viewers are supposed to root for the main characters here because they're crooks who probably won't kill anyone.

Peter Macdonald directs with the feeling that he has been given a paycheck and then overruled on every aspect of the film by the Wayans brothers. Never any kind of auteur, in my limited exposure to his filmography, it's difficult to see a lot of the decisions made here as anything other than the sort of decisions made by a writer-star with a self-inflated sense of their own importance. And, considering the tales that have been told in recent years about Wayans, that becomes a lot easier to imagine.

Wayans and Wayans are how they are, both aiming to riff on Eddie Murphy's stylings and both failing to do anything other than remind you of how great Eddie Murphy was when at his peak. Dash, although not helped in any way by the script, is a welcome presence, and Diehl is a small saving grace, portraying the charming and menacing villain so well that you forget that he looks like someone playing Kevin Costner in a TV movie entitled "The Tide Has Turned: Waterworld And How I Survived It" within a few minutes. I've already mentioned the poor treatment of Almayvonne, Harry Lennix does what he can with his weak role, and Joe Santos actually makes his role (a tenacious cop who wants the lead to turn his life around) better than it should be.

"Why settle for less?" was one of the main taglines for this when it was first released. That definitely still seems like the best line to use, but more as a warning than a selling point.

3/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can get it here.

Roxanne (1987)

Updating the classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, Roxanne is a superior romantic comedy that benefits enormously from a cracking script (written by the leading man, Steve Martin). It has at least two set-pieces, in my opinion, that hold up alongside any truly great comedy moments that you could think of and the rest of the film rarely dips. Well, not too far anyway.

Martin plays Fire Chief C. D. Bales (the C stands for Charlie). C. D. is a great guy. He's selfless, intelligent and very funny. He also has a big nose. A very, very big nose. Mention it at your peril. So when the beautiful and sharp Roxanne (Daryl Hannah) moves into his small town, C. D. may find himself falling for her but also keeps remembering that nothing will happen - it's as plain as the nose on his face. Things get complicated, however, when Roxanne falls for the handsome, but pretty vacant, Chris (Rick Rossovich). The feeling is mutual, but Chris gets nervous about wooing the lovely lady. C. D. suggests a love letter, using the power of words to win over Roxanne completely, and decides to help Chris by providing the words for him. Roxanne is on cloud nine, having found what she thinks may be her ideal man - blissfully unaware that the words are coming from C.D.

I've never been a big fan of Daryl Hannah, but she's very suitable in her role here and the central "love triangle" is completely believable thanks to her solid performance and, of course, her beauty (hey, not being TOO shallow, if a film features a potential love interest appealing to a wide range of potential suitors then that person should have an obvious beauty - be it inner, outer or both). Rick Rossovich does a great job, especially in the way that he plays the comedy, and makes for a fun fly in the ointment. He's shallow and slightly dense, but he's also pretty sweet. In a way. But this is, of course, Steve Martin's show and he's written a marvellous creation for himself to play. Defined by his humour, intelligence, quirkiness and that big nose, C. D. Bales is always fun to be around and a great updated version of a classic character. The rest of the cast includes Shelley Duvall, John Kapelos, Michael J. Pollard (a favourite of mine), Damon Wayans, Edmond Rostand and Fred Willard, all doing decent work.

Director Fred Schepisi has never created anything truly great, from my knowledge of his filmography, and I would nominate this movie as his best work. There's nothing special on display, however, and everything positive comes from the script and performances. Of course, the performances are directed by . . . . . . the director, but I'm just saying that nothing else stands out. The soundtrack isn't memorable, the camerawork is fairly straightforward, there are one or two standard montage moments, nothing feels particularly fresh or stylish. The good thing is that the movie doesn't need to feel fresh or stylish. It's good enough as it is.

I don't quite love Roxanne as much as I did a decade or two ago, but I still love it enough to consider it a great one to watch, purchase and rewatch on numerous occasions.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roxanne-DVD-Steve-Martin/dp/B00004L8JJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374189921&sr=8-1&keywords=roxanne