Big Trouble
Review by Clint Morris
 Out
of all the films delayed because of the events of September
11, Big Trouble is the one probably most deserving
of the halt.
Here's why: The central theme revolves around a bomb, hidden
in a suitcase, which some goons eventually smuggle onto a
plane - and a mismatched bunch of characters try to stop them
before death and destruction kicks in. It's understandable
why they put it back in the vault to rest for a while longer...
The question is: was it worth the wait?
Nup. Not really. It's actually in essence a pretty anachronistic
comedy farce bearing conspicuous parallel to the 1995 comedy
crime caper Get Shorty. Funnily enough, that's Barry
Sonnenfeld - director of Get Shorty - in the director's
chair; and that's Rene Russo and Dennis Farina - also of Shorty
- as the female lead and the film's token assassin, respectively.
And while mostly an exercise recycling, Big Trouble is
still pretty hard to dislike.
The story, based on a novel by satirist Dave Barry, is set
in Miami, a city where the confined and touring weird and
wonderful are about to intertwine. Among them, an advertising
loser (Tim Allen) with a loose cannon kid (Ben Foster). A
shady, affluent creep (Stanley Tucci), on a shopping spree
for said bomb, being tailed by a pair of hit men with a fed-up
wife (Rene Russo) and an aloof step-daughter (Zooey Deschanel).
Add some Russian arms dealers, two knockabout crims and the
FBI into the mix and you've got a recipe for disaster.
Trying to keep tabs on all of them are two exasperated cops
(Janeane Garafolo and Patrick Warburton). In turn, all roads
lead to the foreseeable showdown at the airport where our
good-guy characters attempt to release a bomb from the shady
villain.
Big Trouble is reasonably good entertainment. Tim
Allen is his usual comic best, and Patrick Warburton (also
seen with Allen in the recent Joe Somebody) is amusing
and worthwhile as the exasperated cop. Most of the dialogue
and set-up is also pretty sharp too. As a Barry Sonnenfeld
film (Men in Black I and II, The Addams Family),
it's a considerably more enjoyable outing than the usual fare
he dishes out - but the guy still hasn't done what I would
consider to be a great film.
All in all though, Big Trouble, although funny enough,
has been done a million times before and it's for that reason
I'd leave it until it makes it's way onto video.
3 out of 5
Big Trouble
Australian release: Thursday May 23rd
Cast: Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Omar Epps, Tom Sizemore, Jason
Lee, Patrick Warburton, Janeane Garafolo, Ben Foster, Stanley
Tucci.
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld.
Website: Click
here
Brought to you by MovieHole
|
