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

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