Der Harte und der Zarte

Loose Cannons is a film long lost in time & if ever mentioned it's not liked at all, but I've seen it & totally enjoyed this rare oddity of a buddy-cop comedy thriller.

First off I'm a life-long fan of Dan Aykroyd & Gene Hackman!!!

I grew up watching the comic genius Aykroyd with Classic's such as Ghostbusters & Ghostbusters 2 (my all-time favorite movie) & Trading Places & Dragnet (my 2nd fave film of all-time) & Coneheads & My Stepmother is an Alien & Sneakers & Blues Brothers & Nothing But Trouble & Spies Like Us & more. Aykroyd was a comforting face to me growing up & he's one of my top 5 fave actors of all-time.

Gene Hackman is one of the greatest actors in all of Cinema History & has one of the greatest filmographies in all of Cinema History. I also grew up watching Hackman in The French Connection, The French Connection part 2, The Bird Cage, Enemy of the State, Behind Enemy Lines, The Poseiden Adventure, Absolute Power & many more. Hackman was always a standout actor playing good or bad roles , he was always brilliant on screen.

Here we get a rather dark but ridiculously hilarious buddy-cop comedy thriller with Hackman playing a tough, sarcastic & rebel wreck of a cop who gets teamed up with the genius of Dan Aykroyd as a very disturbed man from mental health healing safe haven. Aykroyd is on comic genius form here as he is a riot of hilarious character impersonations whenever he gets too stressed in a dangerous situation. Aykroyd is fantastic in this very tricky & exhausting role. The cops need Aykroyd's brilliant mind to help solve a strange crime that consists of murders, Nazi's, Secret Agents & a Porno starring Hitler!!! The story is definitely a unique one. Directed by Bob Clark (Black Christmas, Porky's) who created a very different type of the 80's buddy-cop movie & put in real looking bloody violence mixed with manic comic moments that all seems to gel together fine. Our miss-matched cops have to solve murders & dodge bullets from Nazi agents as they try to track down a Hitler porno film.

Aykroyd actually puts in a fantastic performance as he's a man suffering as a schizophrenic with many personalities & he handles it all like the professional he is as it could've easily been very cringing to watch but he's genuinely hilarious. There's heart to in Aykroyd's role as we later find out he's this way because of a time he works as an undercover Narc cop that was captured & brutally tortured for days & that sent him over the edge. There's definitely a darkness to the film as much as there is a lightness to it. The supporting cast is great especially a very enjoyable Dom DeLuise.

Loose Cannons is definitely a very rare & unique buddy-cop film that's loaded with hilarious moments (the funniest being when Hackman spends the night at Aykroyd's place lol) & full of non-stop action & moves into a chase thriller.

There's loads to enjoy in Loose Cannons & we get the genius pairing of Hackman & Aykroyd.

I thought that these two actors would make a good film together...I was sorely mistaken. The jokes were bad, Hackman's acting (if it can indeed be called that) is forced, and Aykroyd is flat-out embarrassing. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't; I was asleep. Nothing worked in this movie.

Some movies you want to see just because you want to see how bad they are and that is the reason why I wanted to see "Loose Cannons". This movie was strange as a comedy because the jokes just weren't funny. Also as a cop-buddy movie it doesn't work due to the chemistry between it's lead actors. Gene Hackman and Dan Aykroyd play off each other like two actors who needed the money. The premise was oddly interesting which concerned a piece of Hitler memorabilia and Aykroyd as a schizo cop trying to come to grips with his demons (aka his other personalities).

What could have been an inspiring premise for something unique and twisted in the cop-buddy genre instead gets bogged down by generic action sequences, lame jokes and slapdash direction.

Terrible film that puts old detective (Gene Hackman) with a crazed detective (Dan Aykroyd) to solve a complicated case. The odd partnership is made stranger due to the fact that Aykroyd has a type of split-personality disorder which causes him to imitate television show characters at seemingly all times. A really poor movie that wastes the immense talents of Hackman. A really rotten goose egg. 2 stars out of 5.

Gene Hackman.

Poor old Gene Hackman.

We just lost him here recently and this is one of the few movies of his that I haven't seen.

It's because of him it's only rated as high as it is.

That and the late director Bob Clark.

Because Dan Aykroyd, who I love dearly, almost singlehandedly destroyed this entire movie.

His character is so obnoxious.

So over the top.

So ridiculous.

I highly doubt that guy could continue to be in law enforcement investigations with that behavior, that instability.

But I know this is a comedy. So, I get it. But he's just not funny.

David Alan Grier is in this.

You forget how long he's been around.

And Tobin Bell too.

Wow. The dude from Saw.

I know Bob Clark made some stinkers. Especially, sadly, towards the end of his career and his life cut tragically short.

But this movie just isn't very good.

It should've been.

With Hackman and Aykroyd and the direction of Clark.

It should've been gold.

It's not.