Big Deal

Well, I wasn't planning on watching this movie but it came on the tube after another movie I had was watching (Something Wild) and I decided to watch it rather than fill the dishwasher.

The first thing that should have told me that filling the dishwasher would have provided me with more enjoyment was the music. The movie is Canadian and dates from 1985........the music is very reminiscent of many CTV home grown shows of the period....i.e.....quite bad synth.

The second thing that should have clued me in, the entire plot was predictable within the first 5 minutes.

The final thing that should have forced a channel change was the dialogue. You've heard better dialogue at an elementary school play.

The best way to describe this is to think of the worst SCTV skit you can think of and let it run for 90 minutes commercial free

This corny, anachronistic, measly excuse for a film has problems that only begin with the erratic cinematography and atrocious, hyper-literal musical score. Healy's only feature as director stretches the farce-of-misunderstanding to its limit, relying on speed and clutter to distract us from some extremely questionable turns of logic. And yet, somehow, the movie steamrolls past its failings to take on a good deal of clunky charm. Most of this can be attributed to the performers, literally dozens of third-stringer pros who attack the material like a starving man at a banquet; they are so enthusiastic that the quality of the material almost becomes irrelevant. It's particularly entertaining to watch the heterosexual flirtations of several transparently gay actors, including Louis Negin in his pre-Guy Maddin days, but from the horny housewife to the Scottish hit man to the suicidal East Indian fellow, virtually every actor brings the shtick. Even the Rick Moranis and Al Waxman stand-ins are tolerable. And the pervasive sexism is so received that it doesn't offend; it's ADULT sexism, give-the-people-what-they-want dinner theatre type stuff. In fact, with Honest Ed's a principal location and Anne Mirvish popping by as a secretary, this movie could hardly exist without the benign, showy, proudly mercenary example of Saint Ed Mirvish himself.

Jeff Wincott, fine Canadian actor, has earned a loyal following, principally for martial arts skills as depicted in numerous "action" films, but upon occasion throughout his career he has been called upon to demonstrate native talent other than that of his primary athletic disposition towards belting foes about, as in this instance for a less than entertaining attempt at comedy. In a shoddily composed farce, Wincott plays as Ted Powers, a presumptuous entrepreneur whose efforts to hawk 10,000 automatized ashtrays are squelched when his buyer dies, spurring Ted to seek the services of a particularly unsavoury loan shark, Leo Schnyder (Géza Kovács). Here is where the film's director displays too slack a grip upon the narrative, its superfluity of characters showing up severe weaknesses in plot construction, with Leo coveting Ted's spouse upon seeing her photograph, and another Schnyder (unrelated) who resides in the same apartment hotel, Larry (Allan Katz), also becoming infatuated with Ted's wife Sue, performed by Tina Theberge. Paper-thin motivation along similar lines is meant to account for the actions of two other men employed at a discount retail store owned by Larry's father, and as even more personages join into the scenario, a viewer will find it quite daunting indeed to discover any internal order within the storyline. Loan shark Leo enjoys donning traditional garb of a matador while jousting in energetic fashion with his girlfriend who wears bull-like horns and naught else, this being but one of overmany slapstick elements clogging a film that would have benefited a good deal more from greater development of Wincott's role. The latter's Deer In Headlights mien will be appealing to most audiences, but his part becomes submerged 'neath the script's inanities, and warming to Ted's financial plight is obstructed by Sue's romantic involvement with sundry males. Although some efforts to include satiric scenes are meant as with tongue-in-cheek, they become merely ridiculous since second-rate elements, notably the sub-standard direction and post-production efforts, prevail. Talented Cornelia Strube, who later earned renown as a novelist, handily gains acting honours for a well-created role.