Dos policías al acecho

I think this is one of the under-appreciated movies from the 1980s. It blends realistic action and comedy well, without taking itself too seriously. I agree with reviewers that Dreyfuss in this movie proves he was very good at comedy movies if they were written well, like this was. And Aidan Quinn is very good also (in fact, from "Desperately Seeking Susan" in 1985, to "Stakeout," to 1994's "Legends of the Fall" he has consistently given reliably good performances). For a late 1980s movie, it has aged fairly well. It's almost hard to believe that this movie came out only two years after Estevez was in "The Breakfast Club." I wish there were more movies like this that blended action and comedy as well as "Stakeout" did.

This is kind of funny and, for the most part, enjoyable. On the surface it looks like another comic cop thriller but, really, the core of the plot couldn't be older. That is -- it goes way past "The Gay Divorcée," past the Greek or Roman from whom Shakespeare stole "A Comedy of Errors," back past the masques, winding up somewhere I would guess around Homo cromagnonsesis in Les Ezyies de Tayac. The mistaken-identity plot is framed by a bit of violence. First, Dreyfus gets into a fist fight with a perp he and Estevez are chasing (Estevez is nothing much more than a straight man in this movie) and the two combatants fall into a huge container of fish and barely escape being filleted by the Chinese workers. The second involves a shoot out between Aidan Quinn's villain and a lot of cop cars and owes a lot to the chase in "Bullitt", although done mostly for laughs. At the end there is another strictly conventional shootout and fist fight, aboard a boat, on top of rolling logs (this is Seattle), and in a timber mill which gives us a good idea of how gigantic saws are used to turn logs into planks -- and men into planks as well, given half a chance.

Quinn is excellent, but so is almost everyone else. Madeleine Stowe is drop-dead gorgeous, with or without Hispanic makeup, and she can act too. Dreyfus is very funny. He is caught in all sorts of embarrassing situations and gets a chance to display that expression of abject humiliation that he does so well. He gets a chance to do a lot of physical comedy too, running around wearing a pink sun hat, wrapped in a shawl, while pursued by the police. And when he inadvertently reveals he is spying on Stowe, during a phone call in which he warns her that her food is burning, she demands to know how he knew. He tears his eyes from the telescope and tells her, "I -- er -- I could hear is sizzling in the background." Then he turns his face to the side, wrinkled with disgust, and hisses to himself -- "Heard it SIZZLING in the background?" There are all sorts of run-ins in which she still thinks he is the phone repairman he's been pretending to be, and they're all engagingly cute.

It's not a masterpiece of comedy, and the realistic violence is out of place. But it's smoothly, professionally done. There is an icky them song, but the composer gives Stowe's scenes a bouncy fingido-sabor-Latino sound. I've seen this a couple of times and keep waiting to be bored by it but have never quite been able to get over the hump.

I really enjoyed this movie! It's filled with laughs and excitement, and never once was I not entertained. Next to "48 Hours" I think this is one of the best buddy cop movies I have yet seen. Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez make a wonderful team, with dead-on chemistry. Dreyfuss steals the show with his hilarious performance, proving he's just as talented at doing broad comedy as he is intense drama. That especially shows in the scene where he's about to walk out of Madeline Stowe's house, but doesn't want to be recognized, so he asks her to lend him a hat. The way he handled that scene was so magnificent, and there are many other farcical moments that he handled just as efficiently, and with the wrong timing and delivery those scenes could've collapsed. Estevez plays the straight man, also doing a magnificent job, and you really feel his envy when he's spying on Stowe, who's being hit on by Dreyfuss. I loved the scenes where the rival cops pulled pranks on each other. Speaking of which, Forrest Whitaker pops up in a fine early performance. And Madeline Stowe is great and sexy, as always.

Sure, the plot is quite predictable, but as I said I was always entertained, thanks to sharp writing and great performances. John Badham is a fine action director, so he kept those action scenes filled with suspense and tension. "Stakeout" is not a film that will keep your brain occupied--as a matter of fact there are some scenes that require you to check your brain at the door--but I assure you that you'll have a damn good time.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

Richard Montgomery (Aidan Quinn) makes a daring escape with the help of his cousin Caylor Reese (Ian Tracey). He killed an FBI agent and then they killed a prison guard. Chris Lecce (Richard Dreyfuss) and Bill Reimers (Emilio Estevez) are assigned to stakeout his old girlfriend Maria McGuire (Madeleine Stowe). Phil Coldshank (Dan Lauria) and Jack Pismo (Forest Whitaker) are the other two cops assigned the other half of the stakeout. She's suppose to be 313 lbs but instead, Chris starts falling for the beautiful McGuire.

This has some mildly funny moments. Estevez is solid as the happily married man. Dreyfuss is the one with the fun brash single guy. They have good chemistry together and it's mostly a good buddy cop movie. It's missing some bigger laughs. The guys are not necessarily comedians for that to work.

"Buddy Cop" movies were all the rage in the 80s, and 'Stakeout' is filled to bursting with the genre's clichés. But the fresh titular premise and charming performances by, and great chemistry between, stars Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez help to lift it above the fay and make it feel fresh. Oh, and then there's Madeline Stowe. My God, Madeline Stowe. She is just... wow. But, she also gives a really nice performance here, and she and Dreyfuss make for a strangely good screen couple.

'Stakeout' is a breezy, fun and subtly clever action/comedy (emphasis on the "comedy"). It's not groundbreaking, but it is solid entertainment for a lazy Sunday afternoon.