Pass the Ammo

This movie solidified my sheer love of all things Tim Curry (ha!). Seriously, a college pal was a video store employee at the time, found this and thought, "Hmm...." So a bunch of us had a Tim Curry Night Party at her place, and this was the "matinee" -- after viewing it, we should have made it the feature! My personal story aside, if you really want a good look at the inner workings of televangelism (at its all-time worst), and a good laugh to boot, then this is the movie for you! I just watched it again (for the kazillionth time, it seems), and I never fail to find something hilarious in it. So next time you're at the video store, looking for an interesting comedy, get this one! You won't be sorry!

It is really a shame this movie may never get the deserved DVD release. It has everything that you would go looking for in a movie released in the late '80s. Recognizable stars putting forth solid performances, without going overboard. Bill Paxton, Tim Curry, Annie Potts, Dennis Burkley, and Leland Crooke put in great performances in my opinion. Dennis Burkley's performance was probably the most unexpected pleasure, with Tim Curry's evangelist character a solid entry in his cache of performances. As Tim Curry movies go, it's not Tim Curry overdoing it, or conversely under-performing, but rather a balanced illustration of his range.

The plot is pretty entertaining if you derive any amusement from the circus environment of past and present ministries extorting money from hopeless people around the world. I suppose we should see the humor in them somehow, even if it is wandering the landscape of stereotypes and taking pages from the real life travesties associated with their own sinning ways. The movie plays with the stereotypes of the characters pretty well, both the feature cast and the background nobodies who fund the multi-million-dollar church business.

"Pass the Ammo" did a good job in making me laugh, which is what this sort of movie is all about. Laughs via misc sight gags, lines of dialogue, and the situations the characters find themselves in. This is a straight 80s comedy with a typical ending leaving you satisfied with where it goes. It won't leave you hanging out to dry wishing it had gone in another direction. Come for Tim Curry and stay for a special appearance by the best attempted Moonpie robbery ever.

This is one of those quirky little comedies that never becomes a big hit, but has the charm and endurance of a cult movie like "Harold and Maude." Not to everyone's taste, but if if you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing that you'll really like. A young woman and her boyfriend enlist the help of some friends, recently released from jail, to rob the televangelist of the money that her recently deceased aunt had given to "God" and which should have been her inheritance.

Tim Curry as the televangelist is fun, but Annie Potts also turns in a wonderful performance has his wife. The remainder of the actors are between competent and quite good. The entire production is professional quality, unlike many cult classics.

"Pass the Ammo" is not without subtlety. There is a charming scene between the preacher and a career bank robber, talking about money, in which the preacher is shocked that the bank robber just spends all his take. "Why that's just wasteful," he exclaims. The bank robber asks about IRAs, and he says, "Well, they have their plusses and their minuses." Their geniality is that of two people in the same profession talking shop.

"Pass the Ammo" is not great theatre. It's not great cinema. It is, however, a good deal of fun for the right people, of which I am one. I recommend it if you are a Curry fan, or like odd little comedies, or found the fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker entertaining.

Any film that features the immortal Tim Curry as a corrupt televangelist would be worth watching, and this one has even more to offer: Annie Potts as his loopy, big-haired wife; gun-toting good old boys fresh out of jail (and hungry for Moon Pies); dancing angels in fishnet stockings; and a trigger-happy citizens' militia that takes its TV very seriously. This screwball satire features Bill Paxton as our hero, who attempts to quietly steal back his girlfriend's legacy but inadvertently takes the TV studio Tower of Bethlehem hostage--during a live broadcast. Curry and Potts give virtuoso performances, but every one of the quirky supporting characters adds to the fun. While this over-the-top comedy may not be for all tastes, anyone who ever laughed at a Tammy Faye t-shirt should get a kick out of its razor-sharp send-up of televangelism, and fans of Curry, Potts, or Paxton shouldn't miss it.

Don't expect much subtlety from this broad but skin-deep satire of TV evangelism, in which an amiable quartet of amateur thieves takes over a TV temple and holds the clergy hostage against a siege of state militia, local police, yellow journalists, and resident vigilantes (can you guess who gets the most sympathy?). The script is more than a little self-satisfied, taking earnest potshots at easy targets without inflicting any serious damage, and except for Tim Curry (who plays the greedy preacher with his tongue firmly in cheek), the holy rollers and gullible worshippers are all too exaggerated to be convincing (it's hard to fake so much bogus sincerity). But once the stand-off is finally underway (after a set-up stretched twenty minutes too long) the story relaxes enough to give the characters room to have fun. The film is certainly no 'Dog Day Afternoon', but it does have its moments, and no one can say it isn't lively. Too bad the real thing (Jim and Tammy Baker; the good reverend Swaggart et al) is so much funnier.