kpd1

Let me preface this review with this: I gave the film a 10, and i laughed till i nearly wet myself. Now... As much flak as this film caught over being an excuse to use to profanity, it turned out to be one of the most barbed and pointed satires of the last several years. Wildly absurd in its parody of the current "Moral Majority" as more Squeaky Wheel than Defender of Righteousness, the film takes turns slapping the Holier Than Thou in the face with sheer defiance (Fart jokes by the bushel) and needling them with the pinpoint accuracy of a master fencer (The MPAA banning profanity but allowing graphic violence.)

Also to their credit, Parker and Stone are unafraid of pushing the envelope of taste, forcing the audience to draw a line of That's Just Not Funny, It's Sick somewhere in the sand. Be warned at some point this film will either shock or offend you (The line about being stabbed with a coat hanger while still in the womb drew a huge gasp the night i saw it).

The musical numbers are so big and brash as to top any since Disney's Beauty And The Beast; and they are riotously funny.

The ideal espoused here is one of honesty above piety. The question begged is whether to lack shame is to lack decency. With the entire dilemma shown through the eyes of small children (which is where the hilarity stems from) the end view is an optimistic Yes. But given the hullabaloo surrounding this film, as an adult i am not sure i agree.

Robert Towne, best known as the writer of Chinatown, directed this backstabbing corkscrew of a film from his own script after several notable directors didn't meet interpretation. A dark brooding piece, that is as meditative and murky as it is tightly written for suspense and twists, Tequila Sunrise focuses on the expectations that conventional mores place upon our freedom to interct and even love whomever our heart bids us.

Gibson plays a drug dealer with, if not a conscience, at least a code of some sort of ethics. He is raising a son and wants to retire from illegal activities so that he may be a good role model.

Russel plays a narcotics cop bucking for a promotion. In order to get his promotion he needs to bust the area's most notorious dealer... guess who. Problem: he and Gibson and childhood mates.

Pfeiffer is a woman caught between them, each one wanting her for different reasons. Raul Julia and J.T. Walsh complete the central players in a fine ensemble on people with agendas that may be worth sacrificing the alliances they have made along the way.

As the various subplots tie themselves into impossible-to-unravel knots, every character will be forced to question what it is he or she holds sacred. Tough and even regretted decisions are made. Friendships are made and dissolved, hearts are broken, revenges plotted...

Gibson is at his best here, Pfeiffer brings great depth to what could easily have been little more than a trophy role. Walsh and Julia are so poker-faced that an audience member who succeeds in reading all the angles should account himself no more than a lucky guesser as they leave you very few clues to work with.

Ironically, despite the desires of Gibson and Towne, the ending had to be altered to please test audiences. Later critics would harp severely on the final shot, the reviews keeping away significant audience. While the ending may be unsatisfying to the typically cynical noir fan, it does not change the fact that this a far-above-average genre flick with an excellent cast and a superb script.

Worth a watch, worth several.

In one of the bravest parodies in some time, Shane Black unflinchingly holds an ironic looking glass up to the box office hit machine that made him rich: the action film. It perhaps came a bit early for public consciousness to be ready for it, and so wound up showcasing (in hindsight) more of Black's prescience than his market savvy.

In an out and out clever spoof of not only the action film industry but of the slavering fans of action, Schwarzenegger is brilliant casting. The fact that he never quite seems to get the tongue-in-cheek aspect of the whole endeavor makes it all the funnier. (The daydream sequence of Hamlet as an action flick is hysterical!) Director John McTiernan (Die Hard, Hunt For Red October) strikes a nice balance between the tension of the plot and the relaxed atmosphere of the spoof. If you saw it before and just didn't get the thrill ride you were expecting, that's probably because you were the butt of the big inside joke that was this film. Try it again.