The Squeeze

It's movies like these that make me understand why Hollywood writers quit the biz or worse when there are potential masterpieces sitting a filing cabinet somewhere. I remember this was one of those movies that HBO played every other day after 8pm because the licensing was so cheap. I'm sure they never made their money back on this stinker. I get it. Michael Keaton was a hot commodity at the time. But good grief. And Meatloaf? Did he waive his paycheck for a role in the movie? Woof! I'm a big Keaton fan and this movie proves that you can be a big star, make a dud or two and then emerge as Batman. Hats off to you, Sir.

Michael Keaton is a genuine comic actor; as this unusual buddy comedy-thriller caper goes on to showcase it. His likeable combination with Rae Dawn Chong (private PI) is naturally brought across. Keaton nails his down-on-his-luck character looking to score big to utter perfection. It's the two leads, witty banter and some amusing support parts (Meat Loaf's novel sweaty henchman) that make it watchable.

They need to be, as the contrived plot is uninteresting and very convoluted. The script is just as perplexing. Never does it fuse together. Something about a corrupt multi-million dollar lotto ring scam with a murder-mystery angle. One or two spontaneous set-pieces work, but for most part the direction remains quite pedestrian.

Usually I like these types of dark comedy-thrillers, where the protagonist/s faces danger around nearly every corner and encountering odd situations along the way. It's just the story and direction needs to match that level of excitement, in which case it falls short. Real short. You can easily see why this film is forgotten.

Michael Keaton is an installation artist in the glamorous world of Staten Island's disco scene. When Rae Dawn Chong serves a summons on him, a corpse turns up in his apartment, and everyone wants a mysterious black box he finds, it turns into the sort of laugh-free, frantic action comedy that seemed to be all too common in the era. It concentrates on destruction as funny.

It's clear that a lot of money was spent on the production, and the set piece is early on when a battle breaks out in the middle of the disco, but the vague characters aren't appealing, and there isn't any chemistry between the leads.

This might have made a good TV episode, and it's entertaining enough, but it's nothing special. If you were looking for chemistry between our two leads, let me put it this way. If good chemistry advances science without causing damage, Harry and Rachel working together are what happened to Ruben's club. That's not to say they don't have some good moments.

There is potential for this to become a romantic buddy detective comedy. As I listened to an online radio station while typing this, I was hearing the theme from "Moonlighting", but this certainly isn't that. In fact, the movie takes a while to get to the point where it will achieve anything close to that.

Michael Keaton is a respected actor. That's now. This was then. I'm not saying he's a bad actor, but he just doesn't show the potential here to become what he is now. He is likeable enough and shows a lot of intelligence.

Rae Dawn Chong has her good moments. Her excitement over getting a major case is one of these. Rachel is tough and smart but cute.

John Davidson is exactly what you might expect, a used car salesman type who is too full of himself.

There is also a good-looking billionaire who created the device, but I don't remember his name. The actor did a good job.

After something terrible happens at Ruben's club, an exciting chase through New York City, Staten Island and New Jersey results.

The music in this movie is terrible 80s garbage, except for all the great music toward the end with the major lotto prize giveaway. But one of the performers of the bad music actually does an impressive job as an actor in the film. Meat Loaf is the frightening tough guy Titus, who doesn't say any words other than interjections such as "Ow" until his final scene. where he says one intelligent sentence. With little more than an evil smile, he manages to be one of this movie's standout characters. I don't remember his partner's name but he's good too.

The scenes leading to the climax are quite entertaining.

Yes, it's formula. No, it doesn't quite achieve anything remarkable. But I was entertained.

THE SQUEEZE is a pathetic excuse for a film, let alone a comedy. Michael Keaton stars with Rae Dawn Chong in this awful film about a guy who gets caught up in a crime rap of some sorts. People would rather go play in the park instead of watching this pure waste of celluloid. A wasted cast and a tedious script easily makes this one of the most worthless flops in cinema history.

0 out of 5