The Squeeze

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.

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.

Pulling off the crime drama/rom-com/suspense mix is no easy task. This one, if given a chance, is not nearly as bad as the citation its often been given. The Squeeze was prototypical of others of its time, starting with the "every guy" who suddenly gets caught in the middle of corruption and intrigue, then spends 90+ minutes doing his best to stay one step ahead of, well, death. It would be very easy to find a lot of things to critique about "Squeeze," as previous reviews have stated. But it also has a lot going for it.

Michael Keaton was a hot ticket at the time, and the character was a good fit for his on-screen strengths. Harry has that somewhat cocky exterior that thinly veils a very insecure, questioning inner self, often masked by not taking himself too seriously. Its been said Jenny Wright was originally to play Rachel, and no offense to her, but after seeing this its hard to imagine a better fit for the role than Rae Dawn. She quite naturally pulls off what too many female lead characters try more forcefully, yet less successfully, to do now; she's a great combination of adorable and feisty, fun-loving, yet tough. Sure, you check your brains at the door, knowing that in reality the leads should have been dead 10 times over. But what this film most has going for it is {1} decent, believable charisma between Keaton and Chong, and {2} genuinely likable lead characters -- two things so often missing from today's movies. It has charm. It has a bit of a dark side without being overly profane or violent, so as to not take away from that charm. As a result, it keeps you interested.

This was a favorite from 3 decades ago I had forgotten about, until I stumbled upon it on late night telly recently. I'm glad I did. If you're feeling nostalgic for films that had these aforementioned elements mostly missing today, and can track this one down, I think you will be too.

This is an 80s action movie with a clunky plot about rigged lotteries. I put this in the same class as Jumpin Jack Flash. Both are mid 80s action comedies with clunky plots. They have no flow at all causing the movie to stall at times. That gets tedious. That's when you start noticing how your butt is getting numb in tue seat and the mind starts to wander like wondering if you should bother going to the bathroom or what you will eat later. Your mind looks for something, anything more interesting than what you are seeing.

The unintentional comedy in this flick is Meat Loaf's portrayal of a mute psychopathic henchman. He manages the facial expressions and all but just being ugly doesn't make you a convincing bad guy. I think if he played it as someone trying to be friendly, it would have been 10 times more creepy and effective. He doesn't ruin the movie but he makes me laugh just looking at him. I think he was trying to be a little like Hugh Keays-Byrne in Mad Max with the staring.

Michael Keaton is great in just about everything and he would go on to do better work. Rae Dawn Chong unfortunately is mostly only remembered for movies of this caliber because she didn't get too many leading roles later in her career. She is good in this. Actually, the overall cast is pretty good but I dont know, the script or directing or both fail in a major way.

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.