Una strana coppia di sbirri

A fairly atypical off the wall love-hate relationship between two cops as they try to bring down a tongue-in-cheek bad guy. The story centres around the wacky verbal and non-verbal relationship between Alan Arkin and James Caan more than it does the fairly week plot. This is the whole point of the movie - the story line is in fact incidental! The scene where Freebie steals Bean's gun is a classic example of this, as is the button ripping scene earlier in the film. To add to the drama Bean thinks his wife is having an affair and Freebie offers advice...terrific stuff. Perhaps those of you who gave it a poor review should find the time to watch it again - a little more closely - and savour the unique banter between these two excellent actors.

San Francisco police detectives Freebie (James Caan) and Bean (Alan Arkin) are doing everything and anything to take down crime boss Red Meyers (Jack Kruschen).

It's a lot of car crashes. James Caan and Alan Arkin have a lot of banter. It's all mildly humorous without being all that funny. I'm not sure that Caan and Arkin make a good comedic team or a good action team. Caan is not nearly funny enough to be comedic. Arkin is not hard enough to be dangerous. It's an odd couple of police partners. On the other hand, it is fascinating to see them paired up like this. It's the platypus of police movies.

Although it's story is a letdown, Caan and Arkin' make a great teaming of "throw the book out the window cops", I'm prepared to forgive this. They're two of the most unruly cops I've ever seen. They're methods of questioning are mostly exorcised by physical violence and threats of intimidation. They total three squad cars in three days, would you believe, one of the cars going off a speed ramp and crashing through a wall of a elderly couples home is a classic. The couple, sitting up in bed, sharing milk and cookies, just have stunned looks. These cops are tailing this old codger, who's involved in racketeering, where there's a good chance he's gonna be hijacked. This leads us to wonder why our dynamic duo are so wasting their time on this clown. They even trawl threw a boot of garbage, fishing out a list, they present to their superior, who tells them "They're not fit to guard the fish at the aquarium". This movie works, thanks to Caan, and especially Arkin, who I loved in this. One interrogation scene, involving a gay guy in a bath, was funny too, wanting the two to rough him up, where Caan says "Let's get out of here before this freak starts drinking the bathwater". Valerie (Rhoda) Harper lends great support as Arkin's wife, while Loretta "Hot lips Hoolahan" Swit pops up as the old codger's mistress. I love this movie every time I watch it. It one of those rare buddy cop movie's where, the cops are so out of line, it's not funny. Sometimes they are like kids, causing an ambulance to topple over at it's end, or chasing each other through a playground while on surveillance of that joker. Don't miss this opportunity view.

Before Riggs and Murtaugh, or even Starsky & Hutch, there's Freebie and The Bean, most in-your face buddy team of the police force. Maybe they are the laughing stock of the police force. These team make Dirty Harry want to change his ways of handling crime. These guys put the P.B. in Police Brutality! But in a funny way! Other than attacking the perpetrators they attack each other. Freebie(James Caan) is a hot-head and practical joker, while Bean(Alan Arkin) is calm in some ways just as the same as Freebie. Ford really put themselves in high gear with their vehicles, and the famous white LTD, took a lot of punishment through the movie. My favorite scenes is where the car leaped off the bridge, and made a window in someone's apartment. Calling a tow truck? HA! You better call a crane instead. While most cops work out their differences, Freebie and the Bean handle their way, they go at each others throats! This movie is funny, scary, and adventurous all together, with the choice of stars, everything was pulled off great. And how. What a comedy! While you have a chance. 4 out of 5 stars.

This is the biggest WTF ever. The way I would describe it is a movie you don't want to see, that you are dragged into, and realize that is exactly who the film was made for. It starts as one thing and then it feels like they gave up and just made it up as they went. Like imagine The Naked Gun but as a serious movie.

With San Francisco locales and Laslo Kovacs lensing this all becomes an outright surreal fever dream. I am also reminded of Richard Lester films, how he thinks in comic vignettes but isn't necessarily a comic director. Like, when violence happens it's brutal, suddenly it's like Dick Tracy. The characters yell at each other start to finish but they don't hate each other, it's just how they communicate. The director is doing a madcap comedy, Kovacs is filming for an oscar, the writers are doing like a Neil Simon Dragnet, and the actors think they're making the French Connection.

People should study this movie if they get into filmmaking or screenwriting, it will change how you see movies, because every element is disparate, they're all making a different movie in their heads, but it works. You imagine them writing it off, saying they just made a flop, pointing fingers, but then it came out perfectly. It isn't doing those Pauline Kael big zeitgeist things, it is almost sending them up which is endearing. Its modest ambition may take points off compared to its class, but who cares, it is certainly a classic to me. I only take a half point off because you have two choices, give it an F or give it an A minus.