James Caan said of working with the leads, "playing the heavy between these two clowns took a lot of serious concentration."
When Damon Wayans hosted Il Saturday Night Live (1975) in 1994, Adam Sandler had an idea to do an action movie together. A year later, he sent Wayans the script for this film.
Director Ernest R. Dickerson was very critical about the movie, saying the movie was "castrated" because of the producers.
Colton's mansion is the same one used in Beverly Hills Cop - Un piedipiatti a Beverly Hills (1984). Damon Wayans had a minor role in that film as the server who gave Eddie Murphy the bananas.
James Woods was originally chosen to play Frank Colton. He had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with L'agguato - Ghosts from the Past (1996).