Tequila Sunrise

Now after saying that, let me say this. I do not think it is his best movie. I realize he has made much better movies. This movie is flawed but if you look hard enough everything is flawed. The reason this is my favorite Mel Gibson movie is A: Mel's performance, it was very good. Probably not his best but he plays paranoid well. B: Raul Julia he was awesome in this. Same with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell. Next is the story. A tale of a drug dealer trying to clean up his life to impress a restaurant owner, but is derailed by everyone else in his life. His brother is trying to set him up, his high school buddy is trying to stop but not bust him, and steal his would be girl. His other old friend who is supposedly the biggest dealer in Mexico is trying to get him back into dealing. His ex-wife wants his money, the DEA wants him in jail, his lawyer isn't really helping and all his kid wants is his attention. This is a character the has every reason to trust no one and still tries although he is usually right and shouldn't. To me this is a fun film with interesting characters doing what should be uninteresting things. True it all ends in true hollywierd fashion but seeing Michelle Pfeiffer looking great in some power woman suits and Kurt Russell looking like a 50's cigarette poster and trying to be slick is fun. Plus the performance by J.T Walsh (one of my favorite character actors) as the seedy DEA agent makes this worth the time.

This is one of those guilty pleasures. I still find myself watching it over and over some 14 years later. After a while, who even cares about Robert Towne's serpentine plot twists. The reason this movie still works is simple - it is great entertainment. This movie takes 3 stars at the peak of their physical beauty who were just beginning to realize their acting potential (admittedly, in the years since, only 2 of them realized that potential). Michelle Pfeiffer attained a perfect trifecta in 1988 with comedy (Married to the Mob), drama (Dangerous Liasons), and this melodramatic actioner. The movie takes itself too seriously, but we don't have to. It's a silly fantasy world with stunning beach sunsets, tequila and sports cars, good drug dealers and bad cops, etc. Like Miami Vice, this movie portrayed the late 80s, and for those of us who grew up during that flashy, fun decade, _Tequila Sunrise_ is a fun-filled nostalgic trip. It's about a beautiful people living angst filled lives.

It's mindless and fun. So enjoy it for what it is.

All in all, I really like this movie. The chemistry is definitely there, and the cinematography is excellent (I love the scene where Mac and Nick are talking while sitting on the swings, in pure silhouette).

Occasionally the dialog does seem stilted, like when Nick's character is telling Joanne how much he wants to see her that night. And you really wonder how Nick has his job, with all of the compromises he makes for relationships (as with Mac and Joanne).

But, Mel Gibson's eyes when he tells Michelle Pfeiffer about his interest in her... swoon! And there's a literally steamy love scene involved that is one of my all-time favorites.

All in all, the whole movie is a very interesting commentary on friendship and the ties that bind. 1) Friendship is the only choice you have in life (you can't choose your family...) vs 2) at some point friendship's obligations can go beyond the real life of the friendship itself.

Raul Julia has a great speech about that in this movie. Seeing this made me miss him all over again!

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.

This movie has a cast to die for; Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell, Raul Julia, J.T. Walsh, Arliss Howard. It makes you wonder though why they all ever agreed to appear in this movie. It's a waste of their talents really, since the movie its script doesn't provide the movie with anything interesting or exciting. Instead it more often confuses and bores.

I was real disappointed by the movie its script. While '80's police movies also aren't exactly know for their great or original stories but this story is even worse than usual. In the end you just stop carrying about anything that is happening in this movie or for any of its characters, since the movie has dragged along for far too long. The movie is lacking a certain depth with its story. In all honesty the movie really didn't started off too bad but its one of those movies that gets worse by the minute. In the end it makes you regret you've ever watched it.

It's sad that not even the great cast could put some life into the movie and its story. It's also a rather unknown movie from each of the movie its actors. They still try their very best but no, I can't really say it helps much. Although it of course is certainly true that the presence of actors such as Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell, Raul Julia and J.T. Walsh still uplifts the movie. I mean, with a totally different and unknown cast the movie would had been far worse for sure.

What the movie is lacking is some good action. It would at least had made the movie more interesting to watch. And when you have an '80's action-star such as Mel Gibson in your movie, why not use that? Instead now the movie feels like a movie done action-crime-thriller movie style but without any action in it and also without much thriller elements, since the movie is just not exciting or original enough to allow any of these elements to completely work out.

The movie also suffers from an horrible '80's music curse; the '80's music! It's so dreadful, hearing constantly some idiot playing his saxophone as loud as he can, with an occasional guitar and drums joining in. It's a score you can normally expected in a bad porn-flick.

Oh well, it's not exactly as if this is THE worst movie ever made but it also isn't exactly a movie I would recommend to anyone, despite the presence of some good big names in it.

5/10

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