Faux frères, vrais jumeaux

(This is an edited/revised post):

This film deeply affected me in two ways, which I will present in reverse chronological order:

2) The movie was shot largely on location, in and around my hometown of Santa Barbara. When I saw it in 1996, I was nine years removed from home and doing radio in Missouri. It was good to see home again.

1) However, I had the opportunity to go home in early 1995 when this was being shot. To his security team's utter horror, I attempted to park near the SB County Courthouse, somewhere dangerously close to (read: half a block away from) Andy Garcia's trailer. After several contentious profanities were hurled at me I moved the car, during which time I uttered a wish out loud that the film would turn out to be an utterly unwatchable piece of crap, and would completely tank at the box office.

Moral of the story? Don't go on location and then let your people treat a local like something stuck to your shoe -- he just might have unknown powers in putting curses.

To the film's credit, they did have the good taste to shoot at Papagallo's on De La Guerra Plaza (try the ceviche), and it also showed the annual Summer Solstice Parade in a pretty good light.

EDIT: Since I wrote most of the above, I've had occasion to revisit this movie (there was nothing better on HBO that night), and I've reluctantly come to the conclusion it really is funny. Mostly due to the performances of Alan Arkin and Joe ("Joey Pants") Pantoliano.

Okay, so I ran afoul of Andy Garcia's people during the shoot and they honked me off. And then my first viewing of the film left me cold. I've since warmed up to it (and removed my negative comments in this edit). Take that for what it's worth -- and I hope it's worth something, because I'm not a big fan of eating crow in public.

This movie started out pretty entertaining and kept my attention with the conflict between the two twin brothers. Alan Arkin started slow, but just kept building nicely. Andy Garcia played both roles very nicely. However, about 45 minutes before the end of this very long movie, it turned into a mad, mad world slapstick which just insulted all the character and plot development that you as the viewer had invested. Should have just edited it to a tight 90-100 minutes and had a nice tense ending. What a waste.

Andy Garcia is the most underrated actor there is. This movie has the best storyline that keeps you watching to see what happens next. Very good movie.

Garcia is so outstanding in this. The movie is beautifully filmed. And as a long time Alan Arkin fan I got a kick out of the "Lou" character. The music is beautiful and Garcia just gets better all the time. Check out the movie "Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" for another fine Andy Garcia work.

Directed by Andrew Davis, starring Andy Garcia and Alan Arkin. Awful.... Two Garcias - he stars as identical twins, one good, the other mean - battle it out over their guardian's will in Davis's witless follow-up to The Fugitive. Although it's supposed to be a comedy with a moral message, this actually has no redeeming features whatsoever. From the lack of decent jokes to Garcia's squabbling siblings, it's a film that will have you looking at your watch more often than you look at the screen. When the supporting cast of livestock out-act everybody and everything else, you know you're in trouble.