Lots of tossed-off wisecracks and funny lines in this movie. "I see you're lookin' at my face. My wife set me on fire while I was asleep. Squirted lighter fluid all over me. Six months later the marriage fell apart." Six months later? Fell APART?
The story is simple enough. Baldwin, an FBI agent, hooks an unknowing Broderick into making a movie in Providence, Rhode Island, as a sting operation to nail John Gotti. The operation fails but the movie isn't really about Gotti or crime anyway. It's about two goofs who get swept up in an obsession to make a movie that's set in the Arizona desert. The FBI supplies them with just enough money to begin casting the "production". When the notice appears in Variety they get volunteer offers from academy-nominated actress Emily French (Toni Collet), Pat Morita, and Russel Means. The fantasy begins to turn so real that the original goal is forgotten and the artistic adventure acquires functional autonomy. Ars Gratia Arse, so to speak.
The movie pokes a lot of fun at the Hollywood community. Russel Mean is supposed to play a character named Chief Blackbear, however he is informed that the name must be changed to Chief Blackhawk. He looks a bit taken aback and muses, "I guess I'll have to learn to manage that." Calista Flockheart's character punctures her thigh with a fork to arouse "sensory memories." Over dinner in a fancy restaurant, Colett rapidly runs through her physical and psychiatric history to a stunned Baldwin and Broderick and winds up peeing into an empty wine glass to show how she is tested for drugs every six months, while the other customers stop eating and the piano music comes to a halt.
It's pretty amusing. Not so much the story as the exchanges between the characters that are written into the script. (The editor holds on a bit too long sometimes after the gags, waiting for the laughter to subside.) There's something rather sad about the ending, when the FBI forcibly shuts down the production -- kind of like "The Teahouse of the August Moon." Everyone is having such a ball that it seems tragic to have to get back to business.
Yet, though the movie is amusing, it's not outrageously so. Anyone who wants to see a comedy about making a phony movie should rent "After the Fox," which in its combination of Italian over-the-top bombast and Jewish repartee is a classic of its kind.
This one is worth catching though and offers some good laughs. The difference between the seasoned FBI agent, Baldwin, who has dealt with low lifes, and the ambitious director, Broderick, who was raised in the company town of Hollywood, is perfectly captured in a single exchange. The fake producer Baldwin makes up a story about the death of his fictitious wife. Broderick is sorry to hear that and asks, "Was she in the business?" Baldwin turns to stare at him -- for a long time -- and then asks, "Why would I marry a whore?"
The story is simple enough. Baldwin, an FBI agent, hooks an unknowing Broderick into making a movie in Providence, Rhode Island, as a sting operation to nail John Gotti. The operation fails but the movie isn't really about Gotti or crime anyway. It's about two goofs who get swept up in an obsession to make a movie that's set in the Arizona desert. The FBI supplies them with just enough money to begin casting the "production". When the notice appears in Variety they get volunteer offers from academy-nominated actress Emily French (Toni Collet), Pat Morita, and Russel Means. The fantasy begins to turn so real that the original goal is forgotten and the artistic adventure acquires functional autonomy. Ars Gratia Arse, so to speak.
The movie pokes a lot of fun at the Hollywood community. Russel Mean is supposed to play a character named Chief Blackbear, however he is informed that the name must be changed to Chief Blackhawk. He looks a bit taken aback and muses, "I guess I'll have to learn to manage that." Calista Flockheart's character punctures her thigh with a fork to arouse "sensory memories." Over dinner in a fancy restaurant, Colett rapidly runs through her physical and psychiatric history to a stunned Baldwin and Broderick and winds up peeing into an empty wine glass to show how she is tested for drugs every six months, while the other customers stop eating and the piano music comes to a halt.
It's pretty amusing. Not so much the story as the exchanges between the characters that are written into the script. (The editor holds on a bit too long sometimes after the gags, waiting for the laughter to subside.) There's something rather sad about the ending, when the FBI forcibly shuts down the production -- kind of like "The Teahouse of the August Moon." Everyone is having such a ball that it seems tragic to have to get back to business.
Yet, though the movie is amusing, it's not outrageously so. Anyone who wants to see a comedy about making a phony movie should rent "After the Fox," which in its combination of Italian over-the-top bombast and Jewish repartee is a classic of its kind.
This one is worth catching though and offers some good laughs. The difference between the seasoned FBI agent, Baldwin, who has dealt with low lifes, and the ambitious director, Broderick, who was raised in the company town of Hollywood, is perfectly captured in a single exchange. The fake producer Baldwin makes up a story about the death of his fictitious wife. Broderick is sorry to hear that and asks, "Was she in the business?" Baldwin turns to stare at him -- for a long time -- and then asks, "Why would I marry a whore?"