I probably would have liked this flick a lot better back when it first came out. I was still a pro wrestling fan back then, so seeing Big John Studd would have been a treat. Except for being overweight, he looked better and younger here, well after his wrestling career was over. I had to wonder though what happened to his cauliflowered forehead from all those blading jobs he did back then. So now you fast forward to the late 2000's and Mickey Rourke actually becomes "The Wrestler" and it's like coming full circle.
I was reading the other reviews on this site, and was intrigued by the number of comparisons given Rourke and Don Johnson to Redford and Newman. I had the same thought while watching the film, but not because this was such a great buddy film. The story actually ripped off two "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" gimmicks - the 'Who are you guys?' line, and the buddy jump off the cliff to escape the posse. As far as their buddy chemistry went, I'm not convinced they were as tight as Butch and Sundance, and certainly not in the same league.
As for action and plot, this one's been done dozens of times, and at best is passable for a couple of hours of light entertainment. I was probably most intrigued by the movie references made by all the memorabilia in the Old Man's bar, especially the poster and statue honoring John Wayne's "Hondo". It seems I just saw a film with another Hondo poster in it not too long ago - "The Man With Bogart's Face". One of the benefits of being an attentive movie fan.
Anyway, I was never a big Don Johnson fan, and as for Rourke, it looked like he was doing Bruce Willis here just a couple of years after Willis got his big movie break with "Die Hard". Suffice it to say that this was no crystal dream, and if I might point to another buddy flick, "Tango and Cash", this one might not quite have been FUBAR, but it was pretty close.
I was reading the other reviews on this site, and was intrigued by the number of comparisons given Rourke and Don Johnson to Redford and Newman. I had the same thought while watching the film, but not because this was such a great buddy film. The story actually ripped off two "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" gimmicks - the 'Who are you guys?' line, and the buddy jump off the cliff to escape the posse. As far as their buddy chemistry went, I'm not convinced they were as tight as Butch and Sundance, and certainly not in the same league.
As for action and plot, this one's been done dozens of times, and at best is passable for a couple of hours of light entertainment. I was probably most intrigued by the movie references made by all the memorabilia in the Old Man's bar, especially the poster and statue honoring John Wayne's "Hondo". It seems I just saw a film with another Hondo poster in it not too long ago - "The Man With Bogart's Face". One of the benefits of being an attentive movie fan.
Anyway, I was never a big Don Johnson fan, and as for Rourke, it looked like he was doing Bruce Willis here just a couple of years after Willis got his big movie break with "Die Hard". Suffice it to say that this was no crystal dream, and if I might point to another buddy flick, "Tango and Cash", this one might not quite have been FUBAR, but it was pretty close.