It is surprising to see through random viewing of forgotten movies how many are just absolutely rotten without one thing to recommend it. That is the case of this action comedy starring John Candy, Eugene Levy and Meg Ryan that deals with a fired cop and incompetent attorney who end up working for a crooked security company that has a union that seems to be intent on ripping off the dumbbells desperate enough to apply to work for them. Like a huge percent of movies made at this time, it takes place in L.A., showing instant laziness over creating a unique setting, and of course, overdoes the use of forgettable music of the time as background. A scene in an adult video store has some strange gay references that ends up with Candy and Levy hunting down quarters for a peep show where the curtain falls as soon as it starts to get erotic.
This flop-o-rooney is violent, crude, condescending and jarringly unfunny. The leading characters are people who have been set up to fail with Candy framed in robbing an electronics store (after he found several cops he knew removing TV's from the premises) and Levy a public defender whose latest client is a modern day Nazi who threatens to kill him if he doesn't get off. The supporting characters are dislikable and unbelievable in every way with only Ryan (fresh from her stint as Betsy on "As the World Turns") having any type of ethics. She plays the daughter of one of the security company owners, unaware that her own father is involved in illegal activities. Obviously made to cash in on the success of the sloppy but somewhat funny "Police Academy" franchise, it is unbearable almost instantaneously. One moment that gave me a chuckle was John Candy in drag, looking like Divine, a performer he used to impersonate on "SCTV".
Pretty much every female character outside of Ryan is presented as a bimbo, and every stereotype possible is overplayed which makes it impossible to enjoy. Every one of the security company applicants is written as so ridiculously dumb that after a while, even an eye roll over the stupidity doesn't seem enough of a reaction to this film's insipidness. The ending is a complete rip-off of the car chase finale in "Foul Play", up to and including the hillbilly truck driver.c Veteran actors Kenneth MacMillian and Robert Loggia fail to liven things up as Ryan's father and his partner. This is one film that is instantly going into the trash heap. I wouldn't subject any of my film loving friends to the waste of 90 minutes I endured. An absolutely abhorant waste of cinema, one I'm glad I didn't see among the many disasters I forced myself to get through when I went to the movies nearly every day during the time this came out.
This flop-o-rooney is violent, crude, condescending and jarringly unfunny. The leading characters are people who have been set up to fail with Candy framed in robbing an electronics store (after he found several cops he knew removing TV's from the premises) and Levy a public defender whose latest client is a modern day Nazi who threatens to kill him if he doesn't get off. The supporting characters are dislikable and unbelievable in every way with only Ryan (fresh from her stint as Betsy on "As the World Turns") having any type of ethics. She plays the daughter of one of the security company owners, unaware that her own father is involved in illegal activities. Obviously made to cash in on the success of the sloppy but somewhat funny "Police Academy" franchise, it is unbearable almost instantaneously. One moment that gave me a chuckle was John Candy in drag, looking like Divine, a performer he used to impersonate on "SCTV".
Pretty much every female character outside of Ryan is presented as a bimbo, and every stereotype possible is overplayed which makes it impossible to enjoy. Every one of the security company applicants is written as so ridiculously dumb that after a while, even an eye roll over the stupidity doesn't seem enough of a reaction to this film's insipidness. The ending is a complete rip-off of the car chase finale in "Foul Play", up to and including the hillbilly truck driver.c Veteran actors Kenneth MacMillian and Robert Loggia fail to liven things up as Ryan's father and his partner. This is one film that is instantly going into the trash heap. I wouldn't subject any of my film loving friends to the waste of 90 minutes I endured. An absolutely abhorant waste of cinema, one I'm glad I didn't see among the many disasters I forced myself to get through when I went to the movies nearly every day during the time this came out.