Blu-ray Review: City Slickers (1991)

Now Available 

Vacations are always better when, as comedy screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel note, "you know who you're taking a trip with" and this is especially true when you're asking an audience of strangers around the world to come along.

Passionate about telling a character-driven story "even in a high-concept comedy" like City Slickers, which was based on an idea Billy Crystal dreamed up while watching a TV show about fantasy vacations, Ganz and Mandel take the time to develop the characters beyond the recognizable men bringing them to life.

Centered on three lifelong friends comprised of Crystal's neurotic Mitch, Daniel Stern's mild-mannered pushover Phil, and Bruno Kirby's obligatory, macho alpha male Ed, Slickers opens during the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain which puts their lives and relationship to the test in what we discover is just the latest in a long line of wild excursions.

Though broadly comic at first glance, the sequence works well on another level beyond simply establishing who the leads are as we begin to foreshadow what conflicts the three might need to resolve over the course of what's been far too often dismissed as a midlife crisis comedy (when in truth taking inventory of one’s life can happen at any age).

"It's never enough for you," an injured Mitch tells Ed after conceding that not only are their "adventures becoming stupid" but, as his patient wife Barbara (Patricia Wettig) notes, perhaps these trips "are a desperate attempt to cling to" their youth.

Keeping his head down for a year until the annual depression of his birthday sets in, after a catastrophic start to his thirty-ninth year leads to problems at work, a breakdown at Career Day after his son tells classmates he's a submarine commander, and a major blow up between Phil and his domineering wife (which magnifies his recent malaise), Barbara practically pushes Mitch out the door.

A present from Phil and Ed, this time the destination takes the three to New Mexico. Hoping to fulfill his childhood dream to be cowboy "Mitchie the Kid," they set off to drive a herd of cattle up to Colorado alongside a father/son duo of dentists from Baltimore, a pair of brothers who run a bestselling ice cream company, and a beautiful woman whose friend bailed at the last minute.

And while this is when the action truly begins, from a narrative perspective it's important to realize that – by the time they've landed – nearly an entire act has gone by where we've formed a solid foundation with the characters, which doesn't often happen today in films that would instead prefer to start in the middle to cater to the shortest of attention spans.

Using Jack Palance's iconic performance in Shane as the inspiration for his Academy award-winning role as Curly the intimidating Trail Boss who, as Mitch says "the toughest man I've ever seen in my life," the New Yorker's mile-a-minute one-liners and stampede causing portable coffee maker initially rubs Curly the wrong way.

Butting heads from the start, once Mitch stands up to him after apologizing for his earlier jokes, Palance's cowboy becomes a surprising source of enigmatic wisdom to Mitch and as such, helps the viewer take Slickers more seriously as a western than spoof.

Comparing the "City Slickers" to Curly, as Ganz and Mandel opine in one of this Shout Select edition's many behind-the-scenes featurettes, one of their biggest challenges as screenwriters was that in reality, "these characters had no business being in his world."

Raising the stakes as well as decreasing the number of talented actors onscreen (including David Paymer and Helen Slater), the writers treated it like an Agatha Christie style murder mystery in order to drop the ensemble down from eleven people to our main three organically. And illustrating just how much has happened along the way, by the time it becomes another one of Mitch, Phil, and Ed's legitimate adventures, we realize that we aren't riding alongside the same three men we first met back in Spain.

In other words, all the time spent inviting us "to move in with the characters" ensured that rather than a mere gimmicky western comedy, midlife crisis movie, or fish-out-of-water story, we're watching a tale about three men who learn that rather than to try to recapture their youth, it's time to grow up into the men they really want to be.

Featuring terrific performances by its impressive cast including the many supporting players who each get the chance to steal at least one scene, in the end it's Palance, Crystal, Kirby, and especially Stern who do a great job of balancing out pathos and drama with the comedy as leads.

Inventively directed by Ron Underwood, who punctuates some of the jokes by reframing them in a western homage that makes them even funnier as in a memorable ode to Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, the newly released 4K scanned print on Shout's Blu-ray showcases the film's beauty while also giving Underwood, Crystal, and Stern an audio commentary track.

And although some of the bonus featurettes get repetitive as they reuse interview clips under different headings – making you wonder if they should've just served up one long featurette – overall the quality of the bonus material on this disc is first rate.

Featuring two deleted scenes that would've changed the ending of the movie, with Underwood explaining why they were left on the cutting room floor in tandem with Ganz and Mandel's reflections on how to not only set up a character-driven storyline but also go against viewer expectations by shifting tone and emphasis, we're able to appreciate just how much work went into creating this contemporary classic.

That being said, admittedly it's a film I didn't connect with all that much upon its initial release mostly because as a child, I couldn't relate to much beyond Crystal's one-liners or moments of broad situational humor.

However, now that I'm roughly the same age as the film's characters, it proved to be an ideal time to revisit the work that inspired my favorite Academy Awards ceremony of all time, as Crystal started improvising jokes about his costar's strength and virility after Palance won his award.

Unlike too many generic contemporary comedies sure to be forgotten as soon as the credits roll, City Slickers holds up remarkably well twenty-seven years later, undoubtedly because not only do we know our characters, they're people we still recognize today, whether running from a bull, freaking out on their birthday, or riding the range.

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Warner Archive Collection DVD Review: Freebie and the Bean (1974)

Now Available from
The Warner Archive Collection

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Whether it was a biker movie starring one of the original Easy Riders like Peter Fonda or Jack Nicholson or even a stock car racing picture with Annette Funicello and Fabian-- director Richard Rush had a particular affinity for films that moved as if on the same wheels he loved to incorporate throughout his body of work.

Making movies that sometimes careened out of control like a car sliding on an icy turn or a motorcycle skidding on wet cement-- he created the original and literal Fast and the Furious picture with the cult classic '70s buddy cop movie Freebie and the Bean which later became a short-lived television show.

So politically incorrect that even Lenny Bruce may have done a double take (of course had he written it, the jokes would've consistently sped through green lights as opposed to losing hubcaps in several potholes along the way), it nonetheless seems to have been utilized as the most outrageous paradigm later worked to death in the following decades with movies like Lethal Weapon, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Stakeout, and Bad Boys.

And, especially considering its over one hundred car crashes-- Freebie and the Bean is exactly the type of film you just know Blues Brothers director John Landis giddily wanted to top with Aykroyd and Belushi's "mission from God."

Not above emptying out the contents of the trash can used by a racketeering baddie into the trunk of their car in order to search for clues-- it's safe to say that instead of the traditional "good cop, bad cop" routine, in the case of Rush's characters (which were developed by screenwriter Robert Kaufman from a story of Floyd Mutrux)-- we're basically dealing with "unstable cop" and "crazy cop."

If you can overlook some of the tasteless humor (especially involving one gay character and overall the entire despicable character of Freebie as well), then you can shut your mind off and belt yourself into the car alongside James Caan's bigoted, wise-cracking Freebie and his Latin American partner Alan Arkin, whom he calls "Bean" (when not otherwise seasoning him with ethnic jokes).

And likewise, you will definitely have to get past the frankly ridiculous casting of Arkin in the role that no doubt appealed to the same illogical school of thought that found Charlton Heston playing a Mexican in Orson Welles' brilliant Touch of Evil not to mention the fact that absolutely nothing about these cops' actions would fly for real on the job.

Despite this, it's a mile a minute rapid fire literal smash fest that leaves no car unscratched (with most totaled) or any group without offense as I was shocked to discover the film was actually banned in Sweden!

Amusing despite the relative absence of any real plot other than the increasingly ridiculous stunts the guys pull to nab their man, the movie-- which has just been released as part of the Warner Archive Collection (exclusively from the WB Shop and available as a DVD or digital download)-- gained a cult following despite what I read was fierce competition from the overall better-received and similarly constructed Elliot Gould/Robert Blake vehicle Busting from director Peter Hyams.

Entertaining but definitely showing its age on a number of levels-- the one real bright spot aside from being a car crash movie lover's dream is in the surprise Golden Globe nominated turn by Valerie Harper as Bean's beautiful wife who keeps her cool and retains logic while he uses a cop's approach in questioning her for what he assumes is an extramarital affair.

While I'm certain it's probably not one of Godfather star James Caan or Oscar winner Alan Arkin's most beloved performances, it's still a mindless Saturday afternoon time waster. Additionally it's one that no doubt inspired as many subsequent opposites attract cop buddy films as it did offend viewers who simply tuned in without being aware of what exactly they were getting into as they were quickly side-swiped by Rush's style that plows everything home with as much damage as possible for the sake of "only in the movies" entertainment.

New on DVD & Blu-ray for the Week of 1/4/09

Jen's Pick of the Week

The Grocer's Son

Ghost Writer

The Grocer's Son

Kung Fu Killer

New York Noir: The History of Black New York

Pineapple Express

Righteous Kill




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TV on DVD: Nash Bridges-- The First Season

An old psychology professor of mine used to say that typically, while women preferred to have heart-to-heart conversations face-to-face, men preferred to avoid eye contact at all costs. The best place to start a serious conversation with a man--she advised-- was in a car, and sure enough we see this time and again in buddy comedies as men end up revealing perhaps more than they would’ve if they’d been getting together for a slice of pie and cup of coffee.

CBS’s popular program Nash Bridges was no exception and the writers had great fun comprising sometimes near episode-long situations that occurred in and around the vehicle. Moreover, one writer informed viewers on the DVD for Nash Bridges—The First Season that later into the series, every single episode began in the car. Dubbed “the moving confessional” by the writers involved in the “Nash Bridges Writers Roundtable Season 1” extra on the DVD, they still marvel about the way that star Don Johnson was able to drive at speeds nearing forty miles an hour, carry on a conversation, sometimes shoot a gun, and more all behind the wheel of the series' iconic bright yellow 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible. And despite the fact that several websites dispute the reference that it was in fact a 1971 Barracuda with others charging it was a Hemi-Cuda, some stating it was a 1970 and in Nash's first episode “Genesis,” it’s referred to as a 1970 model in a line where only fourteen were made-- the bottom line is for its time, it was hands-down the coolest vehicular male-bonding set on network TV.

While typically in television and film, all driving scenes are faked as vehicles are towed along by expert drivers and rigged cameramen, the frequent usage of the Barracuda and the attention to detail of filming directly on the streets of San Francisco, employing hundreds of local workers in the roughly two million dollar per episode budget, set Nash Bridges apart from other police shows of the late '90s. Admittedly, the writers did note that in the first season, they were still finding their footing as the tone of the show changed from one episode to the next as some were filled with comical misadventures and others underworld dramas. And it's definitely evident in the eight-episode run to viewers watching the DVD as it’s obvious that the air-dates were mixed around as some storylines seem out of sync from how they may have originally been intended to appear. Still, despite this, it's a far better show than I would’ve assumed.

Much lighter than the dark, seedy, and painfully hip '80s Michael Mann smash hit Miami Vice that launched Don Johnson-- series creator Carlton Cuse shared on the DVD that he wanted to present a more accurate portrait of the Johnson that he knew, which he called the fun version of the man with “real charisma” and a “great sense of humor.” So in the end, it’s this approach along with the series' emphasis on Johnson’s character Nash Bridges’ own domestic struggles that helped enable all involved to realize that that’s truly the type of show they wanted to make. Likewise, as Johnson noted in a DVD interview, the show’s conception was born out of issues that baby boomers were facing and with which they could therefore relate.

A far cry from the much darker mafia and drug trade setting of the original script Johnson and good friend Hunter S. Thompson had originally pitched, Nash Bridges finds him instead playing the titular lead-- a top-notch inspector for the San Francisco Police Department who manages to use his photographic (or “pornographic” as he frequently jokes) memory and experience with magic in his work. While the writers were always told that Nash Bridges was not an ensemble show and that instead it was a Don Johnson series all the way (and the actor who also produced had tremendous input on all aspects), each screenwriter took turns doing a “Nash pass” to ensure that they wrote the best possible script for their star, and their talent and training paid off as some have gone onto work on NCIS and another writer eventually created FX’s highly acclaimed The Shield.

Yet, even though it was a Don Johnson vehicle, every supporting character gets a chance at the wheel and it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without his amazing costar and buddy-in-banter, Cheech Marin. Although they’d known each other for two decades, as Johnson revealed on the DVD, it wasn’t until Ron Shelton’s Tin Cup that they’d actually worked together and as Marin joked, one day they filmed their first scene for Cup together and the next, Johnson asked him if he’d like to star alongside him in Bridges.

While there was some legal wrangling to be sorted out as Marin was contracted on another show, eventually he joined the series for good as his former retired partner and long-time best friend, Joe Dominguez, who has since become a P.I. and later an accidental gay bar owner in a surprisingly funny business scheme near the end of season one. Married to the "Nordic Goddess" Inger, Joe seems to take everything in stride balancing work and family but Bridges is unable to turn off the cop part of his brain. Still dealing with mixed feelings, nostalgic spontaneous couplings and associations with two very different ex-wives and trying to raise an independent minded teenage daughter who’s growing up way too fast, Bridges is-- as the writers note-- a man who’s done everything right in his professional life and completely flunked his personal one.

Whether he’s trying to juggle taking care of his elderly dementia-ridden father, deal with taking his first vacation in over four thousand days with his ex-wife (as an ironic newly-divorced honeymoon for the two who sizzle better without rings), or hitting up his many underworld contacts for leads, Bridges was multi-tasking before the term was added to the dictionary. Although sometimes it’s way too hard to believe that his character would still be able to go undercover since that distinctive car as well as his sterling reputation and ability to make headlines make him nearly as popular as (well) Don Johnson himself and his tendency to call everyone “Bubba” does feel more Smokey and the Bandit country slang than hip SFPD, but the first season of Bridges showed the series’ awesome promise to come.

Action packed with some jaw-dropping chase sequences including one in the first episode involving guest star Lucy Liu and filled with enough shoot-outs and stand-offs to make John Woo green with envy, I was surprised to discover that something I feared would be at best a “B movie” version of a cop show was endlessly entertaining. Featuring audio commentaries, special interviews, the season one promo and more and arriving in a two-Disc DVD set on October 14 from Paramount Home Entertainment, don’t be alarmed if you find yourselves speeding through the eight episodes fairly quickly. Just don’t go too fast, for-- if you find yourself pulled over by Marin’s Dominguez in one of the season’s funniest scenes-- you may have to fill out your own speeding ticket yourself.

Pineapple Express (2008)

Director:
David Gordon Green


Let me lay a few images on you: 1) Environmental activist and electric car poster boy Ed Begley Jr. packing heat and dropping f-bombs like pocket change. 2) Petite Rosie Perez putting the smack down on James Franco. 3) Danny McBride baking a cake to commemorate the birthday of his dead cat. 4) Seth Rogen feeling insecure when he meets his high school girlfriend’s hot male classmate who’s wowed her, not with his muscles, but his ability to do a killer Jeff Goldblum impression.

No, my friend, these are not hallucinations. Instead, welcome to director David Gordon Green’s stoner comedy Pineapple Express, which, paying homage to Spike Lee’s term-of-choice, could be called a "Judd Apatow Joint." Emulating 70’s stoner classics from its opening credits, Express gets a much-needed credibility boost, as award-winning writer/director David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls, George Washington) and his talented cinematographer Tim Orr turn what could have been a Harold and Kumar meets Cheech and Chong rip-off into something that’s more beautifully photographed and painstakingly edited than one would assume such a comedy should be.

Yet, that’s not to say it’s George Washington 2. In producer Apatow’s Pineapple Express, "everybody must get stoned" and in the process, laugh themselves silly. That’s right, in the latest trippy offering from the informal Judd Apatow School of Comedic Filmmaking, following Knocked Up, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and Superbad, co-screenwriter and star Seth Rogen plays a process server with two passions in life: weed and talk radio.

When he isn’t donning elaborate costumes to surprise his “targets” with subpoenas, Rogen’s Dale Denton can usually be found driving down the highway, joint and steering wheel in one hand, and cell phone in the other, spouting off his own life lessons to whatever unfortunate DJ happens to be on the air. Tackling every issue, from his obvious ardent support of the legalization of marijuana, to trying to justify to the world—and disbelieving audiences—his improbable relationship with Angie (Amber Heard) a pretty, eighteen year old blonde, Dale coasts through his days, seemingly without any greater ambition than receiving the perfect smoke and giving the perfect pearl of wisdom.

While the logic of Dale and Angie: The Couple, makes as much sense as Leah Remini and Kevin James on The King of Queens, Rogen and his co-writer Evan Goldberg manage to cull a great deal of unexpected humor from the situation as Dale proceeds to surprise Angie with a visit in two of the film’s funniest scenes. The first occurs early into Express, when he arrives at her high school and gets busted by faculty within minutes; then, in one of the most uproarious sequences, after he shows up, bleeding and dirty, for dinner with her parents on an evening gone horribly wrong. However, in this instance - as in every time he’s paired alongside James Franco - Rogen is instantly upstaged by Angela’s father, played by Ed Begley Jr. as an uncharacteristic and downright hysterical Clint Eastwood type, eager to unload his rifle into his daughter’s loser beau.

Why is Dale bleeding and dirty, you might ask? Well, it’s a long story, but keeping the dwindling attention spans of the target stoner crowd in mind, it can best be summed up in one name: Saul Silver. Shortly after Dale agrees to Angie's request to finally meet the parents, he predictably retreats to his loyal drug dealer’s house, to take the edge off before continuing on to deliver the rest of his assigned subpoenas.

Like Begley, by playing against type, serious Golden Globe winning actor James Franco (TV’s James Dean) manages to score the greatest laughs by seemingly channeling both Brad Pitt in True Romance and Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High in his role as the perpetually stoned drug dealer, Saul Silver. Ridiculously clueless and desperately lonely, save for his adoration for his elderly grandmother, Saul is the type of dealer who claims "lingerers" are bummers yet when it comes to his relationship with his client of two months-- Dale-- he tries to lure him into hanging out by any means necessary.

Like most potheads, Saul’s conversation changes topics from one moment to the next, and Franco shows amazing untapped comedic potential by nailing every joke right from the start, gaining our empathy and winning us over with his portrayal of a morally questionable yet lovable loser. While he’s unable to persuade Dale into staying, either by watching The Jeffersons on one of his two televisions airing different programs simultaneously, or with his satellite radio, Dale can’t resist the chance to light Saul’s unusual “cross joint.” Additionally, while Saul pawns off low-quality fare to his less-deserving clientèle, Dale realizes that he’s been sold the first batch of high quality "Pineapple Express" pot (which Saul claims is the “dopest dope” he’s ever smoked); it’s so good that Saul explains it’s nearly a shame to smoke it since it’s “like killing a unicorn.”

Unfortunately, after Dale leaves his dealer’s apartment to serve one last subpoena, he experiences the ultimate buzz-kill when he witnesses an actual killing by sleazy drug kingpin Ted Jones (Office Space's Gary Cole) and Rosie Perez's crooked cop, Carol. During his chaotic escape, he leaves the rest of his joint at the scene of the crime, and sure enough, after discovering that Ted is Saul’s supplier, Saul and Dale have to flee their homes to outrun not only Ted and Carol, but also a duo of killers sent after the bumbling pair.

Comedic adventure ensues, and it starts out strong, with a genuinely hilarious evening spent in the woods (which goes from The Marx Brothers to The Blair Witch Project in a matter of seconds), then builds to even funnier effect when they encounter Saul’s double crossing, kimono wearing middle-man Red (a terrifically inventive Danny McBride).

But the film takes an ill-conceived turn when it replaces humor for ultra-violent action. The initial fight between Red, Dale and Saul recalls the creative high-jinks and absurdity of Cato Fong and Inspector Clouseau’s fights in the original Pink Panther movies and are excellently staged by Pineapple’s stunt coordinator Gary Hymes (Wanted, The Italian Job). The sight-gags have to be seen to be believed, as Saul jumps up and down on a portable phone in a shower, and Red hits Saul repeatedly with a dust-buster, but unfortunately, the humor and gags soon become increasingly violent.

Despite my belief that when it came to the Apatow trademark of earning its R rating to the "nth" degree, any alternative to the gross-out gags was preferable, the violence in Express crosses the line, especially in an overly long final battle that's shot to resemble a war film. Thus, much like its constantly dazed and confused characters, Pineapple Express throws the viewers off balance by the film’s constant questioning of its tone.

Green, Rogen, and Apatow never seem entirely sure whether they want to make the film a no-holds-barred action movie as homage to Tarantino, or just a buddy comedy turned “bromance,” as the relationship between Saul and Dale begins to blur the lines between comically genre-inspired homoeroticism (think Hot Fuzz and Top Gun) and the typical frat-pack feeling of similarly themed comedies such as Wedding Crashers or Talladega Nights. However, despite a funny, if far too brief performance by Rosie Perez, the film proves to be this week’s male answer to the release of The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants 2, or as Pineapple’s sexist Red would argue, “bros before hoes.”

Coming, as it does, right off the heels of the release of Step Brothers, and just before next week’s Ben Stiller comedy, Tropic Thunder, only time will tell how reliable the attention spans of audiences will be in remembering Pineapple as an unlikely Apatow joint.

Although the films are very different and I have yet to see Tropic Thunder, the laughter at the Pineapple screening was so raucous that I know I missed half the jokes. So despite fighting an overwhelming urge to look at my watch as its final battle raged on -- based on sheer entertainment value alone -- I think I'd go back to ride the Express once more before revisiting the humorous but unusually cruel, Step Brothers again.

And overwhelmingly, the wish for a repeat viewing would be to appreciate again the awe-inspiring range of Spiderman and Tristan and Isolde’s James Franco, in a role he plays so well that it’s a shame that comedies are frequently overlooked during awards season. However, if you want more reasons, just go back and reread the opening paragraph, where the price of admission is justified right there in black and white, in case your mind (like Saul's) has begun to wander.

Bonneville

Director: Christopher N. Rowley

It’s become a near prerequisite for female bonding movies or, to use man’s favorite term that still makes me squeamish—chick flicks-- to include one or more of the following: a) the word sisterhood in the title; b) unlikely bonding between the obligatory straight-laced friend and the obligatory flirtatious or promiscuous rebel; c) flashbacks from childhood where the women pledged they would remain BFFs for all eternity; d) dysfunction reigns supreme either in the form of abuse, marital infidelity, medical drama, or parental issues; e) it’s unbearably depressing; f) utilizes a heavy “you go girl” styled soundtrack of 60’s and 70’s female empowerment hits that have now become the theme songs of drag queens; g) there’s an overly sensitive, sexless and nearly neutered Prince Charming who not only looks amazing shirtless but says all the right things at all the right times to compensate for the Neanderthals they’ve met in the past; and lastly h) it involves a journey of some kind-- usually in the form of a road trip-- which we all know is a motif for the women to “cut loose, kick off… [their] Sunday shoes,” and get Footloose while rediscovering their true selves.

And frankly, it’s a tragedy in not only unleashing horrifically bad films on the public but even more so in perpetuating sexist stereotypes on the teenage boys who purchase tickets to the latest video game turned into a movie as well as a predominantly male profession of journalists whose scathing reviews will no doubt-- even if they’re completely justified-- not only keep people away but prevent Hollywood from trying to create more films for the demographic… and dare I say help shape future media coverage about us when we do something out of the “norm” like perhaps run for presidential office. Oh, but we won't go there!

Yet, even as a woman who—more than anything—wants to encourage more films made for our gender, it’s an appalling fact that the ones we’re peddled usually condescend with several of the aforementioned criteria and so the vicious cycle continues and instead of a modern day equivalent of All About Eve or Gone With the Wind, we get Paris Hilton in The Hottie or the Nottie and Mandy Moore in Because I Said So.

With this in mind, after I saw the previews for the latest female bonding picture, Bonneville, starring Academy Award winners and nominees Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and Joan Allen, I began bracing myself for the worst. First a confession-- I’m a great fan of all three actresses, (especially the underrated Joan Allen whose chameleon like ability never ceases to amaze), and I applauded the moxie to produce a film starring a trio of women over the age of fifty. However, the fact that the trailer featured: the three jumping on a bed like giggling schoolgirls, one remaining like a prim schoolmarm while the other acts flirtatious in trying to meet cute with a Prince Charming, and taking a lengthy road trip to face a dysfunctional relative after a depressing event seemed to solidify every cliché in the genre book... yet I found myself pleasantly surprised by this predictable but innocuous and heartwarming little sleeper just released on DVD.

The film, which begins in Pocatello, Idaho, opens as the beautiful, recently widowed Arvilla (Jessica Lange) tries to come to grips with the death of her much older, adventuring, best-selling author husband. Although she’d been his wife for twenty years, her goodhearted yet absentminded husband Joe was so consumed with living life to the fullest that he neglected to create a new will explaining not only his wish to be cremated and have his ashes scattered but also to leave the house to his beloved wife. When Joe’s bitter, defensive daughter Francine (a wicked Christine Baranski) arrives to contest her father’s undocumented wishes, she blackmails her stepmother by giving her a week to deliver Joe’s ashes to her in Montecito, California where she intends to bury him next to his first wife or else she will kick Arvilla out of the home Francine has now inherited.

Still reeling from the untimely death of her mate, not to mention the threat of homelessness lingering in her mind, Arvilla decides she will hand-deliver Joe to Francine herself and her two best friends--the strict but kind, perpetual reader of The Book of Mormon, Carol (Joan Allen) and the rebellious Margene who breaks Mormon rule and indulges in coffee, decide they will go along with their friend, feeling that there’s no time like the present to have a girl’s vacation.

Deciding to take Joe’s gorgeous blue, vintage Bonneville out for a spin for the first time in her life, Arvilla picks up her friends and after a few mishaps including a flat tire and several detours, makes the impulsive decision to skip the flight and make it up to Montecito by car, with her loyal friends by her side. Predictably, they encounter memorable eccentrics along the way such as a young, beautiful hippie born decades too late played by Victor Rasuk (Adrift in Manhattan) who rescues them in the Salt Flats and then gives them his MP3 player in exchange for a ride, along with big-rig driving Tom Skerritt who catches Margene’s eye and interest, yet when the time comes wherein he actually ask the ladies to dinner, she’s the most hesitant one—revealing the truism for not only Margene but most women that it’s far easier to fantasize than actualize-- until with a little prompting she opens herself up to the possibility of love.

Filled with sumptuous cinematography of the majestic American southwest that’s worth the price of the DVD rental alone, although the film hits one contrived plot-point after another and anyone who has seen even a few female bonding classics know precisely what will happen next, the actresses seem to genuinely engage one another in ways that make what may have been one-dimensional roles seem far more real than the less than inspired writing.

In fact, it’s on their capable shoulders that Bonneville rests and I’m sure I don’t have to assure you that when you have Bates and Allen navigating with Lange in the driver’s seat, even if you hit some potentially rough traffic and annoying road construction along the way, you’re guaranteed a mostly smooth and entertaining trip, if you can face your fear from enough bad female journey pictures of the past to give the likable, mild Bonneville a spin.

Bon Cop, Bad Cop

Director:
Erik Canuel

Although incredibly supportive of any effort to go green, when it comes to film criticism, I’m an environmentalist’s nightmare. Despite trying to recycle as often as possible-- even though it pains me to admit that at 27 I can’t depend on memory alone-- I’m a big believer in note-taking, filling scores of pages when I watch a given film. In the theatre it’s an incredible challenge given the lack of light and audience distraction but it’s invitingly easier to do so in the comfort of my own home with the freedom of using pens that click, outrageously colorful post-its, and yellow legal pads I covet as though they were as vital as water, not to mention sole possession of the remote control. While it always cracks me up that I seem to only use about ¼ of my notes in any given review, reading over them before I write never fails to illuminate my automatic response to whatever the cinematic stimulus was that particular day and this was especially true when reading over my reactions to the box office and Genie award winning Canadian smash, Bon Cop, Bad Cop. In American movies, before learning the character’s names, sometimes I’ll label them in notes by the actor’s last name (Diaz or Downey, for example) or in independent films, sometimes I have to be a bit more vague like “main guy” or “girlfriend,” however, one has to be even more creative with foreign fare. Possibly in anticipation for the rousing, unlikely buddy cop/culture clash comedy, and oddly instead of going for the obvious analysis of “French” or “English” to keep them straight, I discovered that without any true intention to do so, I’d described our two leads as “square cop” and “sexy cop.” Obviously, it won’t come as a surprise to those of you reared on Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop and other actioners to learn that sexy cop was the hot, black haired (of course!) French cop we’d come to identify with as bad cop and square cop was the bilingual but primarily English speaking, good (or as the French would say “bon”) cop. And although later their names translated to the French Quebec police officer David Bouchard (played by Patrick Huard) and English’s Montreal officer Martin Ward (Colm Feore), less amused by their movie handles, strangely enough, I still chose to go with sexy cop and square cop in my notes.

After a gruesome introduction acquaints us with the film’s sadistic hockey mask wearing “tattoo killer” villain, erroneously setting the film up to be Silence of the Lambs like instead of the Lethal Weapon meets Hot Fuzz styled advertising had promised, we meet our two police detective leads as they find they’re forced to work with one another when the murderer’s victim is found draped over the “Welcome to Ontario” sign, with as they joke his heart in Quebec and rear in Ontario. The first of several jokes between the French and English who constantly ridicule one another, I quickly learned that as an American, there were going to be several in-jokes and references that wouldn’t ring as true for those unfamiliar with Canadian attitudes and sure enough, there’s an entire Wikipedia page devoted to the film that explains some of the references but CliffsNotes for cop comedies seems like a major distraction when trying to follow the adventures of square cop and sexy cop.

Blending together the tried and true genres of the culture clash styled fish-out-of-water, American buddy comedy and procedural cop thriller, Bon Cop, Bad Cop benefits largely due to its high energy cast including a wonderful, commanding and subtle turn by the straight-laced Colm Feore as square cop Martin and the gorgeous, mischievous Patrick Huard (who also came up with the original idea for the film) as sexy cop David. The two not only play well off of one another but are also given some inventive subplots including David being seduced by Martin’s aggressively, flirtatious sister (which culminates in a ridiculously over-the-top sex scene) and in turn, Martin finding himself drawn to David’s ex-wife, with whom he still lives.

Hampered by an overly long running time and a mystery plot that, despite some major explosions and mishaps along the way, never quite seems as intriguing as the two main characters, the film was nonetheless so successful in its native Canada that according to IMDb, it “ended Porky’s 24 year reign as the highest grossing Canadian movie in the Canadian box office.” However, for a far superior and much more satisfying spoof of the same genre, there’s no replacing Hot Fuzz, although hockey fans and those who enjoy Canadian odd couples comprised of one man who’s sexy and one who’s a square, won’t want to miss Bon Cop, Bad Cop.