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

Now Available from
The Warner Archive Collection

At the WB Shop

Bookmark this on Delicious

Print Page





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.

Righteous Kill

In Heat, they played cops and crooks.
This time around they're both cops
but have no fear — old habits die hard.

In Righteous Kill, director Jon Avnet’s hotly anticipated cinematic reunion for Heat stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, the two play tough-as-nails veteran NYPD detectives. In summing up their professional partnership, a supporting character simply explains, “They’re like Lennon and McCartney.”

While it’s one of many pop culture references sprinkled throughout Russell Gerwitz’s follow-up screenplay to the Spike Lee smash Inside Man, for all intents and purposes it’s an especially poignant line uttered by a very minor character. Especially considering that that very line and that forgettable character seem to serve as a sort of doorway from the movie to the audience — it essentially echoes our very thoughts as we watch arguably the two finest actors of their generation play off each other with a fiery intensity that’s been missing from some of their more recent by-the-numbers work.

Much like having a favorite Beatle or being able to dub somebody a McCartney or a Lennon person and instinctively get just who they are by their taste (much like Cusack’s character surmised in High Fidelity), film fans can be broken down into two distinct breeds as well. Namely, you have Pacino people and De Niro people. And while acting-wise, they’re both brilliant, due to his consistency and ability to disappear into a role rather than shout (as Pacino is prone to doing a little too often post-“HOOAH!” a.k.a. Scent of a Woman), I’ve always been a De Niro girl. And yes, I’ll even admit that when I was sixteen, I was so passionate about De Niro as “the greatest actor who ever lived,” that I actually did drop a guy who not only cruelly belittled my beloved Bobby D but also said that you can’t even put the two men in the same category.

Of course rejecting someone solely on taste was hastily juvenile and would probably have made terrific fodder for an episode of Seinfeld. However now that more than a decade has passed, sadly we’ve found both De Niro and Pacino often pigeonholed into playing mere caricatures of the characters they are most famous for playing. And while the '00s are finding Sean Penn, Russell Crowe, Don Cheadle, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a few others giving the men a serious run for their money, simply put, Pacino and De Niro are still the Brando and Dean of their generation.

And admittedly the smoldering glances of Pacino back in his heyday made him the one you most wanted to dance the tango with (like Burn Notice’s Gabrielle Anwar did in Woman), there was still something undeniably alluring about De Niro even when he stared down a guy in a bar in GoodFellas without saying a word — perfectly cut to music — and we know he’s just decided to end another character’s life. While they’ve both played monsters, De Niro is like a car crash you can’t look away from. Something hooks you and you find yourself laughing, frighteningly repulsed yet oddly intrigued when he says, “Come out, come out wherever you are” in Cape Fear and even more so when he can take an entire page filled with profanity and make that dialogue sing as though he were Frank Sinatra. What actor on earth hasn’t dreamed about getting cursed out by De Niro onscreen? And hell, the red band trailer for Righteous itself is practically an ode to the f-bomb, although oddly, instead of seeming gratuitous, Pacino and De Niro play those lines as though they were jazz. However, while I urge you to track that one down, for now, we must make do with the green band:

View the Trailer

So aside from my gushing bias where these men are concerned (as I stood in awe and simply stared at the large studio stand for Righteous Kill months back when it first debuted in the lobby of my local multiplex), I think I speak for everyone when I say that after the tease of their brief scenes together in Heat, we simply couldn’t wait for them to spend more time in each other’s company with the camera rolling for longer than ten minutes at a time. Although they’d been co-stars in The Godfather Part II, up until Michael Mann’s L.A. epic Heat, the two men hadn’t shared a single frame and to film buffs, that aforementioned film’s diner conversation felt more like two buddies catching up on the past than a cop and a robber sizing each other up.

Needless to say, they set each other off, each igniting the other man like the worthiest chess opponent and it’s no wonder that Pacino’s Righteous character, nicknamed Rooster, is himself fond of playing chess in New York’s Washington Square Park. Having worked on the force side-by-side with his partner Turk (De Niro) for more than thirty years, the two detectives share an intuition that’s closer than most marriages — able to complete each other’s sentences, even mentally understand the other man’s next move before perhaps he does himself.

The film kicks off with a bang of gunfire as the titans fire rounds “two between the eyes” at a shooting range and while it sets itself up to be just a male bonding film, we’re thrown for a loop when camera footage is revealed and in a voice over De Niro begins commenting on the darker nature of police work. As Turk tells it, their job took a turn four years earlier when he planted a gun on an acquitted child murderer for a homicide the man didn’t commit, just to make sure he wouldn’t walk the same streets as part of the evil 1% he protects the other 99% from on a daily basis. Freely admitting that he crossed that thin blue line, it’s an incident he doesn’t regret and one that even the coolly contemplative Rooster who’d considered the more hot-headed Turk his role model says was not only admirable but “righteous.”

However, when bodies of the city’s “untouchable” and un-prosecutable scum start showing up around town with poems by their corpses revealing the horrific actions of their past, the men’s boss Lieutenant Hingis (Brian Dennehy) begins fearing that not only do they have a new serial killer but he could be one of the city’s finest. And when younger detectives Simon Perez (John Leguizamo) and Ted Riley (Boomtown’s Donnie Wahlberg) begin working the case as well, fingers all start pointing in the direction of Turk and Rooster, leading to a twist-filled yet overly melodramatic conclusion.

Much like Gerwitz’s Inside Man script (which is getting a sequel), there is quite a major surprise involved in Righteous Kill and while I did kick myself for not figuring it out much earlier as actually one very frank clue is revealed within the opening fifteen minutes making me want to see it a second time around, I still couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed by the contrivances of the storytelling. Instead of a daring and ingenious look at corruption — much like this year’s surprisingly underrated Street Kings — Righteous Kill never aspires to be anything more than a run-of-the-mill police thriller.

While fans of Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent) will have fun checking him out opposite Pacino and De Niro, Righteous Kill otherwise wastes not just the two great leading men but more specifically its supporting players. This is especially apparent in an off-putting role for the immensely versatile and talented Carla Gugino who plays a crime scene investigator who only serves to add a titillating and perverse twist to the amoral tale as a kinky masochist involved with Turk but one who gets a fairly upsetting and possibly misogynistic “punishment” for her sexual preferences to set the Heat-like concluding events in motion.

Although it’s always a joy to see De Niro and Pacino in action, given their age there probably aren’t as many calls for them to appear opposite one another as there should be. While you wouldn’t exactly picture them starring in something like The Bucket List or Grumpy Old Men, it’d be great to see them break free from the chains we as ardent fans have placed on them by appreciating them in the type of roles actors such as Tom Wilkinson or Alan Rickman typically play.

While it’s still an entertaining film and one that no doubt will do great business at the box office to see the men in action (although squaring off opposite the new Coen Brothers flick may not have been the best decision marketing-wise), I’m amazed to say that for a police thriller, I’d probably recommend the Keanu Reeves DVD release Street Kings before this one. Although as a De Niro girl, understand that there is no substitute for a big screen reunion of acting’s Lennon and McCartney and those who just want to see the men rock ‘n roll won’t be disappointed in the least.

Noise

Director: Matthew Saville

Although less claustrophobic than the insanity tinged genius of Aronofsky’s Pi and far more accessible to daring art-house audiences than that experimentally trippy classic, I was initially reminded of Aronofsky’s fascination with visual and aural experimentation within the first few brilliant moments of writer/director Matthew Saville’s Noise. With an overwhelming emphasis on auditory trickery, the film begins on confident cinematic footing with the audacity of launching right into the psychologically loud yet eerily quiet mayhem as-- typically lost in her headphones-- young McDonald’s employee Lavinia (Maia Thomas), boards an Australian train only to discover after a moment of nonchalantly getting lost in the post-work fatigue and rhythm of her music that all of the other passengers have been massacred by gunfire.

Following this shocking discovery, we’re introduced to a parallel story, also set at the train station as police officer Graham McGahan (Brendan Cowell), who has privately suffered for quiet months with ringing in his ears, experiences a blackout while boarding an escalator at a stop down the line, only to awaken later at a hospital where he’s diagnosed with tinnitus and learns he may eventually lose his hearing.

The two stories link up quickly as McGahan’s medical note is ridiculed by his bullying hyper-masculine superiors and he’s assigned night duty, babysitting a caravan at a crime scene adjacent to not only the train but also the mysterious death of a local woman in the community. These two tragic occurrences sound an alarm in their sleepy, suburban community that they may be somehow related as the justifiably frightened sole witness Lavinia tries to grapple with what had happened the night she boarded the train and McGahan must deal with random locals who visit him to complain, jeer, fight, gossip, slander, fill with misinformation, and genuinely make his shift all the more complicated.

With a phenomenally gripping beginning that braces audiences for a typical police procedural thriller, Saville ignores the limitations of the genre and like a magician from the school of experimental Aronofsky, uses sound in peculiar ways throughout, heightening the tension. Ultimately Noise’s narrative approach is less a traditional whodunit as a character driven, moodily atmospheric piece where eccentric locals abound and things are never as they appear in the spirit of John Sayles where the setting is both a clue and a character and it will undoubtedly play differently to audiences who live in other countries who—although admittedly entranced by its spell—may not fully understand the nuances that helped earn the film a remarkable twelve awards in its native Australia.

While the awards aren’t hard to imagine given the high quality of the film, this is especially apparent in the pitch perfect performances of both Brendan Cowell as he tries to resign himself to living with his disability and fight the wedge it threatens to divide in his relationship and work as well as young Maia Thomas’s emotionally wrought Lavinia, whom we learn in well placed flashbacks, may actually know more than she initially wanted to share for fear of her life from simply being in the wrong place at most decidedly the wrong time.

Although Noise will infuriate those hoping for a strict cop paradigm who will grow weary with the film’s continuous exercises in sound manipulation in creating an unforgettable dramatic effect and the end of the film is maddeningly vague-- inspiring viewer discussion long into the night-- perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the entire impressive film is that it only marks the second filmmaking and first feature length effort from its gifted and imaginative helmer Matthew Saville.

Exclusively available through Film Movement, Saville’s Noise is one sure to cause lots of conversational noise once you hit eject, however filmmaking students will want to hijack the disc, in order to study that opening, experimentally bravura sequence of tone establishment many times over, discovering what happens when all the post-production elemental tricks work together in nearly symphonic unison at the highest level to engage the audience.

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.

Chaos (2005)

Director: Tony Giglio

I begin with the facts—made in 2005 yet halfheartedly given a mini-release in 2007, writer/director Tony Giglio’s Chaos starring Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes and Ryan Phillippe ultimately ended up having its largest premiere on the DVD shelves of local video stores in 2008. Everything about the aforementioned facts seemed to scream that it was going to be a disaster yet, and echoing numerous user comments on IMDb, I was actually shocked to discover that snobbery aside, damn it, Chaos is much better than one would assume. Actually, I’d even go as far as to say it’s an above average police thriller, that, despite a huge pull-the-wool-over-your-eyes finale that keeps doubling back to try to top itself, has further convinced me that Jason Statham is an extremely exciting actor to watch.

Set in Seattle, the film opens with a fateful tragedy where two police officers try to save the daughter of a congressman who’s been held hostage after a carjacking by a criminal. When quick reactions lead to the deaths of both the innocent and criminal civilians, we learn in a series of newspaper headlines over the beginning that Detective Jason York (Jason Statham) is suspended from the police department and his partner has lost his job.

Now brought up to speed for present day, we watch as a group of masked men led by Lorenz (Wesley Snipes) hold up a Seattle bank and when the alarm is tripped and it becomes a standoff, the only demand Lorenz makes is to deal directly with York who is reluctantly brought in from suspension and given a babysitter in the form of his new, young partner, Detective Shane Dekker (Ryan Phillippe). By this point, we’re thinking we’re watching a simple heist film but it evolves repeatedly throughout as the captors escape the bank undetected and the real mystery begins.

Giglio, a former production assistant on action films like Heat and The Quick and the Dead, noted on the DVD that his intention with Chaos was to ditch the typical action genre's overreliance on visual effects and in the vein of 70’s films such as The French Connection, make a gritty work that he says is less of a heist action film and ultimately more of a mystery. In this goal he succeeds with this riveting work that will keep you guessing right up to the finale although some viewers may beat the detectives to the punch a few times along the way.

While I will admit that it is another one of those films that seems to delight in building layer upon layer of new twist endings to rival other neo-noir films like The Usual Suspects (although this isn’t in the same league), Chaos is a great rainy afternoon film. Or perhaps it’s the perfect escapist action fare to unwind with when you’ve had a long day, since as Giglio noted on the DVD, he knows he did his job as a filmmaker if he can entertain viewers enough that they forget where they parked their car. Actually, maybe that’s part of the reason this little gem improves on DVD since afterwards you’ll still be putting everything together and it’s better to watch in your own home when you know exactly where your car is parked.

Note: For those who wish to avoid a major plot spoiler, visit the main IMDb page for Chaos AFTER you’ve seen the film.

Vantage Point

Director: Pete Travis

Kurosawa’s Rashomon meets TV’s 24 with this highly entertaining yet dubious political thriller, which tells the story of an attempted presidential assassination and bombing at a terror summit meeting in Salamanca, Spain from the points of view of eight strangers who are all privy to different aspects of the event. Dennis Quaid is the ideal choice to play Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes, who after taking a bullet for American President Ashton (William Hurt) has been suffering from post-traumatic stress. Lured back on the job by his younger colleague Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox), Barnes tries to overcome his fears and overwhelming stress that sets him even further on edge after the first bullet is shot.

It’s shortly after this first burst of action that the film rewinds itself roughly a half and hour to show the same events from another point of view including one from American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) who is conveniently filming the historic event on his camcorder before we meet several other participants and witnesses. While indeed each rewind brings new light to the events, about halfway into the film we begin losing track of characters when reaching rewind number five; thus instead of a clever and nonlinear experiment in storytelling, it becomes a gimmick and far more ludicrous distraction as events grow even harder to believe.

Still, clocking in at just under ninety minutes, director Pete Travis and first time scripter Barry Levy (a former teacher at L.A.’s Temple Israel) keep pulses pounding and once the film careens into a tense action thriller for the last portion of the movie, I began wishing there would have been more scenes of action earlier on, rather than just setting things up until the point when things get interesting and then deciding to rewind. However, much more enjoyable than most critics would have you believe—it’s a slightly above average political thriller, without the intellect required for some of the Tom Clancy styled releases, yet just as riveting as a better evening of TV’s 24, except instead of Kiefer Sutherland’s superhero influenced Jack Bauer or Clancy’s Jack Ryan, we have a cast filled with Oscar nominees and winners including Quaid, Hurt, Whitaker, and Siguorney Weaver.

In the Valley of Elah

Director:
Paul Haggis

Inspired by a true story, this heart-wrenching and gritty drama follows career army veteran Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) who gets a startling phone call from his son Mike’s base in New Mexico’s Fort Rudd stating that Mike (Jonathan Tucker) has gone AWOL just after returning to American soil from his time in Iraq.

Leaving his worried wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) behind, Hank sets off from Tennessee to try and find his son, assuming that he’s just disappeared for awhile to enjoy himself and blow off some much needed steam only to be devastated by the unspeakable aftermath following the discovery of his son’s charred remains. Caught between the bureaucracy of the army base that wants to take over the investigation of one of its own and the local police who struggle against that red tape daily, Hank fears that the crime will be covered up and conducts his own investigation after grudgingly receiving help from Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) who, tired of being ridiculed by her sexist male coworkers aids Hank in his quest.

With only a few clues to go on sent by Mike himself in the form of e-mailed photos and a fried cell phone containing brief video clips shot by Mike while in Iraq that Hank hires a hacker to try and unscramble, Hank and Emily go down a road of haunting deeds and outrageous lies that shocks them, and the audience, to their very core.

While largely ignored, as other Iraqi themed films were in the fall of 2007, In the Valley of Elah garnered rave critical reviews including prominent placement on top ten lists from noteworthy sources and also recognition in the form of an Oscar nomination for Jones as Best Actor, although his role in this was overshadowed by his even more potent supporting turn in No Country for Old Men which, like Elah, also costars Josh Brolin.

Written specifically for Theron and originally as a vehicle for Clint Eastwood who helped get the film greenlighted (IMDb), talented writer/director Paul Haggis (Crash) crafts a memorable and emotionally charged film that will not only haunt audiences for days but also admirably and subtly without preaching, make us wonder just what we are doing to another generation of young military men and women by sending them into foreign countries to fight wars that do not make any sense, yet they go bravely like David fighting Goliath in the biblical story where the film received its name.