Bean and Freebie are two San Fransisco wiseguy cops eager to put the collar on a big-time mob racketeer, when they get a tipoff there is an out-of-state contract on his head. During a crazy Superbowl weekend, they have to make sure he stays alive long enough for them to make an airtight case against him.
I like seventies cop movies. If you compare this with a quality modern-day police show like CSI, it's not so much that these cops don't go by the book, it's more that they tear up the book, set fire to it and dance around like Injuns. Arkin and Caan are like that in this film; they're constantly shouting at and hitting felons, members of the public and each other, they crash cars, endanger lives, destroy as much property as possible, murder troublesome assassins, break into people's houses, steal things and are generally extreme sociopaths at best. These are the role models I look up to. What really makes this film is the terrific on-screen chemistry between the two leads - Caan is the ultimate Italian American, running-mouth, at's-a-matter-for-you, head-busting, serial womanising jackass whose nickname comes from his penchant for bribes, and Arkin is a delirious, three-scenes-ahead-in-the-script, mad-eyed, wound up too tight, cod-Mexican wannabe officer with problems at home. I love Arkin's unique style; in his prime, nobody played these post-counter-culture nutcases with nearly as much wit and energy as him, not even Jack Nicholson. The sequence where he grills his put-upon wife (a memorable performance by Harper) on her alleged affairs is a real showstopper of stylised, intense, passionate acting, not to be missed. Extremely well directed by the mysterious Rush, a man who made some of the most interesting and least-seen pictures of the pre-Movie Brat generation (his next film, The Stunt Man, took six years to get made), with great location photography by Laszlo Kovacs. Check out the two excellent big crowd chase sequences, with sensational stuntwork by Chuck Bail, who also has a funny cameo as a car salesman who ends up on the receiving end of our heroes' humanitarian police procedures. I do have one gripe with this movie however, which is Unfair Credit Syndrome; why does Morley, who plays the pivotal role of the cross-dressing killer, not make the start credits, when Swit, who's in exactly four shots, gets billed third ? An exciting, barbed, anarchic, eye-popping, laugh-out-loud comedy police thriller.
I like seventies cop movies. If you compare this with a quality modern-day police show like CSI, it's not so much that these cops don't go by the book, it's more that they tear up the book, set fire to it and dance around like Injuns. Arkin and Caan are like that in this film; they're constantly shouting at and hitting felons, members of the public and each other, they crash cars, endanger lives, destroy as much property as possible, murder troublesome assassins, break into people's houses, steal things and are generally extreme sociopaths at best. These are the role models I look up to. What really makes this film is the terrific on-screen chemistry between the two leads - Caan is the ultimate Italian American, running-mouth, at's-a-matter-for-you, head-busting, serial womanising jackass whose nickname comes from his penchant for bribes, and Arkin is a delirious, three-scenes-ahead-in-the-script, mad-eyed, wound up too tight, cod-Mexican wannabe officer with problems at home. I love Arkin's unique style; in his prime, nobody played these post-counter-culture nutcases with nearly as much wit and energy as him, not even Jack Nicholson. The sequence where he grills his put-upon wife (a memorable performance by Harper) on her alleged affairs is a real showstopper of stylised, intense, passionate acting, not to be missed. Extremely well directed by the mysterious Rush, a man who made some of the most interesting and least-seen pictures of the pre-Movie Brat generation (his next film, The Stunt Man, took six years to get made), with great location photography by Laszlo Kovacs. Check out the two excellent big crowd chase sequences, with sensational stuntwork by Chuck Bail, who also has a funny cameo as a car salesman who ends up on the receiving end of our heroes' humanitarian police procedures. I do have one gripe with this movie however, which is Unfair Credit Syndrome; why does Morley, who plays the pivotal role of the cross-dressing killer, not make the start credits, when Swit, who's in exactly four shots, gets billed third ? An exciting, barbed, anarchic, eye-popping, laugh-out-loud comedy police thriller.