A decade after the godfathers of the buddy cop movie, (Busting - 1974) and (Freebie and the Bean - 1974), some changes had to be done, to refresh the genre, and avoid the bore. So let's play with the ethnic belongingness of one of the cops, to see an all American cop teaming up with: an Afro American in (Running Scared - 1986), an alien from outer space in (Alien Nation - 1988), and why not a Japanese in (Collision Course - 1989)!
While the buddy cop movie mostly has maverick cop, with by-the-book partner, fighting each other and else, through a world of comedy and action, (Collision..) has all of these elements, but its main problem is that it doesn't care much about most of them. Let's see..
The "All American maverick cop": Jay Leno could be a good host, but not a good actor, or - OH YES - an action hero!! His presence is flawed. And to make it worse, his character is deprived of anything special.
The "By-the-book partner": Pat Morita is a great comedian in my viewpoint. What a loss that he didn't make the number of comedies that I thought his talent deserved. I loved apart how he went here to play that beaten, little clumsy, and nice investigator, which is totally unlike the role that brought him the Oscar earlier; the tough, wise, and no-nonsense Mr. Miyagi in (The Karate Kid - 1984). He proved to be one of couple high points (Collision..) hit.
The "Fighting each other and else": In terms of plot wise, things run pretty weird near the end. Suddenly it's all about action scenes agglutinated to each other purely, without much talk. It even ends pretty fast and laconic (the last airport scene) with easy solution for everything. Some explanation could be found in Morita's talk, while being interviewed on The Tonight Show in (1989), by Leno himself, when he said something about how the movie had run out of money on the last day of filming, with key scenes yet to be shot, and no budget left for editing and post-production.
The "Comedy": The comic situations are missed. And the already present ones are so weak and unfunny. So it remained in Pat Morita, a possible chemistry with Leno, and the movie's title; which was clever one for a buddy cop movie, and better than titles like "Rush Hour"!
The "Action": Now this is the other high point that this movie hit. It was abundantly and fairly made. Some sequences were so solid; like the breaking into the criminal's house, then the train gunfight. And that last jump into the car's front glass at the climax was outrageous and unforgettable to classic extent. Director Lewis Teague used to make TV series during the 1960s and the 1970s, like (Vega$) and (Barnaby Jones). In the 1980s, he went to pursue a career in directing cinematic movies. His most famous one I think was (The Jewel of the Nile - 1985). However, in the 1990s, he went back to directing TV series like (Profiler) or (Nash Bridges). Now, I miss him in the movies. Because putting in mind the production crises in (Collision..), he managed to deliver the wished-for entertainment. Although the movie looked eventually naive, but sure in a cool way.
Well, no problem with cool naive entertainment sometimes. And for the love of the 2 characters' irony, and Morita, I have to admit it: I longed for a sequel or - at least - a TV show!
PS: In one scene, the Japanese character was given a sort of a chance to defend his country against American accusations. At the same year, another American cop had a good Japanese cop as a partner in (Black Rain). A heyday for the "good" Japanese characters then, especially after a long age of bad, real bad, stereotypical Japanese characters, rather monsters, on Hollywood's screen. Maybe the reason of that development got something to do with earning objectivity - finally - along the years, or maybe it's related to the fact of investing some Japanese money in Hollywood since the end of the 1980s!
While the buddy cop movie mostly has maverick cop, with by-the-book partner, fighting each other and else, through a world of comedy and action, (Collision..) has all of these elements, but its main problem is that it doesn't care much about most of them. Let's see..
The "All American maverick cop": Jay Leno could be a good host, but not a good actor, or - OH YES - an action hero!! His presence is flawed. And to make it worse, his character is deprived of anything special.
The "By-the-book partner": Pat Morita is a great comedian in my viewpoint. What a loss that he didn't make the number of comedies that I thought his talent deserved. I loved apart how he went here to play that beaten, little clumsy, and nice investigator, which is totally unlike the role that brought him the Oscar earlier; the tough, wise, and no-nonsense Mr. Miyagi in (The Karate Kid - 1984). He proved to be one of couple high points (Collision..) hit.
The "Fighting each other and else": In terms of plot wise, things run pretty weird near the end. Suddenly it's all about action scenes agglutinated to each other purely, without much talk. It even ends pretty fast and laconic (the last airport scene) with easy solution for everything. Some explanation could be found in Morita's talk, while being interviewed on The Tonight Show in (1989), by Leno himself, when he said something about how the movie had run out of money on the last day of filming, with key scenes yet to be shot, and no budget left for editing and post-production.
The "Comedy": The comic situations are missed. And the already present ones are so weak and unfunny. So it remained in Pat Morita, a possible chemistry with Leno, and the movie's title; which was clever one for a buddy cop movie, and better than titles like "Rush Hour"!
The "Action": Now this is the other high point that this movie hit. It was abundantly and fairly made. Some sequences were so solid; like the breaking into the criminal's house, then the train gunfight. And that last jump into the car's front glass at the climax was outrageous and unforgettable to classic extent. Director Lewis Teague used to make TV series during the 1960s and the 1970s, like (Vega$) and (Barnaby Jones). In the 1980s, he went to pursue a career in directing cinematic movies. His most famous one I think was (The Jewel of the Nile - 1985). However, in the 1990s, he went back to directing TV series like (Profiler) or (Nash Bridges). Now, I miss him in the movies. Because putting in mind the production crises in (Collision..), he managed to deliver the wished-for entertainment. Although the movie looked eventually naive, but sure in a cool way.
Well, no problem with cool naive entertainment sometimes. And for the love of the 2 characters' irony, and Morita, I have to admit it: I longed for a sequel or - at least - a TV show!
PS: In one scene, the Japanese character was given a sort of a chance to defend his country against American accusations. At the same year, another American cop had a good Japanese cop as a partner in (Black Rain). A heyday for the "good" Japanese characters then, especially after a long age of bad, real bad, stereotypical Japanese characters, rather monsters, on Hollywood's screen. Maybe the reason of that development got something to do with earning objectivity - finally - along the years, or maybe it's related to the fact of investing some Japanese money in Hollywood since the end of the 1980s!