Directed by Francis Veber. Starring Nick Nolte, Martin Short, James Earl Jones, Sarah Doroff, Alan Ruck, Kenneth McMillan, Bruce McGill, Lee Garlington, David Arnott. (PG-13)
Less than an hour after getting out of prison from a bank robbery conviction, Nolte winds up the hostage of a different--and far more hapless--bank robber (Short); the police assume that Nolte is in on it, the two are forced to go on the run together. One is gruff and grouchy, the other is clumsy and frenetic, hilarity ensues. It almost does, actually, for about twenty minutes or so, but the laughter dies down not long after leaving the bank, and rarely does it return. Remake of French farce "Les Fugitifs" by the same writer/director; producers probably thought, "If it worked for 'Three Men and Baby'..." Nolte and Short are okay, behaving in the way that's expected based on their respective personas, but this ain't "48 Hours"; they also pick up Short's mute daughter (Doroff) along the way, but she's just a plot device to (tepidly) generate sympathy and keep the story going. As for the law "hot" in pursuit, the doofuses from the "Police Academy" movies were more competent and harder to elude. The atrocious soft-jazz score sounds like something one would hear after hours on cable in the 90s.
43/100
Less than an hour after getting out of prison from a bank robbery conviction, Nolte winds up the hostage of a different--and far more hapless--bank robber (Short); the police assume that Nolte is in on it, the two are forced to go on the run together. One is gruff and grouchy, the other is clumsy and frenetic, hilarity ensues. It almost does, actually, for about twenty minutes or so, but the laughter dies down not long after leaving the bank, and rarely does it return. Remake of French farce "Les Fugitifs" by the same writer/director; producers probably thought, "If it worked for 'Three Men and Baby'..." Nolte and Short are okay, behaving in the way that's expected based on their respective personas, but this ain't "48 Hours"; they also pick up Short's mute daughter (Doroff) along the way, but she's just a plot device to (tepidly) generate sympathy and keep the story going. As for the law "hot" in pursuit, the doofuses from the "Police Academy" movies were more competent and harder to elude. The atrocious soft-jazz score sounds like something one would hear after hours on cable in the 90s.
43/100