Right OK its been a bit of while since my last review on here so I thought I would do another movie and this is a rather bizarre choice as the film its not a masterpiece but it is good fun all the same. So this review will be on The Last Boy Scout starring Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans, an action comedy from the early 1990's. So let's give it a look....
The film begins with an American football player named Billy Cole (Billy Blanks) who receives a phone call from a mysterious caller, who tells Billy that he must start scoring touchdowns or he will be "history". Cole, who is under the influence of drugs, then goes out onto the pitch and during play he produces a gun and shoots a few of the opposing team's players before taking his helmet off and declaring "ain't life a bitch?!" and shoots himself in the head. In the meantime private investigator Joe Hallenback (Bruce Willis) a former secret service agent, discovers that his wife Sarah (Chelsea Field) is having an affair with a friend of his, Mike Matthews (Bruce McGill). Mike however is killed in a car bomb just outside Joe's house, but before he died he gives Joe the assignment of protecting a stripper named Cory (Halle Berry). At a bar where Cory works, Joe ends up meeting her boyfriend, Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans) a former LA Stallions quarterback, who was banned from the sport for gambling and drug abuse. After Joe argues with Jimmy, Jimmy angrily takes Cory away while she is performing her striptease. Joe afterwards is attacked by henchmen outside and taken away into an alley, but he manages to escape. Meanwhile Jimmy and Cory leave in separate cars, another car hits the back of Cory's car who get's out to confront the driver, but she is then shot dead by hitmen in the car. Jimmy is then under attack from the hitmen but Joe manages to turn up just in time to rescue him and kill the hitmen.
After they are taken to the local police station and Joe meets with police Captain Benjamin Bessalo (Joe Santos) who despise Joe and warns him to watch his step. Bessalo also tells one of his officers McCoskey (Clarence Felder) however that Joe one time saved the president's life when he was a secret service agent. Jimmy after they leave the station persuades Joe to help him track down who was behind Cory's murder. The next day Joe and Jimmy go to Cory's apartment where they find a tape, which is of a phone conversation between Senator Calvin Baynard (Chelcie Ross) and the owner of the LA Stallions football team, Sheldon Marcone (Noble Willingham). While listening to the tape, Jimmy accidentally ruins the tape by pressing fast forward on Joe's faulty car tape player. Jimmy then realises that Cory was actually going to use the tape as leverage to force Marcone to give Jimmy's job back. Jimmy decides to leave in his own car, but Joe then stops him as he realises that Marcone would have rigged Jimmy's car as well and they find plastic explosives planted in the car. At this point two hitmen turn up and beat them up and force them to hand over the tape, but Joe tricks them having planted the explosives under the boot of the car, which one of the hitmen tries to open by shooting it, but the hitmen are then killed in the blast.
Later at the police station again, Bessalo berates Joe for his actions and gives him a final warning not to see him again. Joe also reveals to Jimmy the reason he kicked out of the secret service was because he stopped Baynard from beating up a woman in a hotel, by knocking out four of his teeth, as a result Joe was fired from the secret service as he refused to cover up the incident. Joe then goes back home with Jimmy, where they meet Joe's feisty daughter, Darian (Danielle Harris) who argues with her dad, as she is angry because he won't let her go to a party. Joe later catches Jimmy in the bathroom using drugs and furiously punches him and tells him to get out. As Jimmy leaves Darian asks for his autograph and reveals that Joe used to be a fan of Jimmy's before he got busted. The next morning however Bessalo learns of Mike's affair with Sarah and concludes that Joe killed Mike himself and sends McCoskey to arrest him. However the hitmen lead by Milo (Taylor Negron) capture Joe and Milo shoots McCoskey as he arrives, using Joe's prints to make it look he shot McCoskey. Joe is then taken to Marcone who reveals he intends to use Joe to frame him for murdering Baynard, as a result of Baynard's refusal to take Macrone's bribes to cease his investigations on him into illegal sports gambling.
Joe is then taken out into the woods where he is photographed handing over a briefcase to Baynard's bodyguards, which contains explosives. Joe however manages to escape from Milo and the hitmen with help of Jimmy and Darian, who comes along with him. Joe manages to run Milo off the road however during the ensuing car chase, but Milo survives and kidnaps Darian. And afer this Joe decides the only thing they can do is take down Marcone in order to save his daughter and save Baynard.
There is no doubt that The Last Boy Scout is a ridiculous movie and it is so over the top that it makes other action films look credible in comparison. But its because it dares to be so silly and over the top that it manages to succeed in being a very entertaining film to watch. The film's screenplay was also written by Shane Black (who wrote the Lethal Weapon screenplay and later directed and worte Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) which he got a whopping $1.75 million dollars for. Whether or not Black's script warranted such a high fee is highly debatable but he does allow for plenty of amusing dialogue and witty one liners of which I will cover more on in a bit.
Which neatly brings me onto the performance section of the review and the performances are pretty good here. Starting with Bruce Willis who is actually very good in his role as Joe Hallenbeck, the cynical, unshaven, private detective, who is essentially a good guy and has a fine line is dry witty one liners. Willis has some good moments in the film and one of my favourite scenes is where he captured by Milo and taken to Marcone's place and he beaten by one of Milo's thugs, and when Joe asks for a light he says to the thug "I'm gonna need a light, and if you touch me again I'll kill you" but the thug punches Joe again, who get's up and delivers a sucker punch to the man's face, which puts his nose into his brain, killing him instantly, Joe then stands and spits on him saying "Told you!". Another funny moment is in his first scene where Joe is fast asleep in his car, with the window wound down, a few kids decide to play a prank on him and throw a dead squirrel in his car, but he wakes up abruptly when they try and take his wallet, and he throws the squirrel away. And later in his office when Mike calls him he asks how he is and Joe says "I think I fucked a squirrel to death and I don't even remember it!". Also there is the scene where he finds out that Mike has been cheating on him with Sarah and Mike says it just happened. And Joe says "Oh sure! It just happened. You walked in, tripped on the floor and accidentally stuck your dick in my wife!". Another good moment is where Joe is being framed for Baynard's murder and they photograph him handing over the briefcase to Baynard's bodyguards and he tells Milo to go "fuck himself" and as Milo says "Just once I would like to hear you scream in pain" Joe says "play some rap music". There is also the scene where Joe first meets Jimmy at the strip bar and the two them argue and Joe tells him he is a private detective, Jimmy calls him a lowlife and Joe retorts "At least I didn't shit my talent away on coke!". Also there is the moment where Joe is about to killed in an alley by a hitman and he teases the hitman by saying how fat his wife is and he says "I'm not saying she's fat, but her high school picture was an aerial photograph!". And later on when Joe and Jimmy escape from Milo and during the car chase Joe says to Jimmy "I swear to Christ, Junior, if I ever survive this fucking case I'm gonna dance a jig!" and later on he does just that!
Damon Wayans is also very good in his role as Jimmy Dix, the former American football player who was disgraced due to gambling and drug abuse charges, and teams up with Joe to help take down Marcone who was behind the hit on his girlfriend Cory. Wayans also get's his fair share of snappy one liners and he also has some good moments in the film (even the odd dramatic one). One of Wayans best moments actually comes in a more serious scene where Joe catches him sniffing drugs in his bathroom and Joe decks him and tells him to get out his house. And Jimmy tells Joe about how easy it is to get fixed on painkillers in the sport "This shit starts real easy man. First you take dimmerol because your fuckin knees are shot and before you know it you are chewin codine with your pancakes!". And then he angrily says to Joe "Why is there a personal injury report in pro football? Its because so the gamblers can have an accurate fucking spread! Its all business now, they push you till you blow your brains out! Can't you see those fuckin hypocrites took away my fuckin life??!". Wayans has some funny moments of course in the film such as the scene where Milo's thugs bounce him off a car and before they do he says to them "Look I can't figure which one of you looks more like my dick!" and after they throw him off the bridge onto a car below he groggily get's up and says "Don't try this at home folks. I'm a trained professional. There's me and there's Super Dave!" and he passes out! And later as Jimmy and Joe race off to try and stop Baynard from being assassinated by Milo, Jimmy says to Joe "I figure you gotta be the dumbest guy in the world, Joe. You're trying to save the life of the guy who ruined your career, and the avenge the death of the guy who fucked your wife!". Another funny moment Wayans has is when Jimmy and Joe are being beaten up by Milo's henchmen and one of them likes using fancy words and Jimmy gasps saying "Shit! We're being beaten up by the inventor of Scrabble!". And lastly there is the scene where Jimmy and Joe go to Corry's apartment after Jimmy tells Joe that Corry had a high tech security system installed and only he could deactivate or "circumvent" it. So they go to Corry's apartment and Jimmy proceeds to kick the door in and Joe looks at him saying "Security system??" and Jimmy says "Yeah, I circumvented it!".
As for the other cast members, Taylor Negron makes a pretty effective villain as the creepy Milo, who is in Marcone's employee, and has a tendency to call everyone by their Sunday names, i.e. Joe is Joseph. Negron has some good moments in the film, such as the scene where he get's riled by Joe after he tells him to go fuck himself, he takes out his switchblade and holds it to Joe's face and says "What would you do if someone told you to go fuck yourself? Would you cut one of their eyes out?!" and he continues "Just once I would like to see you scream in pain!". Also there is the moment where Milo kills the police officer, McConey, who asks him if there is a problem as he approaches Milo's car and Milo says "Yes there is a problem, officer, apparently there are too many bullets in this gun!" and he shoots him dead. And as they take Joe's prints they dump the gun out the window and Milo says "you've been a naughty boy, Joseph. You've just shot a policeman!".
Noble Willingham is also good as the film's main villain, Sheldon "Shelly" Marcone who owns the LA Stallions and employs Milo as his main henchman, who he uses to take care of business. Willingham also has some good scenes such as the scene where he takes a swim at his mansion and Joe is held captive and is somewhat insolent toward him, and Marcone says "Well I'll give you this, you sure are feisty for a man in your position. Milo teach him some manners, will you?". And later as he captures Joe and Jimmy he says to Jimmy "You got hooked on demerol, because you couldn't take the pain, you hated the pain! Life is pain, Jim!" and he grabs and shoots Jimmy in the hand. Danielle Harris also makes a good impression in her part as Joe's feisty daughter teenage daughter, Darian. Harris also get's some good lines of profane dialogue in the film such as her first scene where she has an argument with Joe, while watching TV (and its Lethal Weapon playing in the background!) and she angrily turns the volume up saying "God! Your such a fuck up!". And Joe angrily tells her "You are my daughter and you are in my house. You don't ever call me a fuck up!" and Darian says "Why not? Mom calls you it all the time!". And even when she is held captive by Marcone she still remains defiant as he she tells "Eat shit you fucking redneck!". And lastly Chelsea Field and Bruce McGill also do well with their smaller roles as Sarah, Joe's wife and Mike, Joe's best friend respectively.
Getting onto the director, the late Tony Scott, Scott does a fine job here as he is no stranger to action films he keeps the film's pace tight and the action scenes are pretty OTT by they are well staged and the action is entertaining all the same. Michael Kamen also provides a fairly good film score which is akin to his other scores of that period, but it fits the film pretty well overall.
Moving onto the flaws section of the Last Boy Scout does it have any???? Well yeah, its not a perfect film by any means as the film's plot is very silly and overall it is a pretty cheesy movie. The film also has one of the most ridiculous over the top action climaxes of any film where Joe fights the psychotic Milo who tries to take out Senator Baynard, who (PLOT SPOILER) ends up getting punched off the roof by Joe and is thereby splatted by the propellers of a police helicopter! The other thing that is so ridiculous about the film is how Joe get's away with all the murders he commits, by killing all the hitmen in the film, and he even assaults Baynard again at the end of the film, where Joe asks Baynard "head or gut?" meaning where yo do you want to get punched??? And he does all this yet there are no repercussions for him whatsoever as I'd imagine Baynard didn't press charges, or perhaps Joe revealed in the end he was acting in Baynard best interests to save his life. Or maybe not. Again logic in action films is never a strong point, least of all in Hollywood films! The film is also guilty of having the single WORST title sequence ever, with a God awful truly cringeworthy song called "Friday night's a great time for football" sung by Billy Medley, which deserves its place in the musical dustbin.
So that's it for my look at The Last Boy Scout which after 23 years is still an entertaining, albeit very silly action film with some nifty one liners and good cast giving decent accounts of themselves.
And with that I shall leave it right there.
No comments:
Post a Comment