Cast: Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, Omar Epps, Dennis Farina, Ben Foster, Janeane Garofalo, Jason Lee, Tom Sizemore, Zooey Deschanel, Johnny Knoxville, Heavy D, Sofía Vergara, Patrick Warburton
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Producers: Tom Jacobson, Barry Josephson, Barry Sonnenfeld
Screenplay: Robert Ramsey & Matthew Stone, based on the novel by Dave Barry
Cinematography: Greg Gardiner
Music: James Newton Howard
U.S. Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
Big Trouble is, for lack of a better term, a glorious mess. It's fun, frantic, and off-the-wall - a bizarre amalgamation of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Two Days in the Valley, and Dumb and Dumber. It's a cinematic Rube Goldberg machine determined to prove the adage that the shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but that is by no means the most interesting route. With a cast of characters so large that Robert Altman would feel at home, Big Trouble manages to do a lot of clever little things and generate quite a few big laughs without wearing out its welcome.
It's a mad, mad, mad world - a fact that Eliot Arnold (Tim Allen) is about to learn. A former Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Miami Herald, Eliot is currently stuck in a dead-end job running his own ad agency when destiny arrives in the form of a big metal suitcase containing a nuclear weapon that looks like a garbage disposal. With great rapidity, it changes hands. First, it's the property of a group of seedy Russian arms dealers. Then it's purchased by Arthur Herk (Stanley Tucci), a small-minded blackmailer with a foot fetish. Before Arthur has had a chance to become acquainted with his new property, it is stolen by the aptly named Snake (Tom Sizemore), who thinks it must be worth something. Eliot and Snake end up thrown together by circumstances, struggling with each other on a hijacked plane while the red digital display on the bomb counts down to zero. Thrown into the mix are Arthur's blond wife, Anna (Rene Russo, giving a performance that's only slightly more inspired than her turn in Showtime); a hippie who's addicted to Fritos (Jason Lee); a couple of mismatched cops (Janeane Garofalo, Patrick Warburton); a frustrated hit man (Dennis Farina); and a young couple (Ben Foster, Zooey Descanel) whose idea of a good time is shooting each other with water pistols. If all of this doesn't make any sense to you now, don't worry - it still might not after you have watched the movie. Suffice it to say that, much like in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the lives of these characters cross and re-cross in interesting and unpredictable ways. And there's even room for a dog that looks like Martha Stewart, a flying (well, sort of) goat, and a spitting toad.
In a low-key performance that's perfect for his role, Tim Allen plays the straight man - the normal guy who's surrounded by individuals who might be escaped inmates from an asylum. He's the film's John McClane (as is explicitly stated on one occasion). Allen is surrounded by an ensemble of capable comedic actors. Deadpan Dennis Farina, although not quite as hilarious as he was in Sidewalks of New York, is delightful as a hit man who just wants to do his job and get the hell out of Florida. Stanley Tucci (who was also in Sidewalks of New York) enjoys going over the top and making an ass out of himself. Tom Sizemore pulls a black stocking over his face and plumbs the depths of stupidity (at the airport, he can't decide between "departures" and "arrivals" because he's arriving at the airport but will soon be departing on a plane). And Janeane Garafolo is her usual caustic self.
Big Trouble's director is Barry Sonnenfeld, who is probably best known for Men in Black. Sonnenfeld's fondness for the warped and wacky is very much in evidence here. This is not as slick or crowd-pleasing as Men in Black, but it's just as funny, and, in some ways, shows more cleverness. Sonnenfeld has a lot of ground to cover with a huge number of characters, but he gets everything done in an economical fashion. Big Trouble isn't burdened by an ounce of fat - at just barely over 80 minutes, it's the perfect length. An additional ten minutes might have killed the comic momentum.
Big Trouble was the victim of bad timing. It was initially scheduled to be released in late September 2001; however, Touchstone Pictures rightfully felt that a movie featuring an airplane hijacking and a satirical jab at airport security holes would not have played well in the shadow of 9/11. So, the film has been moved to the early Spring 2002, where it has little chance of being noticed. This is unfortunate, because, although Big Trouble is rough around the edges, it's really a lot of fun - pure entertainment of the kind that's in short supply. The high energy level and refusal to quit on the jokes reminded me of Airplane, and, although the movie primarily features stupid characters, Big Trouble plays well to a smart audience.
© 2002 James Berardinelli