Cast: William Baldwin, Cindy Crawford, Steven Berkoff, Christopher McDonald
Director: Andrew Sipes
Producer: Joel Silver
Screenplay: Charlie Fletcher based on the novel by Paula Gosling
Cinematography: Richard Bowen
Music: Mark Mancina
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
While the marriage of Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford may not have been an ideal match, there's at least one area in which their compatibility is beyond question: acting ability, or, more precisely, the lack thereof. Hard as it is to believe, there are some models-turned-performers with less natural talent and screen presence than Erika Eleniak, and the co-star of Fair Game is one of those. Let's be honest, though. No one hired Crawford because of her strength as a thespian. She's on hand because she looks good in (and, on a couple of occasions, out of) a tight tee-shirt.
The sheer idiocy of Fair Game's plot actually rivals that of this year's low, The Mangler. Granted, in this brainless action flick, there aren't any man-eating refrigerators, but that's one of the few truly dumb things missing. Frankly, I didn't think any movie this year would make Assassins seem like a modicum of solid plotting and top-notch acting, but that was before I saw this. Bottom line: Fair Game is howlingly bad -- so awful, in fact, that it can actually be enjoyed on a certain level.
There's not much of a plotline worth talking about -- at least not one that's coherent or logical. Fair Game is basically one long chase punctuated by a sex scene. William Baldwin plays Max Kirkpatrick, a cop. Crawford is Kathryn McQuean, a lawyer. The two don't like each other, but he saves her life anyway. Then he does an encore, but this time a few of his buddies get killed. So, the pair of them end up on the run from an ex-KGB heavy (interpreted with over-the-top gusto by Steven Berkoff) and his Russian mob. It's not clear why the bad guys want Kathryn dead, and things becomes even more confusing when, after trying for two-thirds of the movie to kill her, they suddenly change their minds and decide to capture her for interrogation.
The single bright spot in Fair Game -- and it's low-wattage at best -- is that the action scenes are nicely choreographed. And there are quite a few of them, because they have to camouflage a lame story and atrocious dialogue. We get treated to such wonderfully corny lines as: "I'm getting bored with your petty incompetence", "It would be embarrassing to be killed by an amateur", and "I can't afford the luxury of a conscience". The level of acting, by the way, is perfect for delivering those kinds of phrases. As always in this type of picture, the leads trade one- liners, but there's no zing to any of those duds. In fact, that last word ("duds") pretty much sums up this film. Undoubtedly, all those who mistakenly pay good money to see Fair Game will come out crying "Foul!"
© 1995 James Berardinelli