Cast: Leslie Nielsen, Richard Crenna, Kelly LeBrock, Melinda McGraw, Michael York, Sandra
Bernhard
Director: Pat Proft
Producers: James G. Robinson, Bernd Eichinger, Pat Proft
Screenplay: Pat Proft
Cinematography: Glen MacPherson
Music: Bill Conti
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
There is little doubt that, over the last two weeks, Warner Brothers has established some kind of low water mark for quality in motion picture releases. Never can I recall one distributor releasing two unwatchable movies on back-to-back weekends. However, with The Avengers and Wrongfully Accused, Warner Brothers has achieved that dubious distinction. Wrongfully Accused is a mind- numbingly awful motion picture that has a better chance of making a viewer physically ill than of provoking a genuine laugh.
Someone should sit down with Leslie Nielsen and suggest that, for his own good and the good of all those who go to his movies, he should retire. Back in the days of Airplane! and The Naked Gun, it was fun to see the always-proper Nielsen playing the straight man. By now, however, he has done this shtick so many times that it's no longer endearing or amusing, just boring and irritating. Nielsen may be a nice guy, but his increasingly feeble attempts at "comic" performances are becoming so painful to watch that I'm starting to dislike the man. Nowadays, the mere presence of Nielsen in a movie should function as a warning to "Stay Away!"
Just when you thought nothing could be worse than Mr. Magoo, along comes Wrongfully Accused. It's probably not the last stupid comedy of 1998, but, at least to date, it's easily the worst. Much as I disliked the recent trio of Mafia!, BASEketball, and Safe Men, at least each of those movies contained a funny moment or two. Wrongfully Accused has nothing worth laughing at. With as many lame one-liners, visual gags, and puns as this script lobs at the audience, it comes as an absolute shock how humorless the results are. Nothing works. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. By the time the end credits started rolling, I was embarrassed for everyone involved, from first-time director Pat Proft (who has contributed to the writing of most of Nielsen's comedies) to the lowliest grip. And I was mad at myself for not having had the good sense to get up and walk out.
Wrongfully Accused is a lame spoof of The Fugitive. There are several ways we can tell this. First, Leslie Nielsen's Ryan Harrison has been tried and convicted of a murder he didn't commit. Second, Richard Crenna does an intentionally over-the-top imitation of Tommy Lee Jones' Samuel Gerard. Third, everyone is searching for a one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed man. Finally, Wrongfully Accused mimics two of The Fugitive's best-known scenes: the train-and-bus wreck and the waterfall leap. As must always be the case in movies like this, there are also a bunch of throw- away lampoons (I noted ones of The Usual Suspects, Fargo, On the Waterfront, Casablanca, Braveheart, Mission Impossible, Titanic, "Baywatch," and "Charlie's Angels"). Sadly, these are all so obvious that their cumulative effect is stultifying.
In general, it doesn't pay to dwell on movies like this. Productions like Wrongfully Accused are so obviously bad that nearly everyone seeing them agrees. It's incomprehensible to think that anyone would find this movie funny -- except the quote whores, that is. At best, this film can be seen as an endurance test. Those who sit through the whole 90 minutes deserve some sort of prize, perhaps an "I survived Wrongfully Accused" tee-shirt. Unfortunately, about all they're likely to leave the theater with are a sense of having been robbed, a mild headache, and an acute desire never to see Leslie Nielsen act in another motion picture.
© 1998 James Berardinelli