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VonStupp
Your acceptance or derision of Loose Cannons will ultimately rely upon: 1. Whether or not you can enjoy early 90’s Dan Aykroyd breaking into imitations of old movie, TV, and cartoon characters and 2. Whether or not you can stand early 90’s Dan Aykroyd breaking into said imitations as a result of a serious mental illness which is played for laughs in this movie. Personally, I really enjoyed this mismatched buddy cop film from 1990 (my wife loved it), for it hit all the right notes to entertain me.
Even though I have never seen this movie as far as I remember, some of the success of the film lies in nostalgia I have for many of the actors involved. I haven’t seen a Gene Hackman movie in a few years (I think I will rectify that injustice) and I forgot how much I like his way of speaking lines, bursting into an angry rant or laughter, and while his character here is the straight man to Dan Aykroyd, he portrays the down-on-his-luck, snarky veteran homicide cop pretty well. Also, seeing Dom DeLuise as the informant criminal, while never a great comic actor, always added a certain manic energy to his roles that I miss today.
While the plot-driven MacGuffin of a Hitler/Nazi sex tape sounds interesting, it is mainly eschewed to Dan Aykroyd’s multiple personality disorder, somewhat undercutting the urgency of the chase. The investigation itself (anyone who knows me knows my love of Law & Order) is varied enough to sustain interest, with interesting characters and a great variety of locales. There is a great opening scene of the initial crime which thrusts the viewer into the movie with no introduction, and this is eventually followed up by some other really super set pieces reminiscent of a road movie.
Any movie of this sort lives and dies on its supporting characters, and Loose Cannons has its fair share. I already mentioned Dom Deluise as Harry the Hippo, but you also get two or three uncomfortable scenes with scene-chewer Ronny Cox as a federal agent, Nancy Travis as an Israeli Mossad agent, Dick O’Neill as a police chief, S. Epatha as the crusty desk sergeant, and of course lots of bad German’s all manically looking for a Hitler sex tape.
And then there is Dan Aykroyd; the elephant in the room. I went along for the ride for most of the film, including a hilarious fight as the road runner, but by the final shootout I was getting weary of his shtick. The story futilely attempts to humanize and create sympathy for Aykroyd’s character by making him a socially awkward, forensics genius with a medical issue, but it undermined by the comedy that is supposed to come from it. His character is a wash in my eyes with moments of good and bad.
All in all, I really liked Loose Cannons. The investigation, its locations, and the main and supporting characters entertained me throughout. The pacing of the film was decent and I really enjoyed the ride with Gene Hackman especially. Some decent car chases and shootouts sealed the deal in the end. I recommend Loose Cannons if you think you can get past Dan Aykroyd. If you need a more realistic 80’s buddy cop comedy, I recommend Running Scared. 9 years 3 months ago -
