Loose Cannons (1990)

Loose Cannons (1990) ** (out of 4)Stop me if you've heard this before. MacArthur (Gene Hackman) is a tough cop who does things his own way. After being out of the big game for a while he's allowed a crack at a string a murders but he's forced to have a new partner who turns out to be Ellis (Dan Aykroyd). Ellis, as it turns out, is a great mind but sadly he also suffers from various forms of mental illness. This here doesn't sit too well with MacArthur but over time he begins to like his new partner.LOOSE CANNONS made many critics pick as one of the worst movies of the year when it came out but I'm not going to go that far. I've always been curious about the filmmoraphy of director Bob Clark because during the 1970's he delivered some exceptional work like DEATHDREAM, BLACK CHRISTMAS and MURDER BY DECREE. He followed that up in the 80's with films like PORKY'S and A CHRISTMAS STORY. But for every good film there is stuff like RHINESTONE, BABY GENIUSES and this film.The problem with the film is the screenplay by Clark and Richard Matheson. There's really not an original moment here unless you could what the murders are happening for. Get ready for this. The cops are trying to track down a porno movie with Hitler. Yeah, you heard that right. This here could have probably been quite funny had the film really went for a hard R-rating but instead it just comes across as rather weak all around. As does the rest of the film because we've simply seen this type of cop-buddy picture too many times and often times much better.As far as the cast goes, Hackman gives a good performance as he plays it straight, which you would expect. Aykroyd does what he can with his "character" but he's just way too annoying for his gown good. He goes into various characters in the film from Woody Woodpecker to the Sundance Kid and countless others but it's just not that funny. Dom DeLuise doesn't his routine here which doesn't add many laughs either.LOOSE CANNONS isn't quite as awful as some of the reviews made it out to be but at the same time there's certainly nothing good here and it ranks as a disappointment considering the talent involved.

When Gene Hackman and Dan Aykroyd are joined for a buddy action comedy, then it's thrilling. However, after seeing (Loose Cannons), I discovered that that early notion is the sole thrilling thing about that movie at all ! The main premise was teaming up a Sherlock Holmes with multiple personality disorder, and a smiley Dirty Harry. That's good. Though, the result has no appeal or taste. Yes, it's fairly a mindless action just to entertain, but the try of making a comedy, a very lousy one, then agglutinating it to the main movie to sell it as an action comedy; was so failed and deformed huge part of the whole thing. The script treats the matter of Aykroyd's disease in strangely contradicting way. Sometimes it's a sad illness where verses by Dylan Thomas are said, and sometimes it's a cheap tool to make Aykroyd imitate Road Runner ! Well, apparently that was tensely made. Not only this, the from-haters-to-friends line between the 2 leads is lost after their first conversation in Hackman's car. They seemed later accepting each other fine, thus so long for a running ironies or dramatic changes. The dialog is deeply uninspired. Noting is comic or even right about it. Look at scene like the one in which Hackman talks to his colleague / the black policewoman, or the one where he meets Ronny Cox for the first time, or when he talks about the order in the universe through his car's ignition; they're bland scenes with no funny thing to come up with or important info to inform. The comic situations are none. The multiple personality disorder leads to some poor sketches and terrible impersonations. OH MY GOD, Aykroyd did his Razzie worthy performance there; the Road Runner in specific was his, and this movie's, worst bottom for sure ! Some moments are just weird. For instance Hackman's first scene, it never tells us how come that 2 detectives are sent out on a disturbance-of-the-peace call to an apartment ? For another : we know that Hackman's flat is burned just like that! We weren't allowed to see that at the least. OK. They're not weird, they're dumb !Aykroyd was loud and very silly (Where was Jim Carry, or – as one of the IMDb reviewers asked smartly – Robin Williams?). Hackman was fooling around, for making a comedy (with the wrong material)?, for getting a job?, I don't know. It's official that the 1980s was his lowest decade. Moreover, both of Hackman and Aykroyd had no chemistry with each other and looked chubby. There is no rest, since this script doesn't have anything to present on the level of characters further than its 2 leads ! So what could be positive here? It's easy : seeing the 60 year old Hackman playing a play on Martin Riggs, of Lethal Weapon movies, as a crazy super cop. Although this movie wasn't a bright point in his career, but he was a bright point in this movie. I loved seeing him in action, and in that red sweater. Aside from that, positive things happen accidentally and rapidly : The moment when Hackman had to play Captain Kirk to solve a crisis. The trick which the leads used to bluff the bad guys in the train station. The design of Dom DeLuise's cane as a secret bottle of wine. 2 lines between the nurse and Hackman near the end "I'd rather set my head on fire and have it put out with a sledgehammer" / "I'd like to see that actually!". And thank god that the action was vivid; it is what makes this movie watchable or in fact bearable !Director Bob Clark is always related to the "Razzie awards", "Turkey of the year movie", more than once with Rhinestone (1984), Turk 182! (1985), Baby Geniuses (1999), and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004). Some may say he isn't a bad director. Though, he undoubtedly has a bad scripts fetish, and it shows. That – with the best techniques – still makes a bad director ! Loose Cannons is made by loose cannons who lost a good chance to make a talented action comedy. They're so dry people who made so dry movie. Now to a big annoying problem this movie causes, which is its last lines. The 2 cops are hired by the Mossad, and they'll have "a training in Sinai desert". For your information, Sinai is an Egyptian land, not Israeli. Israel did invade it in 1967, and occupy it for 6 years, however Egypt went to war to free its stolen land in 1973, and succeeded, by battles of war and – later – peace, in regaining it completely in 1982. So when this 1990 movie says something like that, then whether their makers are ignorant or braggart !

I'm 15. I first remember seeing this film along time ago when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Now after renting from the video store I had a chance to view it again.Gene Hackman plays Mac, a cop who is reluctantly partnered with Ellis (Dan Aykroyd) to solve a series of grisly murders. Ellis also happens to have Multiple Personality Disorder and when faced with violence he begins to go into these alternate personalities, mostly characters from popular television shows. Back to the story, the killer behind the murders is a German named Von Metz (Robert Prosky) who has employed a group of bloodthirsty hitmen to kill anyone who has viewed a snuff film that contains the death of Hitler at the hands of Von Metz. Now Von Metz, if he can get the film off the black market, will almost certainly be elected as chancellor of West Germany. Now a lot of people have dissed this movie for numerous reasons; I only agree with a few of them. Yes, I think Dan Aykroyd's character could have been pulled off by somebody better, like Robin Williams. This movie isn't really all that violent, yes people get shot a lot, but that is about it, even though many people say it is. Also many people say this movie isn't really that funny, I found myself laughing quite a few times. I give it a 6/10

Loose Cannons is a horrible combination of detective thriller and black comedy. Hackman and Aykroyd are wasted (and probably eternally incompatible) talents in a movie that should never have been made. A detective doing cartoon character impersonations join Mossad agents in a chase after a Nazi porn film showing Hitler committing suicide. The plot has all the makings of an Austin Powers spoof - a possibility that is sadly never explored in a film taking itself much, much too seriously.