Der Harte und der Zarte

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.