How do you screw up a star-vehicle for still-charismatic Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson hot off "Tequila Sunrise" and "Lethal Weapon 2"? Director John Badham manages to do just that with the awful "Bird on a Wire", which is the movie-equivalent of fast food. The plot is uncomfortably reminiscent of Hawn's "Seems Like Old Times": lady lawyer is reluctantly thrown together with her crazy ex-lover, an informant who's been living under an assumed identity for years but is now back in danger. Badham stages broad stunts for laughs but cannot compensate for the third-rate screenplay (worked on by three writers) which doesn't allow the stars anything fresh to do. We get to admire Hawn's legs and Gibson's rear-end, but the energy on-screen is canned--these characters and the danger they're in mean nothing to us. Worse, the editing (and overdubbing) is sloppy, the production is disappointing, the flaming hairdresser stereotypes are cringe-worthy, and the romance angle fails to spark, to say nothing of the 'funny' banter. Nevertheless, another hit. *1/2 from ****
Review of Bird on a Wire
