Bird on a Wire starts as successful lawyer Marianne Graves (Goldie Hawn) stops off at a gas station in Detroit & recognises the hired help as Rick Jarmin (Mel Gibson) her old boyfriend who she thought was dead. Rick denies it & she leaves, since Rick has been living in hiding for the past fifteen years under the FBI witness relocation program he wants to move on before Marianne comes back. He talks with corrupt FBI agent Joe Weyburn (Stephen Tobolowsky) who passes his information onto the bad guy who Rick's testimony put behind bars, Eugene Sorensen (David Carradine) & his drug lord boss Albert Diggs (Bill Duke) before wiping his file altogether. Diggs & Sorensen head over to Detroit to kill Rick at the same time Marianne decides to go back & speak with him, Diggs & Sorensen fail to kill Rick & Marianne helps him escape. Everyone from the police to the FBI to Diggs & Sorensen are after them as Rick & Marianne go on the run...
Directed by John Badham I thought Bird on a Wire was a fun little action adventure with a nice sense of humour that I rather liked. The script by David Seltzer, Louis Venosta & Eric Lerner plays like a mismatched cop flick along the lines of Gibson's earlier Lethal Weapon (1987) with Rick & Marianne paired as arguing ex-lovers caught up in an action adventure. This is where the film, in my opinion, works very well as I think Gibson & Hawn both have good on screen chemistry & are fun to watch as they trade insults. There are some amusing one-liners, the action scenes are pretty good with some decent vehicular mayhem & fight scenes. The bad guy's aren't great as they don't get much to do & aren't evil enough for my liking, in fact they disappear from the middle third almost entirely. At less than two hours Bird on a Wire never outstays it's welcome, it moves along at a nice pace although the farm scene might have cut down or removed entirely as it serves no real purpose & generally speaking I aways have fun whenever I've seen it.
Director Badham does alright, there are some neat action scenes including a cool car chase, a motorbike chase & scene in which a helicopter chases a plane! There's some nice explosions & fights too although you may feel, like me, it was cut down to get a lower rating as some of the dubbing isn't great & it's all but bloodless. I have to say Goldie Hawn really does look rather good in this, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a body double was used on occasion but she looks pretty sexy in this.
Technically the film is well made with high production values although how did Rick & Marianne get from that beam on top of the hotel to the window they let themselves in through? The acting is pretty good & as I said Gibson & Hawn are both very likable in this, Carradine & Duke are wasted in minor bad guy roles & despite near top-billing on the credits Joan Severance gets about 5 minutes screen time.
Bird on a Wire is a likable, fun, light hearted, not to violent & entertaining action adventure that I personally liked. All things considered I think you could do a lot worse.
Directed by John Badham I thought Bird on a Wire was a fun little action adventure with a nice sense of humour that I rather liked. The script by David Seltzer, Louis Venosta & Eric Lerner plays like a mismatched cop flick along the lines of Gibson's earlier Lethal Weapon (1987) with Rick & Marianne paired as arguing ex-lovers caught up in an action adventure. This is where the film, in my opinion, works very well as I think Gibson & Hawn both have good on screen chemistry & are fun to watch as they trade insults. There are some amusing one-liners, the action scenes are pretty good with some decent vehicular mayhem & fight scenes. The bad guy's aren't great as they don't get much to do & aren't evil enough for my liking, in fact they disappear from the middle third almost entirely. At less than two hours Bird on a Wire never outstays it's welcome, it moves along at a nice pace although the farm scene might have cut down or removed entirely as it serves no real purpose & generally speaking I aways have fun whenever I've seen it.
Director Badham does alright, there are some neat action scenes including a cool car chase, a motorbike chase & scene in which a helicopter chases a plane! There's some nice explosions & fights too although you may feel, like me, it was cut down to get a lower rating as some of the dubbing isn't great & it's all but bloodless. I have to say Goldie Hawn really does look rather good in this, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a body double was used on occasion but she looks pretty sexy in this.
Technically the film is well made with high production values although how did Rick & Marianne get from that beam on top of the hotel to the window they let themselves in through? The acting is pretty good & as I said Gibson & Hawn are both very likable in this, Carradine & Duke are wasted in minor bad guy roles & despite near top-billing on the credits Joan Severance gets about 5 minutes screen time.
Bird on a Wire is a likable, fun, light hearted, not to violent & entertaining action adventure that I personally liked. All things considered I think you could do a lot worse.