Three things made me want to see this movie: The pairing of Bob Hoskins and Denzel Washington just sounded like a good match. Both were/are great actors and I have enjoyed them in many different movies. The premise sounded funny and like it could work and it was streaming for free on YouTube. So I went in with a very open mind.
I am only half satisfied and half disappointed. Definitely a very middling movie. Not bad but unfortunately it gets too sidetracked after a fascinating and actually rather funny first hour.
Hoskins and Washington actually do have good chemistry here and in the first hour I actually laughed quite a bit, mostly because of their dialogue and interactions with one another.
But in the second hour I found this to be a mix of Ghost meets Die Hard and that is where the film took a wrong turn for me.
This was released in between Steven Spielberg's only mildly successful Always in 1989, and of course Ghost which opened only several months later.
I like it slightly better than Spielberg's film but that's not saying a whole lot. For whatever reason in 89 and 90 Hollywood had a preoccupation with supernatural films and out of the pick only Ghost to me was truly successful.
If they had just kept this as a light comedy focusing only on the different personalities of Hoskins and Washington's characters this could have been a great comedy.
As it stands it has good performances a few big laughs and Chloe Webb is also good in a supporting role.
But I watched this movie with the intention to laugh a lot. And I did laugh some but unfortunately not enough and the Die Hard like finale had me rolling my eyes and uncertain of what type of movie they were trying to make.
It was primarily advertised and succeeded in the first hour as a comedy so why did they have to turn it into a sentimental action drama at the end.
There's a saying don't fix what isn't broken. I think somewhere along the line the filmmakers didn't have the confidence in their funny material that worked so they compensated by having an action drama for the finale.
Still it's a halfway decent film. That first hour did have some big laughs. But with the talent on the screen and the premise this should have been a home run.
I am only half satisfied and half disappointed. Definitely a very middling movie. Not bad but unfortunately it gets too sidetracked after a fascinating and actually rather funny first hour.
Hoskins and Washington actually do have good chemistry here and in the first hour I actually laughed quite a bit, mostly because of their dialogue and interactions with one another.
But in the second hour I found this to be a mix of Ghost meets Die Hard and that is where the film took a wrong turn for me.
This was released in between Steven Spielberg's only mildly successful Always in 1989, and of course Ghost which opened only several months later.
I like it slightly better than Spielberg's film but that's not saying a whole lot. For whatever reason in 89 and 90 Hollywood had a preoccupation with supernatural films and out of the pick only Ghost to me was truly successful.
If they had just kept this as a light comedy focusing only on the different personalities of Hoskins and Washington's characters this could have been a great comedy.
As it stands it has good performances a few big laughs and Chloe Webb is also good in a supporting role.
But I watched this movie with the intention to laugh a lot. And I did laugh some but unfortunately not enough and the Die Hard like finale had me rolling my eyes and uncertain of what type of movie they were trying to make.
It was primarily advertised and succeeded in the first hour as a comedy so why did they have to turn it into a sentimental action drama at the end.
There's a saying don't fix what isn't broken. I think somewhere along the line the filmmakers didn't have the confidence in their funny material that worked so they compensated by having an action drama for the finale.
Still it's a halfway decent film. That first hour did have some big laughs. But with the talent on the screen and the premise this should have been a home run.