Men at Work


Thank God for Keith David.   With 357 acting credits under his belt and a voice that can best be described as biblical, he’s been single-handedly saving movies from mediocrity since his feature film premiere in John Carpenter’s The Thing.  With a shaved head placed atop his imposing six-foot-two frame, intimidation comes easy.  But the actor balances those physical gifts with a  gap-toothed comedic charm that’s stretched out his career well past its expiration date.

 Just watch his skills in Men at Work (1990), a forgettable comedy that hardly generates a laugh until Keith David is introduced as Louis, a Vietnam obsessed supervisor forced to babysit James and Carl (Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen), two waste disposal technicians who become embroiled in a conspiracy involving toxic waste, corporate corruption and a dead politician found in a garbage can.

 

Estevez’s follow-up to his corny but endearing directing debut, Wisdom (1986), Men at Work take the low road as a bro-comedy co-starring two real-life bros.  It’s a nice dry run for Charlie Sheen’s network-friendly joke delivery system; for all the actor’s flaws, he underplays his comedy like a pro.  And Estevez wisely makes him the star attraction here, getting the girl, delivering the punchlines and stirring the pot of forced comedic misunderstandings punctuated by horrendous on-the-nose music cues from Stewart Copeland of The Police.

 

As the saying goes, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”  And as a writer, Estevez has no knack for the genre, lifting most of his set-ups from previous goofball hits like Weekend at Bernie’s, Running Scared and, most egregiously, Stakeout which he co-starred in with Richard Dreyfuss (so it’s not a rip-off, it’s flattery?).  Yet he strikes paydirt with Keith David whose impassioned life lessons -  “There are several sacred things in this world that you don’t ever mess with.  One of them happens to be another man’s fries!” – and rumbling infectious laugh are both delivered with Oscar-worthy credibility.  Speaking of which, where is this man’s little gold statue already!?

 

Part of MVD’s Rewind Collection, the new Blu-ray looks really, really good, which makes up for the lack of any extras besides a theatrical trailer, fold-out poster and reversible artwork.  The packaging here is half the appeal though, with a retro VHS look and fake stickers that make spine number 46 another nice addition.

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