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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembo...
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annab...
Read more