Touchstone Pictures "Big Trouble" opens today at theaters
everywhere.
“Big Trouble” Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Starring: Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, Tom Sizemore,
Johnny Knoxville, Dennis Farina
Usually when stars of television shows like “Home
Improvement” and MTV’s “Jackass” make a
movie, people don’t expect much. Maybe a bit of grotesque
humor, but typically nothing commendable. “Big Trouble”
defies such notions. With this big-named cast, which ranges from
Tim Allen to Janeane Garofalo to Jason Lee to a psychedelic frog,
the film is a comedy that centers a lot of its humor on randomness.
Big Trouble’s plot roughly revolves around Eliot Arnold
(Allen), a Pulitzer-Prize winning former journalist. He and his son
Matt (Ben Foster) encounter a series of arbitrary events and people
““ things like goats, Gators fans, hitmen, and even Martha
Stewart’s Living. The plot deals with several different
people whose lives all mingle somehow and have drastic effects on
one another. With this sort of randomness, all the film’s
quirky humor comes in to play. Its offbeat elements are the
comedy’s greatest quality. There are a lot of recurring jokes
and the continuing references to them throughout the film make it a
very funny movie. It has to do with a lot of goofy people running
around and doing goofy things. Throw in comedians like Andy
Richter, hitmen players like Dennis Farina and Jack Kehler and even
Tom Sizemore straying away from his military persona and there
results a well-rounded comedy with lots of diverse humor. Heavy D
was in the movie, come on, there’s certainly something
interesting going on in the mix here. Originally the film was to be
released in September, but due to some references in the film about
the lax in airport security, the release date was put off until
now. Certainly, what makes this film is the writing. The camera
work and setups are a lot like “Get Shorty,” and Barry
Sonnenfeld uses a lot of the same stylistic techniques in making
the film. “Big Trouble” is not going to be a comedic
classic but viewers will definitely leave with something to smile
about.
Kenny Chang