Seven or eight months ago, the movie “Big Trouble” was really no big deal. An ensemble comedy with a bomb as its centerpiece, it was just a harmless movie adapted from a novel by middle-of-the-road humorist and newspaper columnist Dave Barry.
Of course, with what happened in September, suddenly putting a bomb on a plane and making a joke was about as funny as farting at a funeral ceremony. And so, “Big Trouble” was held back.
It just hit theaters, rather unceremoniously, and it provides what is to be expected: a quirky little comedy from the same director, Barry Sonnenfeld, who gave us “Get Shorty” and “Men in Black.” He also made “Wild Wild West.” I forgive you, Barry. Don’t do it again.
“Big Trouble” does more right than it does wrong, aided especially with the huge quality cast behind it. With help from Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Dennis Farina, Jason Lee, Tom Sizemore and Janeane Garofalo, to name a few, the movie is pretty fun to watch. Nowhere near as good as “Get Shorty” mind you, but not bad.
Allen plays an ex-writer/current ad guy, Eliot Arnold, whose son thinks he’s a loser, mostly because he drives a Geo. But his son Matt (Ben Foster) asks to borrow said loser-mobile to perform a prank for school - “killing.” But rather than perform a hit on some evil math teacher, this prank involves just squirting a chosen girl with a great deal of water.
This prank is where a great deal of the characters meet. While Matt is at the victim’s home - Jenny Herk, played by Zooey Deschanel - two hit men, played by Dennis Farina and Jack Kehler, are there to kill Jenny’s father Arthur played by Stanley Tucci. The whole scene also is witnessed by Puggy, a homeless guy who loves Fritos, played by Jason Lee. Cops also are soon involved, played by Janeane Garofalo and Patrick Warburton.
Also going on are two crooks who have decided to make a few bucks by robbing Arthur, played by Tom Sizemore and Johnny Knoxville. They just happen to attempt the robbery while the crooked Arthur is at the Jolly Jackal bar, which just happens to belong to a pair of Russian bomb-smugglers, purchasing his very own nuclear weapon. And Puggy is at the bar, eating Fritos, when they come in.
Sound confusing? It is, but the roles are defined enough that it becomes rather easy to keep all the goings-on straight. And the actors are all working as hard as possible to make their characters important. With less than an hour and a half in the movie, it moves at a frenetic pace, jumping around from spot to spot and subplot to subplot.
And the quirkiness of all the characters is what makes it worthwhile to pay attention to all that’s going on. While Allen is the lead and hero of the film, he has the same amount of screen time as anyone else. Well, except for Andy Richter, who really could use a movie all to himself. He’s funny.
The movie moves so fast, actually, that when the end happens it comes as a bit of a surprise. With so many great characters, one would expect at least two hours of movie. But suddenly they’re all at the airport and the conclusion is on the way.
But that turns out to be not all that bad. The shortness of the film aids its no-big-deal attitude, which, in this day and age, is quite necessary when you’re putting a bomb on a plane in a movie.
“Big Trouble” ends up as a fun little escape at the movies. It really is no big deal, except it is an awful lot of fun to have such a talented cast together in one flick.
