Some movies have a premise so thin that you can almost hear the screenwriters pitching it to the execs at the studio. With The Crew, it’s easy to imagine a screenwriter sitting down and saying “Hey, do you know what’s making a lot of money? Those Grumpy Old Men movies with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. And you know what else is raking in the dough? Those mobster comedies like Analyze This and Mickey Blue Eyes. What if we combine the two? Let’s make a mobster comedy about grumpy old men!”
The thing with these kinds of films is that it can work as long as you have the right cast. A good cast of seasoned pros can take a thin script that is little more than a fleshed out “elevator pitch” and wring laughs out of it if the chemistry is right. The Crew has not one, but four ringers in the form of Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Dan Hedaya, and Seymour Cassel. They keep you watching, even when it feels like the script is running on fumes.
The quartet play aging monsters who have retired to Miami and have grown discontent by their surroundings. They set out to get their mojo back, but in the process, they accidentally start a war with a South American drug lord (Miguel Sandoval). Things get complicated when they learn the cop on the case (Carrie-Ann Moss) could possibly be Dreyfuss’ long-lost daughter.
There are plenty of highlights along the way. My favorite bit was the amusing scene where Burt is working at Burger King and tells an annoying customer what everyone in the service industry has always thought, but never said aloud: “Special orders upset us.” There’s a pretty funny parody of the famous Copa shot from Goodfellas too. I also liked that former wise guy Hedaya took a job as a mortician and tried to make up for his past misdeeds by putting smiles on all the deceased’s faces.
Sure, not all of it works. Some of the subplots feel a little too much like a sitcom (like when the boys are forced to kidnap Lainie Kazan), but the film coasts on the performances. Again, it might have been dire if everyone wasn’t on their game. Luckily, it’s an agreeable way to kill an hour and a half, especially if you’re a fan of Dreyfuss or Reynolds (or Jennifer Tilly who appears as a sexy stripper who worms her way into the gang).
No comments:
Post a Comment