The Squeeze (1987)

A mysterious black box spells danger to a con man and female detective.

Director:

Roger Young

Writer:

Daniel Taplitz

Stars:

Ric Abernathy, Michael Keaton, Danny Aiello III

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ric Abernathy	...	Bouncer
Michael Keaton	...	Harry Berg
Danny Aiello III	...	Ralph Vigo
Rae Dawn Chong	...	Rachel Dobs
Bobby Bass	...	Poker Player
Leslie Bevis	...	Gem Vigo
Lou Criscuolo	...	Kurt
Ray Gabriel	...	Security Guard
George Gerdes	...	Joe
Ronald Guttman	...	Rigaud
Paul Herman	...	Freddy
Richard E. Huhn	...	Police Clerk
John Dennis Johnston	...	Nick
Jeffrey Josephson	...	Al
Liane Langland	...	Hilda

Storyline

His ex-wife asks the unsuccessful gambler and inventor Harrison for a small favor: to get her a parcel from a friend's apartment - without telling him what's in it. Suddenly he finds himself assaulted by villains and shortly after even under suspect of murder. The inexperienced P.I. Rachel is hired by an unknown party to rid him of the parcel - but soon befriends him. Together they try to figure out what kind of game is being played.

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Plot Keywords:

apartment | detective | murder | con man | female detective | 

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Taglines:

Just a few weeks ago, nobody cared if he was alive. Now everybody wants him dead. For Harry Berg, that's progress.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 July 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alkalom szüli a milliomost

Filming Locations:

Hoboken, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$2,228,951 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

TriStar Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jenny Wright was originally cast as the lead role, but replaced by Rae Dawn Chong.

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Goofs

When Rachel goes to her office to talk to her boss a Boom mic can be seen going up and down twice, up to her head.

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Quotes

Ralph Vigo: Human morality disintegrates at the fifty million dollar mark.

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Connections

Features He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983)

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Soundtracks

"BLIND BEFORE I STOP"
Performed by Meat Loaf
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
by arrangement with Warner Special Products and BMG Arista Records, LTD.

User Reviews

Unusual, Negatively Out-There...A Fine Mess

"The Squeeze" is one of those movies that sadly doesn't work. Keaton's colorful performance can't save a convoluted script that tries to juggle wild comedy with thriller elements. There is a line in the climax that oddly summarized the film in a nutshell.

"Its seems like your imagination has finally outpaced reality," one character says.

It was so uncanny how well this phrase described the film that I began to think the writer, Daniel Tiplitz, was making a reference to himself! "The Squeeze" is a film with a realistic grounding, but is stuffed with outlandish, completely far-fetched ideas. Watching the film felt like viewing a dream of seeing the movie itself (if this makes any sense at all). I realized this when I tried describing scenes of the film and found it was much like describing a dream.

It starts out pleasant enough with a shady poker game where Michael Keaton hilariously tries to bluff the other guys at the table, but doesn't manage to be the least bit convincing. It was an acceptable beginning, but things were thrown completely off course when he gets home to his apartment that has a large rhino made out of TV screens sitting in it!

Anyway, Keaton gets mixed up with a young PI (Rae Dawn Chong) who uncovers lottery corruption. They try to piece a muddled mystery together, but the film is so out-there that the deeply buried story becomes lost. This isn't exactly a problem, however. I had an enormously fun time viewing the film, no matter how much it descends into bomb territory.

Unfortunately, nothing can stop the fact that this is pretty bad movie. It has a confused story, needless characters and some overly-violent scenes. There is some fun to bad had here, and Michael Keaton is a riot as usual, but it simply doesn't work.

(2 out of 4)