Fair Game (1995)

Director:

Andrew Sipes

Writers (WGA):

Paula Gosling (novel)
Charlie Fletcher (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 November 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

He's a cop on the edge. She's a woman with a dangerous secret. And now they're both...

Plot:

Max Kirkpatrick is a cop who protects Kate McQuean, a civil law attorney, from a renegade KGB team out to terminate her.

Plot Keywords:

Villainess | Explosion | Yelling | Villain | Beautiful Woman

Awards:

3 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 28

10:00 AM

MAX

Cast

William Baldwin	...	Det. Max Kirkpatrick
Cindy Crawford	...	Kate McQuean
Steven Berkoff	...	Colonel Ilya Kazak
Christopher McDonald	...	Lieutenant Meyerson
Miguel Sandoval	...	Emilio Juantorena
Johann Carlo	...	Jodi Kirkpatrick
Salma Hayek	...	Rita
John Bedford Lloyd	...	Det. Louis Aragon
Olek Krupa	...	Zhukov
Jenette Goldstein	...	Rosa
Marc Macaulay	...	Navigator
Sonny Carl Davis	...	Baker
Frank Medrano	...	Graybera
Don Yesso	...	Beanpole
Paul Dillon	...	Hacker

MPAA:

Rated R for intermittent strong violence, language and a scene of sexuality.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Philippines:R-18 | Netherlands:12 (TV rating) | Netherlands:16 | Peru:14 | USA:R (certificate #34166) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-18 | Germany:16 (w) | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Coral Gables, Florida, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Originally set in San Francisco, changed to Miami to suit Sylvester Stallone, who subsequently left the project.

Goofs:

Continuity: Kate is injured on her right arm, as seen by the bandage on her arm at the police station and in her apartment. But at the Raleigh Hotel, later that night, the bandage is on her left arm.

Quotes:

[Kate's credit card transaction shows up on his computer]
Stefan: She's using her credit card again. Typical Americans.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The King of Queens: Fair Game (#2.16)" (2000)

Love it or hate it - this is uncompromising action-entertainment!

In my opinion most blockbusters are watchable movies. Some are good, some are not so good. Some are even quite bad, but they try so hard to offer something for everyone that there usually are at least some things in the movie you like. But because they do offer something for everyone, they usually also have some things you don't like. However, once in a while a film comes along which focuses solely on it's own target audience. Sometimes the critics and fans of so-called 'quality cinema' are the target audience. In those cases we have films like "American Beauty". Sometimes fans of sex-related teen-comedies are the target audience and we have a film like "American Pie". And sometimes fans of pure action-entertainment are the target audience and we have a film like "Fair Game".

This is a film which most people have a strong opinion of. Others love it while others hate it. What's interesting is that the reasons for the opinion of the film are the same for both people. Others hate it because it's unbelievably dumb, excessively violent, has an unoriginal plot, stupid dialogue and has no good actors. However, others love it for the same reasons. And I'm one of those people.

The film is based on Paula Gosling's novel of the same name. It's interesting to notice that Sylvester Stallone's actioner "Cobra" was also based on the same novel but the films have very little in common. About the only thing they share is the hate of the critics and the love of action-fans. What's even more interesting is that Stallone was originally attached to this film as well.

Anyway, about this film.. While it's true that no-one has been able to make a good macho-actioner since the 80s (except Steven Seagal and even he is now making films like "The Patriot"), this is a quality effort if there ever was one. This has everything I want (a macho cop as the hero, a sexy woman as his sidekick, lots of action and gratuitous violence) and nothing I don't (a deep and original plot, Academy Award-winning actors, emotional scenes between mom and daughter...). Actually many scenes here are so stupid that they could be considered campy and even if you aren't a fan of the genre, you might enjoy laughing at the movie's unintentional humor.

One of the things which always means a lot to me in films is the score and "Fair Game" has one of the best scores I've ever heard. I liked Mark Mancina's score to "Speed" and "Bad Boys" but they're nothing compared to this. A brilliant main theme combined with excellent underscore. Full marks.

There is also the traditional "You killed my partner. Big mistake, you hear me? Wanna know why? Because I'm gonna come and get every last one of you!"-threat from Baldwin. I love those lines, I really do. "Cobra" was filled with them and the mid-80s was a good time for macho-actioners.

In fact, "Fair Game" is like a throwback to the 80s, when Joel Silver still made good actioners (Commando, Action Jackson, Die Hard, Road House - all brilliant). Of course it's not intelligent. Of course it's not original. Of course it's not a film which makes people think about their lives. It is pure action-entertainment, nothing more and nothing less. This will definitely appeal to fans of "Cobra", "Action Jackson" and the early Steven Seagal-films. However, if you don't like action, pure action and nothing but the action - skip it. Even if you liked films like "Speed" and "Face/Off", you might not like this.

Gunfights, explosions, gratuitous violence, gratuitous nudity (from Cindy Crawford, no less!), a brilliant score..what more could a guy who loves action ask? Definitely a 10.