Film review: 'Gone Fishin'
In the absence of any appreciable chemistry between its two leads, "Gone Fishin'" turns to demolishing everything from boats to hotels to one's appetite for comedies about dumb buddies, at least when the result is so rotten.
Dumped on an unsuspecting public after moving its release date a few times, the Hollywood Pictures' film is rancid bait for those who like lead characters with no discernible intelligence but with lots of mayhem-causing bad luck. The production itself was none too lucky, with the death of stunt performer Janet Wilder and the injury of four others in an accident during filming in December 1995.
A pair of dimwitted dads from New Jersey, played by Joe Pesci and Danny Glover, head to Florida for their annual fishing excursion, a traditional getaway that dates back several decades. Their wives plead with them not to get arrested or land in the hospital and make them promise to return in a few days in time for Thanksgiving.
With a banter that shows these morons to be kids posing as adults, the leads are so fixated on fishing that the loss of their boat, car and an encounter with a murderer fail to shake their resolve. They have an annoying habit of bumping into levers and flipping switches for the hell of it, leaving a path of destruction and not thinking twice about running away from a potential long prison term.
Alas, watching the film is akin to being incarcerated for a crime one did not commit. The leads are so flat and unfunny that one welcomes the presence of Rosanna Arquette and Lynn Whitfield as ladies-of-the-road who are trailing the aforementioned murderer, also notorious for wooing and then robbing elderly women.
But the screenplay as such is concerned only with flogging to death the comrades-in-disaster angle and setting up the next round of sometimes spectacular but rather unengaging physical humor. Trains, planes and alligators are tossed into the blender, along with some uninspired peripheral characters.
Director Christopher Cain is almost as inept at finding some sparks in the material as the leads are at fishing -- no easy task. Pesci and Glover cast about for automatic laughs, but even with nonexistent expectations, one is appalled at the lackluster efforts of everyone involved.
GONE FISHIN'
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Hollywood Pictures presents
in association with Caravan Pictures
A Roger Birnbaum production
A Christopher Cain film
Director Christopher Cain
Producers Roger Birnbaum,
Julie Bergman Sender
Writers Jill Mazursky Cody, Jeffrey Abrams
Director of photography Dean Semler
Production designer Lawrence Miller
Editor Jack Hostra
Costume designer Lizzy Gardiner
Music Randy Edelman
Casting Rick Montgomery, Dan Parada
Color/stereo
Cast:
Joe Joe Pesci
Gus Danny Glover
Rita Rosanna Arquette
Angie Lynn Whitfield
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
Dumped on an unsuspecting public after moving its release date a few times, the Hollywood Pictures' film is rancid bait for those who like lead characters with no discernible intelligence but with lots of mayhem-causing bad luck. The production itself was none too lucky, with the death of stunt performer Janet Wilder and the injury of four others in an accident during filming in December 1995.
A pair of dimwitted dads from New Jersey, played by Joe Pesci and Danny Glover, head to Florida for their annual fishing excursion, a traditional getaway that dates back several decades. Their wives plead with them not to get arrested or land in the hospital and make them promise to return in a few days in time for Thanksgiving.
With a banter that shows these morons to be kids posing as adults, the leads are so fixated on fishing that the loss of their boat, car and an encounter with a murderer fail to shake their resolve. They have an annoying habit of bumping into levers and flipping switches for the hell of it, leaving a path of destruction and not thinking twice about running away from a potential long prison term.
Alas, watching the film is akin to being incarcerated for a crime one did not commit. The leads are so flat and unfunny that one welcomes the presence of Rosanna Arquette and Lynn Whitfield as ladies-of-the-road who are trailing the aforementioned murderer, also notorious for wooing and then robbing elderly women.
But the screenplay as such is concerned only with flogging to death the comrades-in-disaster angle and setting up the next round of sometimes spectacular but rather unengaging physical humor. Trains, planes and alligators are tossed into the blender, along with some uninspired peripheral characters.
Director Christopher Cain is almost as inept at finding some sparks in the material as the leads are at fishing -- no easy task. Pesci and Glover cast about for automatic laughs, but even with nonexistent expectations, one is appalled at the lackluster efforts of everyone involved.
GONE FISHIN'
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Hollywood Pictures presents
in association with Caravan Pictures
A Roger Birnbaum production
A Christopher Cain film
Director Christopher Cain
Producers Roger Birnbaum,
Julie Bergman Sender
Writers Jill Mazursky Cody, Jeffrey Abrams
Director of photography Dean Semler
Production designer Lawrence Miller
Editor Jack Hostra
Costume designer Lizzy Gardiner
Music Randy Edelman
Casting Rick Montgomery, Dan Parada
Color/stereo
Cast:
Joe Joe Pesci
Gus Danny Glover
Rita Rosanna Arquette
Angie Lynn Whitfield
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 6/2/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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