Here is an example of a film that is soooooooo bad that it actually makes for fun and indeed hilarious viewing! In sitting through this film, I honestly felt that I was watching "Airplane"!
Take for example one of the crucial "dramatic" moments in which the zealous police detective (Andy Garcia) and the pediatrician (Marcia Gay Harden) are crossing over the skyway from one building to another. At that moment, Andy's character needs to get the doctor to his sick son who desperately needs a bone marrow transfusion that is to be provided by a killer on the loose (Michael Keaton). At the precise moment when the detective and the doctor are walking on the skyway, it is revealed that the doctor has a fear of heights! She then collapses into the fetal position as the detective helps her across the skyway. The film is filled with moments just like this one in which an intended serious scene turns to comedy.
Take also the casting of Michael Keaton (primarily a comic actor) in the role of the psychopathic killer. Keaton has a mischievous charm, but not a killer instinct. I never once believed that he was capable of perpetrating any violence.
The setting for the film was in San Francisco. Early in the story, we see the Keaton character being transported by armored vehicle from the high security penitentiary (San Quentin?) to a hospital in downtown San Francicsco. But after he makes his break from the hospital, it turns out that the prison is located immediately next door. This made no sense whatsoever in the logic of the film's narrative.
The police officers in this film were especially wooden and even passive as Keaton's character seemingly took the entire San Francisco police force captive. Even such reliable character actors as Richard Riehle and Brian Cox looked ridiculous in their roles. In the end, the incompetence of the police officers was exceeded only by that of the filmmakers in this preposterous excuse for a film!
