Amazon.co.uk Review
The frantic pacing of
Big Trouble is surely intentional, but the movie leaves you wanting more of... something. Not more characters--it's got plenty of those--but more room for them to breathe in a top-heavy plot that recalls
Get Shorty (also directed by Barry Sonnenfeld) without reaching those heights of ingenuity. Based on the bestseller by syndicated
Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry, this Miami-based mayhem bears the distinct imprint of Barry's humour, in which absurdities pile up like rush-hour traffic, involving a former journalist (Tim Allen) connected by circumstance to a wealthy schemer (Stanley Tucci), his bored wife (Rene Russo), Russian mobsters, mismatched cops (Janeane Garofalo, Patrick Warburton), power-crazed FBI agents (Heavy D, Omar Epps), a Frito-loving drifter (Jason Lee), cretinous criminals (Tom Sizemore, Johnny Knoxville), and a gigantic toad that shoots hallucinogenic saliva. Culminating in an airport bomb smuggling (prom! pting the film's delayed release after the tragedy of September 11, 2001),
Big Trouble needs the brilliant cohesion of
Dr Strangelove; what it gets is Sonnenfeld's knack for sustained chaos, and a few decent belly laughs. --
Jeff Shannon
DVD Description
From the director of
Men in Black and
Get Shorty, Barry Sonnenfield, comes a hilarious comedy caper starring Tim Allen (
The Santa Clause) and Rene Russo (
The Thomas Crown Affair). This frantically paced, ingeniously plotted, in-your-face gangster farce, centres on a mysterious briefcase and its dangerous contents. The briefcase is not in safe hands - street thugs Snake (Tom Sizemore -
Pearl Harbor), Eddie (Johnny Knoxville -
Jackass) and Puggy (Jason Lee -
Chasing Amy) are travelling around Miami with it. When their lives collide with Eliot Arnold (Allen), a divorced journalist, everybody's lives are changed forever. Can Eliot survive his encounter with thieves and gangsters? Perhaps this is a chance for him to prove himself, win back the respect of his estranged son (Ben Foster-
Get Over It) and gain the love of sexy Anna Herk (Russo).
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