Rent-a-Cop - Oh Burt...

Stinker Madness - The Bad Movie Podcast

We setup our tribute to the dearly missed Burt Reynolds with an examination of his first Razzie nomination as "bored actor who doesn't want to be in the same film as Liza Minnelli". It's like Sharky's Machine meets A Star is Born. Does that work for a bad movie "do"?

Let's get straight to the bad - the big bad is Liza. She's insufferable. It's not completely her fault as the script calls for the most annoying person ever as the "love interest" for hunky Burt - because that's how all cop movies should work right? So she is supposed to play an annoying person and she does that in spades or jazz hands or sea-urchin hair cuts. Whatever. It's awful and you can't put someone who is like nails on the chalkboard into a movie even if the role calls for it. You can't annoy your audience for 2 hours. Ugh.

Then there's Burt. Sweet, sweet Burt. He stinks. And it's his fault. It's a clinic on how to shoot an actor that in no way wants to be in your movie. Sadly this is the beginning of the end for Burt (until Boogie Nights) where he would take whatever role he could get. So he'd rather be in Cleveland than starring next to the most annoying character ever. It's a little tough to watch.

Aside from the bad, we come to the (not just good, but) GREAT James Remar. His villain, Dancer, is like a cut/paste from a Batman comic. He's so over-the-top for a cop movie (power-armor, knife-arm, the zipper-dance in the mirror) that he'd fit better in a 90's super-hero movie. It's fantastic and quintessential James Remar. Arguably, Dancer gets killed in the climax in the best way we've seen for years.

So in the end, if you can cut through Liza's schtick you're gonna have a do here, but man is it tough to get past her. It's wall to wall jammering on and on and on and on...