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Rating: **½
Genre: Buddy/Fish-out-of-Water/Crime Comedy MPAA: R (For tons and tons of language, and sexuality) Review #: 15 Cast: Directed by...Steve Oedekerk Written by...Steve Oedekerk Starring: Martin Lawrence...T. Paul Tim Robbins...Nick Beam John C. McGinley...Davis 'Rig' Lanlow Giancarlo Esposito...Charlie Dunt Kelly Preston...Ann Michael McKean...Phillip Barrow Rebecca Gayheart...Danielle Susan Barnes...Delores Irma P. Hall...Bertha Samaria Graham...Lisa Marcus Paulk...Joey Penny Bae Bridges...Tonya Steve Oedekerk...Security Guard Baxter Mary Jo Keenen...Grace Lisa Mende...Emma |
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Review:
Nothing to Lose is a very fun movie. In the end, that's all it is. What else would you expect from Steve Oedekerk, the writer of "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls"? It's got a very fun, if simple plot, very fun, if simple characters, and lots of fun jokes. I am always very critical of comedies, because they very rarely contain truely original material, or any sort of rewatchability. Comedies also are a real matter of taste. What one person thinks is brilliant and witty is what another thinks is unfunny tripe. It's just the way it is. Where was I? Oh yeah, the movie. I think that this movie tries to be too many things. It succeeds at many, but fails at others. What happens is that corporate executive Nick Beam has it all, a cushy high-paying job and a beautiful wife. One day, he gets home from work early, and finds his wife in bed with somebody else. So, Nick deals with this in his own way, by simply getting into his car and driving away. |
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| Where's he going? Well, he doesn't know. He drives 15 miles per hour on the expressway, and into the slums. There, he's car-jacked by Martin Lawrence, who calls himself T. Nick decides that he's not going to take this anymore, so he locks T in the car, and proceeds to drive to Nevada. There the fun begins. So, Nick and T begin to rob their way across the desert, but get in the way of two other criminals, who just happen to match their descriptions. So, we have lots of robbing, car chases, corporate fraud, breaking and entering, gunplay, and one very unhappy statue. It all wraps up into one package, that's just a little too neat. Of course, this is a comedy, so it has to have a happy, upbeat ending, right? After all, that is the Shakespearean definition of comedy, after all. This movie also seems to try and have some sort of an important message about racism in corporate america, but it kind of gets lost in the shuffle. |
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After it's all said and done, this movie is primarily a comedy, and
the writer/director, Steve Oedekerk, is constantly infusing scenes which
could be tense with comedy, and a surprising percentage of the jokes work.
There are many memorable quotes and scenes that you can take from the theatre
with you, and I still quote this movie to friends of mine who I saw it
with in the theatre during the summer of '97. And, if you see this movie
for no other reason, see it for Nick's Boss' Statue, and what happens to
it. That is priceless, as are other scenes, like the hotfoot one, the ramming
one (Nick, after ramming another car: "Ok, now what? I thought you had
a plan!" T: "That was my plan: to ram them") and the flashlight robbery
scene.
And who can forget Steve Oedekerk's cameo as a dancing security guard? It's a real shame that this movie never got to be more than a sum of it's parts, but what parts they are! |
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