Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 11, 1992 TAG: 9201110284
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`KUFFS' BEATS YOU SENSELESS
The filmmakers behind "Kuffs" do one brave, if foolhardy thing in the movie. They give the hero a fondness for turkey.Indeed, in one scene there's a close-up of a squashed supermarket turkey in the middle of the road.
It's an irresistible metaphor for the movie itself.
This is a so-called action-comedy that tries to combine violence and broad humor. The result is a movie disconcertingly out of kilter. The violence is too extreme, the humor feeble and silly. We're even treated to that tired comic device of last resort, the flatulent dog.
Christian Slater plays George Kuffs, a shiftless high school drop-out of low sensitivity. When he learns his girl friend (Milla Jovovich) is pregnant, he plans to leave skid marks. George is unaware that this is the '90s.
When George's brother is murdered, he inherits a business that nobody wants him to have.
Apparently there are private police districts in San Francisco called Patrol Specials whose owners work with the city police. It's a complicated system not fully explained in the movie. But George decides to step into his brother's business with no experience and to nab his killer.
He's assigned a real cop for a partner (Tony Goldwyn). In time-honored movie tradition, these two antagonists become fast friends by pounding each other senseless.
The bad guys - led by George De La Pena and Leon Rippy - are involved in a couple of schemes, each about as flimsy as the other, that serve as motivation for the murder of George's brother.
This is screenwriter Bruce Evans' first feature as director, and it shows. He resorts to a lot of film-school tricks. In one scene the obscenities mouthed by the arguing cops are buzzed and bleeped for the screen. In another, George has his mouth taped, and the director goes for subtitles. Worst of all, this is one of those movies in which the hero turns frequently to the camera to address the audience. To say that Christian Slater comes up with one of the most obnoxious and alienating characters on screen is to be kind. Joe Pesci's character in "Goodfellas" generates more empathy.
This kind of "Police Academy" foolishness is interrupted by slow-motion scenes of bullets tearing into flesh. And to demonstrate how low the filmmakers will sink to elicit an emotion, George's brother dies to the strains of "Ave Maria" in a bloody operating-room scene.
"Kuffs" is a cynical formula movie with a carnival barker's shout: Hey! We got violence! We got sex! We'll make you laugh! We'll make you cry! `Kuffs': A Universal release at Valley View Mall 6 (362-8219). Rated PG-13 for violence, language and sexual references; 110 minutes.