THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609130061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 50 lines
NOTING the top billings for ``Bulletproof,'' everyone was hoping it was time to send in the clowns. A comedy tonight would be the choice for moviegoers who are shellshocked after the summer of multi-explosions. The only trouble is that, in this case, both the clowns have guns in their hands.
The wisecracking Damon Wayans and the boyishly appealing Adam Sandler are stuck in a bloodbath in which there are a good deal more bullets than jokes. At one point, the usually grinning Sandler is even required to say, after a targeted bullet, ``Pow, right in the eyeball.''
Wayans, who is stuck playing the straight man and consequently has fewer of the few laughs, plays an undercover cop who makes friends with the clueless Sandler in hopes that he will be led to the local drug lord.
When the smoke clears after one of the movie's bloodiest shoot-outs, Sandler whines a lot about how he's been betrayed by the one good friend he ever had. This clears the way for the scene of ``betrayed friendship'' to be repeated over and over, interrupted only by intermittent shootouts, car chases, plane crashes or vulgar expletives. It's formulaic to the extreme.
There's a good deal of crude talk about the anatomy and what the two characters would like to do to, or with, varied parts of it. These could hardly be described as wisecracks.
James Caan, looking the worse for wear, plays the drug lord, and James Farrentino, almost unrecognizable, is a police commissioner.
Most tasteless are the drug jokes. With the latest national statistics revealing that there is a major increase in drug usage among young people, this is hardly the time for Hollywood to drag out those old drug jokes again. The flippant drug attitude that was predominant in movies two decades ago has cooled in recent years, perhaps because of loud political and public pressure. ``Bulletproof,'' though, features Caan as a used car salesman who peddles heroin on the side in a way that looks quite casual.
Sandler's character even has a mom who, mostly offscreen, is a druggie. As Sandler is being dragged off to jail, he urges Wayans to ``Check on Mom every now and then and makes sure she's not smoking too much weed.''
This is a joke?
Not to responsible viewers. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW
``Bulletproof''
Cast: Damon Wayans, Adam Sandler, James Farrentino, James Caan
Director: Ernest Dickerson
MPAA rating: R (crude, vulgar drug and anatomy talk)
Mal's rating: *1/2 by CNB