|
All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
The Crew
|
 out of 4
|
 |
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Richard Dreyfus Director: Michael Dinner
Rated: PG-13 RunTime: 88 Minutes Release Date: August 2000 Genre: Comedy |
 Review by Susan Granger 2 stars out of 4
|
First "Space Cowboys," now another quartet of cranky, old
geezers gear up for a final mission. No, they're not saving the
planet; they're saving their sanity. It's been too many years since
Bats (Burt Reynolds), Brick (Dan Hedaya), Mouth (Seymour Cassel) and
Bobby (Richard Dreyfuss) had anything to do but sip slurpees and ogle
bikinis from the verandah of the Raj Mahal, a ratty retirement hotel
in South Beach, Florida. Once they had it all - money, power, women
and respect - but now they're facing eviction from the semi-squalor of
their suddenly trendy, ocean-view apartments when Bats comes up with a
plan. They steal an unclaimed corpse from the mortuary where Brick
works and shoot the dead guy in the lobby of their hotel. Predictably,
their anti-gentrification scheme works. Squeamish yuppies flee the
crime scene and their landlord relents, offering a rent reduction and
hefty bonus for signing long-term leases. They're into heavy-duty
celebration until they discover the corpse was the senile father of a
paranoid South American drug lord (Miguel Sandoval) - and that Mouth
spilled the story to a stripper/hooker (Jennifer Tilly) who threatens
to blab unless the wiseguys bump off her wealthy, widowed step-mother
(Lainie Kazan). Chaos reigns when this crime caper goes sour, much to
the consternation and confusion of a police detective (Carrie-Ann
Moss) who has more than a passing interest in Bobby. While I didn't
find the gang-whiz along the side of the road particularly funny,
Barry Fanaro's screenplay, directed by Michael Dinner, contrives to
elicit chuckles if not belly-laughs. And why not? Fanaro used to write
and produce TV's "The Golden Girls." On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1
to 10, "The Crew" is a satirical 5, a genial geriatric Goodfellas.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
|
|
|
|


Buy movie posters!
|