Tonight I want to spend a joyous evening talking about Big Trouble, a 2002 comedy by Barry Sonnenfeld, director of such famous funny movies as The Addams Family and Men in Black.
In this case, the story is a mad circus of crazy characters whose lives collide in a single evening of criminal insanity.
The first one we meet is a young homeless guy who, after two poor guys like him beat him up in a bar, agrees to do some work for the owner.
So he settles down in a nearby forest to spend the night, when not far away, he sees some kids approaching a house to play a prank with a water pistol.
Unfortunately for these children, a hired gunman with a sniper rifle pops out of the woods, screwing up their prank and causing the cops to show up.
Indeed, the father of this family has stolen quite a bit of money from his company, so the executive board puts a bounty on his head.
As his wife considers ditching him for the father of the boy willing to play the prank, the man decides to find something to defend himself, buying a mysterious briefcase from the owner of the bar the bum works for.
Just as he is about to pay, the same violent guys from the beginning steal the briefcase and kidnap him, while the hitman keeps waiting for the right opportunity to take him out.
The situation escalates quickly, bringing the thieves to the man’s home and holding his family hostage, unable to stop their criminal stupidity.
Even they plan an unlikely escape to the Bahamas, while to their bad luck, two FBI agents are behind this suitcase, engaging in a race against time to stop them at the airport.
An even too frantic comedy
I will premise Big trouble is definitely not an unforgettable masterpiece, yet it is a lot of fun, and it seems unfair it is one of Barry Sonnenfeld‘s least-remembered movies since 2002.
As I said before, this is a choral comedy with many characters and an excellent pool of actors pushing their demented performances to the limit.
The main protagonist is officially Tim Allen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer now reduced to making paltry advertisements for insufferable clients.
Coincidentally, he ends up in this frenzy because of his son, a very young Ben Foster, still a long way from the excellent Galveston, a grim romantic crime thriller of 2018.
Indeed, everything gets messed up immediately after an innocent prank where he wants to water the beautiful and even younger Zooey Deschanel.
That’s when joining the scene an equally beautiful mom, Rene Russo, and the phenomenal Stanley Tucci, who is really the best and funniest of the whole cast.
Each character has their shining moments, and others more humbling and hilarious, in a lovely mix democratically proportioning the screen minutes for each of them.
The best aspect is no situation is ever too serious; even the few violent episodes are handled with black humor, which constantly lightens the overall mood.
Perhaps sometimes the editing flies too fast from one group of characters to the next, especially in the pyrotechnic climax, where the pace is lightning-fast.
However, the plot is relatively easy to follow, so it is not too much of a problem, although the excessive frenzy does not allow the excellent actors to do their best.
It is an ideal movie for any situation, whether alone and with friends or family; perfect for releasing tension while disconnecting the brain for an hour and a half of healthy laughter.
The right movie at the wrong time?
While lacking in the slightest the yummy horror or sci-fi nuances of The Addams Family and Men in Black, Barry Sonnenfeld inserts some of his excesses which are the movie’s best moments.
So we have a Miami overrun by goats, and on the radio, we hear only brassy Florida Gators fans, causing the despair of the charming Italian-American killer Dennis Farina.
Even better, aficionados of the famous Modern Family series can enjoy a gorgeous and very young Sofía Vergara having to endure her employer Stanley Tucci‘s foot fetish.
Fortunately, even for her comes the light with the chilled-out Jason Lee, a bum she ironically believes is a Jesus incarnation coming to help her.
Many of these romantic subplots are unfortunately short-lived, although they had the potential to be more entertaining even than the main story.
Of all the supporting roles, the top prize is Tom Sizemore, a criminal as ruthless as dumbed down who kicks off the spectacular escalation in the ending.
Indeed every moment, we just wait to see how this character can be more stupid than the previous scene, never disappointed in his hilarious destructiveness.
I have always loved this actor for his tough guy roles in dramatic action movies, such as the dark former cop in Strange Days, Kathryn Bigelow‘s indisputable cyberpunk masterpiece.
However, Sizemore is also outstanding in comedy, playing this unstoppable loser who commits crime after crime without any logic and without being able to gain a dime.
Unfortunately, Big Trouble was a huge box office flop in 2002, perhaps due to the painful memory of the 9/11/2001 tragedy, which made it hard to accept an airplane hijacking so early in a movie, although it was just a harmless comedy.
Today I would say we can finally ease up on this topic, simply enjoying a fun merry-go-round of crazy episodes and characters with solid direction and an excellent cast.
