 |
||||
|
Car 54, Where Are You? [1994] This probably is worse than the Steve Martin Bilko
abomination. There's certainly a surreal pop cultural thrill in the
idea of David Johansen of NYC 70s punk scene fame as the second coming
of Joe E. Ross, but Johansen's Gunther Toody does sound a lot like Ross's
- and there's a crude gag under the credits that reprises Ross's 'ooh
ooh' catchphrase as Toody is having [offscreen] sex with wife Rosie
O'Donnell. Otherwise, it seems to owe a lot to the Dragnet parody film,
with sloppy Toody partnered with uptight Muldoon [John C McGinley] and
meandering through a plot that has to do with an effete mafia don [Daniel
Baldwin] who wants to clip an accountant witness [Jeremy Piven] and
a sub-plot that has Muldoon paired off with cop groupie Velma Velour
[Fran Drescher]. The first moments suggest it might well be epochally
ghastly, as Johansen's Toody daydreams of whistling the old theme song
in an idealised neighbourhood where all the citizens sing about loving
him, but is then woke by the captain [Nipsey Russell] and his cry of
'Car 54, where the fuck are you?' to find a big-time riot and returning
cast member Al Lewis [as Officer Schnauzer] using a billy-club on locals.
Then, it just becomes a sub-Police Academy runaround.
Cameos: rapper Tone Loc [in prison for explicit lyrics], Penn and Teller,
an Andy Warhol lookalike. One of those films which slipped into limbo
after completion. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
|
||||