Review of Big Trouble (2002) by Nicholas V — 28 Jun 2008

The career of director Barry Sonnenfeld has been quite an interesting one. Before directing his first film in 1991, he was a talanted and well-respected cinematographer of films such as Blood Simple, Throw Momma From the Train, Raising Arizona, and When Harry Met Sally... before directing The Addams Family. Sonnenfeld's resume is interesting in my eyes because every film of his that he's made, I've happened to enjoy (Yes, this does include both Wild Wild West and Men in Black II). Between those two films, he brought us the underated comedy Big Trouble.

Big Trouble is quite possibly the funniest film you've never seen, a wickedly fast-paced comedy where the jokes come fast and furious, and every time it lets up just a little, you just know that the next joke isn't too far away. Thanks to one of the best assembledges of talent that I've ever seen, the film has a manic energy that some of the more popular comedies around lack.

Based on a best-selling novel, Big Trouble takes place in Miami, Florida, where some of the most diverse people around come together. There's Elliot Arnold (Tim Allen), the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who lost his job at The Miami Herald due to an unforseen incident and is now a independent ad exec with bad clients, and his son Matt (Ben Foster),who hates his dad mainly because he bought a GEO. Then there's cheating business man Arthur Herk (Stanley Tucci), his neglected wife Anna (Rene Russo), and her loving daughter Jenny (Zooey Deschannel). Then throw in two hitman (Dennis Farina & Jack Kehler) assigned to kill Arthur, two dim-witted thiefs (Tom Sizemore & Johnny Knoxville) who will do anything to steal a buck, two off-beat cops (Janeane Garafolo & Patrick Warburton) who seem to always get stuck with the same type of disturbances, a homeless man who looks like the lord (Jason Lee), and a nuclear bomb that will bring them all together.

The plot of Big Trouble is hard to tell, so that above synopsis is the best way to describe the insanity of it. I remember when I first watched the film over five years ago that I had no idea what to expect from it. As I sat there watching it then (as I still do now), I laughed harder and louder at this film than any other film I had seen since Airplane! when I was a kid. The trailer that you see on my page doesn't do justice to how uprorarious the film gets. In fact, many of its best jokes reside right in the film. Like I mentioned before, the film is based on the best-selling book by humorist and Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry, and as far as book-to-movie adaptations go, this is by far one of the most faithful I've seen, and thankfully the film is just as funny as the book, which might be the highest amount of praise I can bestow on it.

One of the reasons the film is so successful though, is due to the excellent ensemble cast, led by Tim Allen. For those who can't stand Tim Allen, I will only say this once: He is not in that much of the film, and when he is, he is actually good in it. He does not take the film down with him like he has from time to time. It actually reminded me a lot of his performace in Galaxy Quest, only funnier. The same can be said for most of the rest of the cast. Russo, Deschannel, Foster, Garafolo, Warburton, and Farina especially give some of the funniest perfromaces in the film. But the MVP award for this film goes to Stanley Tucci, who steals every scene he is in as the cheating business man Arthur Herk. He even makes the film's most disgusting scene (one in which he licks a woman's toes) funny on its own, and part of the reason it is funny is the way he plays it. You'll find yourself cringing, but you'll also catch yourself cracking up at the same time.

But it's not just the actors who make it all worth our while. The screenplay by Robert Ramsey & Matthew Stone (Life, Intolerable Cruelty) is very smart, creating lines that are not only memorable, but interplay between the characters that seems beleivable but funny at the same time. And Sonnenfeld is at the top of his game, hitting a peak it hasn't seen since Get Shorty. He pulls off some of the broadest scenes with ease that for other directors would struggle to get the right mood or tone. Take for example the seduction scene between Eliott and Anna. It starts off simply, but it turns into very broad fourplay that serves them both well. Even the capper line from Eliott's client (Michael McShane) is funny as a result of its success. Same success applies to a sequence where squirt guns and bullets go off early in the film. I dare you to watch this one-minute sequence and not laugh.

My only complaint about the film is that it is too short. At only 78 minutes (sans credits), it is over before you know it, and that might present a problem for those that do approach it. If you can't keep up with it, the odds are that the film will fall flat for you. But if you love zany comedies, this one will be right up your ally.

Originally scheduled for release on September 21, 2001, the film's release date was indefinitely postponed by Touchstone Pictures after the events of September 11. The reason why is because the last third of the film involves the smuggling of a nuclear weapon through airport security and the hijacking of a small airliner (Although the scenario doesn't sound funny, this sequence is played exclusively for laughs, nothing more, and it works too). At the time however, I thought the studio did the right thing for being sensible about the public. However, when the film was finally released on April 5, 2002, the advertising push that was with the film initially was gone and it got the most quiet release anyone expected. After the debacle that was Wild Wild West, this was supposed to be Sonnenfeld's comeback film, and had September 11 never happened and the film been released on its original release date, it would've been a huge hit. As it was however, the film was a commercial and financial flop. A couple of years ago, even Sonnenfeld himself admitted that he thought that the film was going to be huge too (Instead, despite it not being all that great, Men in Black II ended up being his comeback film).

Despite its history, Big Trouble for me remains not only the funniest film of 2002, but also one of the funniest films of the decade. Since humor is a very subjective thing, I guarantee that many of you will not feel the same way, but if nothing else, Big Trouble is the perfect film if you're looking for a funny comedy to watch with a group of friends. It might not be as funny as something like Superbad, but it's not too far from that level in terms of laughter either.