The Squeeze (1987)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Roger Young

Writer:

Daniel Taplitz (written by)

Release Date:

10 July 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

The comedy on a lucky streak.

Plot:

A mysterious black box spells danger to a con man and female detective.

Plot Keywords:

Ex Wife | Apartment | Detective | Murder | Inventor

Cast

Ric Abernathy	...	Bouncer
Michael Keaton	...	Harry Berg
Danny Aiello III	...	Ralph Vigo
Rae Dawn Chong	...	Rachel Dobs
Bobby Bass	...	Poker Player
Leslie Bevis	...	Gem Vigo
Lou Criscuolo	...	Kurt
Ray Gabriel	...	Security Guard
George Gerdes	...	Joe
Ronald Guttman	...	Rigaud
Paul Herman	...	Freddy
Richard E. Huhn	...	Police Clerk
John Dennis Johnston	...	Nick
Jeffrey Josephson	...	Al
Liane Langland	...	Hilda

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Hoboken, New Jersey, USA

Company:

TriStar Pictures

Trivia:

During the production, veteran stuntman Victor Magnotta drowned while performing a car stunt in which the auto was driven off a Hoboken pier and plunged into the Hudson River (he was apparently pinned in the car).

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Harry Berg: Did my eye twitch?

Movie Connections:

References "Bonanza" (1959)

Soundtrack:

AS SOON AS I FIND MY SHOES I'M GONE

Unusual, Negatively Out-There...A Fine Mess

"The Squeeze" is one of those movies that sadly doesn't work. Keaton's colorful performance can't save a convoluted script that tries to juggle wild comedy with thriller elements. There is a line in the climax that oddly summarized the film in a nutshell.

"Its seems like your imagination has finally outpaced reality," one character says.

It was so uncanny how well this phrase described the film that I began to think the writer, Daniel Tiplitz, was making a reference to himself! "The Squeeze" is a film with a realistic grounding, but is stuffed with outlandish, completely far-fetched ideas. Watching the film felt like viewing a dream of seeing the movie itself (if this makes any sense at all). I realized this when I tried describing scenes of the film and found it was much like describing a dream.

It starts out pleasant enough with a shady poker game where Michael Keaton hilariously tries to bluff the other guys at the table, but doesn't manage to be the least bit convincing. It was an acceptable beginning, but things were thrown completely off course when he gets home to his apartment that has a large rhino made out of TV screens sitting in it!

Anyway, Keaton gets mixed up with a young PI (Rae Dawn Chong) who uncovers lottery corruption. They try to piece a muddled mystery together, but the film is so out-there that the deeply buried story becomes lost. This isn't exactly a problem, however. I had an enormously fun time viewing the film, no matter how much it descends into bomb territory.

Unfortunately, nothing can stop the fact that this is pretty bad movie. It has a confused story, needless characters and some overly-violent scenes. There is some fun to bad had here, and Michael Keaton is a riot as usual, but it simply doesn't work.

(2 out of 4)