B-Movies and Couch Classics: Quick Change • Heat

B-Movies and Couch Classics

by Arik Ben Treston

Many of us have gone into banks and wondered: what would it be like to rob the joint? Hopefully, this is a darkly passing thought because, well … it’s bad. What we can do, though, is experience risky, forbidden, dangerous situations vicariously through movie characters. We know it’s wrong to rob a bank and we wouldn’t do it, but sometimes it can be entertaining watching someone on the silver screen do it for us. Let them suffer the consequences.

One of my favorite comedies, which I touched upon briefly in a previous article, is 1990’s Quick Change (R, Warner Brothers). Howard Franklin and Bill Murray co-directed this scream about a guy who is overcome with animosity and frustration towards New York City. Enlisting his friends Geena Davis and Randy Quaid, Murray decides to rob a bank. With Murray dressed as a clown, this is not your ordinary bank robbery.

The humor stems from Murray’s droll performance and how well he plays off the other characters. A rare twist in this film is that Murray’s pursuer is a good man. Jason Robards plays a police chief who has also had enough of New York. He worries that he will be leaving a sorry legacy and so this collar, this clown, is a big deal for him. He has to nab him. While many films would cast this character as the buffoon, Robard’s character maintains dignity throughout. We care about his plight as well as Murray’s.

The premise of New York City as the villain goes a long way in providing ample humor. This is late ’80s, early ’90s Gotham. The muggings, incompetent construction workers, mobsters, psychotic bus drivers and foreign cabbies all minor characters in the big picture. Murray just wants to live the good, simple life, away from the horrors of this bustling metropolis. The fact that Robards’ character shares these feelings results in a complex plot and a shared plight.

Murray’s ability to convey coolness under pressure and complete devotion to his role gives this film a fun atmosphere. He plays papa to Quaid’s terrified and bumbling sidekick and he works hard, calming Davis down when she has panic attacks about ending up in Sing Sing.

Rounding out the cast of characters are Philip Bosco as a rule-abiding bus driver who doesn’t understand the term "cut some slack." Friends and frequent film collaborators, Stanley Tucci and Tony Shaloub (Big Night, The Imposters) play a Mafioso and an English-as-13th-language cabbie who doesn’t know what a red light means. Their scenes, especially Shaloub’s cab scene, are worth the rental alone.

Though rated R for strong language, the film manages to keep a solid tone throughout, a typical Achilles heal for many similar comedies. While the recent Mickey Blue Eyes started as a fun and lighthearted film, it became too serious too soon which can be deadly for a comedy. Quick Change is definitely a classic, although it may not have gotten the attention it deserved. Repeat viewings, especially nine years later, only serve to confirm its place in cinematic history as one of the best comedies of the 1990s. If you saw it a long time ago and think "what is he talking about?" see it again and watch how the comedy stew bubbles together perfectly, creating one delicious movie.

On a darker note here, Heat, (1995, R, Warner Bros.) still stands as one of the best action epics of the last couple decades. It is worth the price of admission if only to watch the two greatest living Heat Cover actors, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro make their first film appearance together in the same scenes (albeit there are only two shared scenes.) Michael Mann, director of the classic pre-Silence of the Lambs film, Manhunter, and the current The Insider (with Pacino) directed this 172- minute assault on the senses blitz with the craftsmanship of a great painter. Here, Mann assembled a cast (including Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, and Tom Sizemore) that brings not only years of experience to their roles, but also the years of hard work and living that is etched on each one of their faces.

De Niro and his gang work on heists that transcend robbing money from armored trucks. They leave the money and go for the bonds and certificates, only to turn around and sell them to the original owner at a reduced cost (He gets his bonds back and he gets the insurance on them. Not a bad deal.) These are not your garden variety criminals. Everything is high stakes. Everything is high tech. Everything is high risk.

The risk factor increases when Pacino begins to track down De Niro and his gang. From here on out, the two play a serpentine cat and mouse game of one-upmanship. Not only as their characters, but also as Pacino and De Niro.

One of the best scenes in the film (which was phenomenal on the big screen) was the L.A. bank robbery scene that comes a couple of hours into the film. This infamously brutal scene, which was eerily played out for a national audience for real about a year later in L.A. during a brutal ammo-fest robbery, gave the film its cold core. Both the bad guys and the good guys do what they have to do.

While we come to like De Niro’s character and hope his life might turn around, he is, after all, a "bad guy" and Hollywood doesn’t fully redeem its "bad guys". On the flip side, Pacino, while playing the "good guy", isn’t a saint either. With a neglected wife and a messed-up stepdaughter, Pacino is more concerned with nabbing crooks.

These two powerhouses collide to form a true field of energy throughout this film. It resonates with a cold, hard feeling of loneliness and isolation, a reflection of the characters and of the location. While not a "masterpiece", Mann has managed (at a good flowing pace for a movie this long) to craft a true razor-sharp shoot ’em up, blow it up, smack them around, action-drama that retains a true core of great acting.