Double Whammy

Double Whammy (2001):This is a low budget New York City based detective/comedy/satire/serious movie and is definitely not a typical Hollywood formulated tale. But, it can’t quite make up its mind as to which way it is going and that is its main flaw. Directed by Tom DiCillo (Who did ‘Living in Oblivion’, a great rent about making independent movies from a few years ago.), it has a very good cast including; Dennis Leary, Elizabeth Hurley, Steve Buscemi (Fargo), and Luis Guzman. Leary is a fairly inept detective (actually he has small amounts of ept) whose back goes out on him at the worst of times. He meets chiropractor Hurley and vertebrae start to crack if you get my drift. While cracking the old vertebrae with Liz in his apartment, the building superintendent (Guzman) living a floor below is almost murdered by a couple of low lives with equally low IQ’s. Also living in the next apartment are two would-be screen writers working in a clueless vacuum, composing a script that they believe will take them to Cannes. All three group’s lives come together in the movie and Leary winds up a hero in spite of ineptitude. Buscemi plays Leary’s confused partner to a T. The movie is character driven and actually concerns itself with finding happiness in spite of your natural shortcomings. This is another 6 cylinder effort that is missing a spark plug or two but it is worth a week-end rent if you like detective movies and or Dennis Leary or favor gazing upon Liz Hurley. The DVD contains an excellent director’s commentary. The movie is rated R for: brief Hurley orb, shootings and knifings, murder of an innocent fish, smoking in restaurants, dart in the leg, tattoo envy, piercing photo exhibition, crooks who can’t divide, screenwriters who can’t write, and detectives who can’t detect.