Stakeout (1987)    Touchstone/Action-Comedy    RT: 117 minutes    Rated R (language, violence, brief partial nudity)    Director: John Badham    Screenplay: Jim Kouf    Music: Arthur B. Rubinstein    Cinematography: John Seale    Release date: August 5, 1987 (US)    Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, Aidan Quinn, Madeleine Stowe, Forest Whitaker, Dan Lauria, Ian Tracey, Earl Billings, Jackson Davies, J.J. Makaro, Scott Andersen, Tony Pantages, Beatrice Boepple.    Box Office: $65.7M (US)

Rating: ***

 For a while, John Badham was one of the busiest directors in Hollywood. He has quite a resume. It includes Saturday Night Fever (1977), Dracula (1979), Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), Blue Thunder and War Games (both 1983), American Flyers (1985), Short Circuit (1986), Bird on a Wire (1990), The Hard Way (1991), Point of No Return (1993), Drop Zone (1994) and Nick of Time (1995). Some of these are good; some not so good.

 One of his good ones is the action-comedy Stakeout starring Richard Dreyfuss (Tin Men) and Emilio Estevez (The Breakfast Club) as a pair of Seattle cops assigned to stakeout duty to nab an escaped killer (Quinn, Benny & Joon). He’s just broken out of prison and the feds think he might show up in their fair city to visit his ex-girlfriend Maria (Stowe, 12 Monkeys). Their job is to watch her place just in case he shows up. Predictably, one of the cops commits a tremendous faux pas by falling in love with her.

 The two cops at the center of Stakeout, cocky veteran Chris Lecce (Dreyfuss) and young partner Bill Reimers (Estevez), have a reputation for causing mayhem as evidenced by their failed pursuit of some random dirtbag on a crowded dock in the opening scene. It involves Bill commandeering a forklift and Chris falling into a pile of dead fish. They’ve been partners for a while judging by their easy and often funny rapport with each other. Even their captain (Billings, Con Air) finds their banter amusing. They’re also friends. Bill manages to talk recovering alcoholic Chris off the ledge after his wife walks out and takes everything with her. It’s a solid partnership about to be tested.

 Chris and Bill are assigned the overnight shift. On their first night, Chris sees Maria and is instantly smitten. She isn’t exactly what they were expecting to see- i.e. a 300 lb woman. Chris poses as a telephone repairman so he can get into her house and plant bugging devices in her phones. He sneaks back into her house later that night while she’s out looking for any indicators that she’s still in touch with her violent ex, Richard “Stick” Montgomery (Quinn). She comes home unexpectedly and he has to hide under her bed while she undresses to take a shower. The police force…. it’s not just a job; it’s a midnight sex fantasy.

 Chris, still in the guise of the phone repair guy, strikes up a romantic relationship with Maria which violates pretty much every rule in the book. Worse, he lies and tells her his name is Bill. Predictably, this creates all kinds of complications, mostly keeping his true identity and profession from her. It also puts him on the radar of the investigators when he’s spotted leaving her house (in disguise, of course) by the other stakeout team one morning. All hell breaks loose as the cops chase him all over the neighborhood. It may not be an original scenario, but it’s funny nonetheless.

 The daytime stakeout team consists of Phil (Lauria, The Wonder Years) and Jack (Whitaker, Fast Times at Ridgemont High). The two pairs are friendly rivals. They have a battle of pranks going. The pranks involve dog poop, rolls of toilet paper and a ferocious cat. What I like here as Badham never depicts them as enemies looking to torpedo each other’s careers. I’m especially glad they’re not revealed to be dirty cops. It’s a harmless rivalry that alleviates the boredom of stakeouts and their long periods of inactivity.

 No 80s action movie is complete without at least one car chase. Stakeout has a great one. There’s something different about it. It’s realistic (comparatively speaking). Nobody drives at 200 MPH. The participants don’t defy gravity or pull off impossible stunts. No property (other than a few cars) gets destroyed. It stays within the realm of believability even when they’re shooting at each other. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but it is to me. It’s one of my all-time favorite car chases.

 One of the best things about Stakeout, as I’ve already indicated, is the brilliant chemistry between the two leads. They’re already established partners by the time we meet them so there’s none of that getting to know you stuff. They’re pretty much alike in their approach to law enforcement so they can’t really be described as “mismatched” or “unlikely”. They genuinely like each other. They’re friends on and off the job. Both Dreyfuss and Estevez are perfectly cast. Dreyfuss gets to show off his comedy skills while Estevez shows he has them. They’re great together.

 Quinn delivers a scary good performance although it’s a bit unusual to see such a brutal character in an action-comedy. Usually, the bad guys in action-comedies are drug dealers or bank robbers. It’s an unusual idea putting a vicious killer in a movie that’s supposed to be funny. It throws off the balance a bit, but it doesn’t derail the whole movie. Stowe, in her first major film role, does good work too. She’s believable as a woman looking to do better than her last boyfriend.

 As I said earlier, Badham struggles a little with tonal balance, but he does a better job with it here than he did later in The Hard Way. That one just didn’t work. Stakeout is a little longer than it needs to be. The storyline is predictable, but never stale. The Pacific Northwest setting is a real bonus. I’ve always liked that part of the country; it’s beautiful to look at and there’s plenty of rain.

 Stakeout ultimately succeeds because it was made by competent people. It’s not a hack job at all even if Badham is regarded as a hack director. Sure, he makes genre movies, but some of them are actually pretty good. This is one of the good ones. It has a fair amount of laughs including a very funny throwaway line about a certain line of dialogue from a certain shark movie starring a certain actor. It also has a decent amount of action. It’s a good, entertaining movie ideal for a summer night out at the cinema.

 

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