{"id":4049,"date":"2024-09-14T17:06:27","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T17:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4049"},"modified":"2024-10-14T12:01:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T16:01:59","slug":"short-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/14\/short-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Short Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Short Time <\/strong>(1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century Fox\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence including gunplay)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gregg Champion\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Blumenthal and Michael Berry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ira Newborn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John J. Connor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 4, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dabney Coleman, Matt Frewer, Teri Garr, Barry Corbin, Joe Pantoliano, Xander Berkeley, Kaj-Erik Eriksen, Rob Roy, Tony Pantages.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0A couple of points of interest about Short Time<\/strong>, an otherwise forgettable action-comedy about a cop trying to get killed in the line of duty after learning he has just a short time to live. The lead character played by Dabney Coleman (Nine to Five) is named \u201cBurt Simpson\u201d which leads one to ask if it\u2019s a subliminal promotion for The Simpsons, also a Fox property, which premiered just months earlier. You know, Burt Simpson sounds like Bart Simpson. Also, Burt\u2019s partner played by Matt Frewer (aka Max Headroom) is named \u201cErnie\u201d. Burt and Ernie, aren\u2019t those the Muppets from Sesame Street? Yeah, I don\u2019t really get the connection. Was either of these things intentional? Who\u2019s to say?<\/p>\n

\u00a0All I know is that they\u2019re the most memorable elements of Short Time<\/strong>, an amusing but inconsequential piece that favors premise over plot. It played at the movie theater where I worked for a short time (totally intentional!) as an usher and it seemed to attract a lot of youngsters. It\u2019s exactly the kind of movie that young teens (13-15 years old) would go to see on Friday and Saturday nights in groups. Judging by the reactions I heard while walking the house, they seemed to enjoy it. But how much of it will they remember a month or so later? Not a lot, I suspect.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Seattle detective Burt Simpson has always played it safe. He\u2019s so concerned about the future that he misses out on life. He\u2019s estranged from his wife Carolyn (Tootsie co-star Garr) and young son Dougie (Eriksen, Boston Public). Just six days shy of retirement, Simpson finds out he\u2019s dying of some rare blood disease. It\u2019s actually a mistake; there was a mix-up at the hospital caused by a bus driver trying to hide his marijuana use.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Believing the news to be true, Simpson inquires about his insurance policy at work and learns that his family will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars if he\u2019s killed in the line duty, far more than they would if he dies of natural causes. The choice is clear, Simpson has to get himself killed. He starts behaving recklessly, engaging in high-speed chases and running headlong into dangerous situations. By way of a plot, there\u2019s this illegal weapons dealer (Berkeley, 24) who just hijacked a military convoy and stole a large supply of armor-piercing bullets that he\u2019s attempting to sell to a gangster (Pantoliano, Risky Business).<\/p>\n

\u00a0You needn\u2019t really concern yourself with that last part; it doesn\u2019t come up all that often. It basically serves as a unifying thread on which to hang the premise. Short Time<\/strong> opens with the aforementioned theft and closes with a fight to the finish between cop and bad guy. In between is a series of scenes featuring Simpson trying and failing to get killed. Predictably, he also learns to live for the present and appreciate his loved ones. He bonds with his 10YO son after years of pressuring him about attending Harvard. Again, the kid\u2019s 10.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Short Time<\/strong> is what I call a \u201cfor the moment\u201d movie. It\u2019s entertaining while you watch it, but doesn\u2019t leave much of an aftertaste. In the end, it\u2019s rather insubstantial. Coleman and Frewer make a fun pair, but let\u2019s face it, Riggs and Murtaugh they ain\u2019t. The action scenes are well-choreographed. It has its fair share of funny moments although none of them are of the fall-down variety. It\u2019s 100% predictable, but Short Time<\/strong> isn\u2019t the kind of action-comedy where surprise plot twists are an option. Frankly, it\u2019s a one-joke movie. But at least director Gregg Champion (The Cowboy Way) knows how to stretch it out. It\u2019s a better movie than it deserves to be.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short Time (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence including gunplay)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gregg Champion\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Blumenthal and Michael Berry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ira Newborn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John J. Connor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 4, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dabney Coleman, Matt Frewer, Teri Garr, Barry Corbin, Joe Pantoliano, Xander Berkeley, Kaj-Erik Eriksen, Rob Roy, Tony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Short-Time-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4049"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5237,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions\/5237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}