{"id":4253,"date":"2024-09-30T03:35:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T03:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4253"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:52:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:52:40","slug":"the-squeeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/30\/the-squeeze\/","title":{"rendered":"The Squeeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Squeeze <\/strong>(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Roger Young\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Daniel Taplitz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Miles Goodman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Arthur Albert\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 10, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael Keaton, Rae Dawn Chong, Joe Pantoliano, John Davidson, Meat Loaf, Ronald Guttman, George Gerdes, Leslie Bevis, Liane Langland, Pat McNamara, Paul Herman, John Dennis Johnston, Richard Portnow.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $2.2M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0It\u2019s an observation I\u2019ve made before and I\u2019m going to make it again. The bad movies from back in the day are much better than the bad movies of today. Take a look at The Squeeze<\/strong>, an action-comedy starring Michael Keaton and Rae Dawn Chong. It\u2019s what I call a \u201cone-week wonder\u201d meaning it was in and out of theaters in a week. I saw it on the very last night it played at the old Lawrence Park Theater. Not only that, I dragged my father into it. Sorry, Dad.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although the reviews were unanimously bad, I didn\u2019t think it could be as bad as the critics claimed. Well, so much for youthful optimism. They were right. It was terrible! It was almost as bad as Hot Pursuit which I saw about two months prior. I didn\u2019t laugh once; I didn\u2019t even smile. It made my bottom 10 list for \u201987. Now flash forward to this past weekend. I noticed The Squeeze<\/strong> was playing on Tubi and was in its final two days on the free streaming service. So why, after all these years, did I decide to rewatch it? I figured after enduring some really bad comedies over the past 15 years, it might not be as bad as I remember. My experiment produced the expected results. The Squeeze<\/strong> is better than I remember it being. I hate to admit it, but I actually kind of like it now.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Down on his luck artist Harry Berg (Keaton, Night Shift) and ambitious skip tracer Rachel Dobs (Chong, Commando) find themselves mixed up in a conspiracy connected to a mysterious package that his ex-wife Hilda (Langland) asks him to retrieve from her apartment. In addition to the parcel, he also finds a body. Is it possible his ex murdered somebody? It soon becomes apparent that whatever is in the package is valuable. A lot of people want to get their hands on it like wealthy Bulgarian businessman Rigaud (Guttman, Little Nikita) and his two thugs, Joe (Gerdes, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Titus (rocker Meat Loaf). The latter has a glandular disorder that causes him to sweat non-stop.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So what is this thing that everybody\u2019s after? Why, it\u2019s the McGuffin, of course. It\u2019s an electromagnetic device the bad guys plan to use to rig the state lottery, currently at $58 million. Will Harry and Rachel work together to stop the bad guys? Will they fall in love along the way? If you hesitate on either question, you need a refresher course in Basic Screenwriting 101.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Squeeze<\/strong> was originally titled Skip Tracer after the female lead\u2019s profession, but the producers changed it on the presumption that not too many people know what the term means. For the record, it refers to a person who tracks down missing or hard-to-find people for the purposes of collecting debts or serving summonses. In the movie, Rachel tries in vain to serve Harry a summons on behalf of his ex-wife seeking back alimony. Here\u2019s where The Squeeze<\/strong> becomes educational. In order for a summons to be valid, the served person has to actually physically touch it. In other words, the server can\u2019t just slip it under the door or something. Good to know. In any event, this situation serves as the movie\u2019s meet-cute moment.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I guess the main problem with The Squeeze<\/strong> is that it isn\u2019t funny, an especially disappointing thing with gifted actors like Keaton and Chong in the lead roles. Keaton has amazing range as an actor, but I\u2019ll always think of him first as a comic wild man. Look at his debut, the 1982 comedy Night Shift. Classic! He followed that up with 1983\u2019s Mr. Mom, not a great movie by any means, but made better by his presence. Chong more than held her own against Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando. She has great timing. There appears to be some chemistry between the two, but the flawed screenplay makes it hard to measure with any degree of accuracy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot is muddled and indistinct. At times, it\u2019s unclear what\u2019s going on. When you stop and think about it, the story doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. For example, why does the big lottery drawing take place on a battleship? Director Roger Young (Lassiter) never bothers to explain this. Even the look of the movie is a bust. I understand The Squeeze<\/strong> is a comic take on film noir, but instead of enhancing the suspense (of which there is none anyway), it only makes it harder for the viewer to see what\u2019s going on. This isn\u2019t an example of style; it\u2019s an example of poor lighting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The supporting cast is kind of interesting. John Davidson, host of That\u2019s Incredible (1980-84) and the revived Hollywood Squares (1986-89), plays \u201cHonest Tom T. Murray\u201d, the host of the lottery program. Wait until you get a load of his helmet hair. He\u2019s actually the only funny thing in The Squeeze<\/strong>. Him and the sculpture Harry is building in his apartment for a gay Puerto Rican night club owner (Portnow, Tin Men). It\u2019s a dinosaur constructed of lights and old TV sets. Joe Pantoliano (Guido the killer pimp from Risky Business) shows up as Harry\u2019s friend Norman, but isn\u2019t given all that much to do. While it\u2019s always great to see Meat Loaf, his character is pretty gross and unappealing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The tone of The Squeeze<\/strong> is uneven, but usually dark. I give Keaton and Chong a lot of credit for doing their best with such an odd screenplay. BUT like I said at the onset, it seems like a much better movie in comparison to much of what passes for comedies at multiplexes these days. I was actually entertained this time around. I like how wrong-headed, misconceived and just plain weird this movie is. It\u2019s almost innocent in its incompetence. I wish they still made bad movies this good. Does that make sense?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Incidentally, the movie that replaced The Squeeze<\/strong> was none other than Jaws: The Revenge. Like that did any better!<\/p>\n

TRIVIA TIDBIT: Jenny Wright (St. Elmo\u2019s Fire, Near Dark) was supposed to play the female lead, but was replaced by Chong.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Squeeze (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Roger Young\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Daniel Taplitz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Miles Goodman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Arthur Albert\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 10, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael Keaton, Rae Dawn Chong, Joe Pantoliano, John Davidson, Meat Loaf, Ronald Guttman, George Gerdes, Leslie Bevis, Liane Langland, Pat McNamara, Paul Herman, John Dennis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Squeeze-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\/4253","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=4253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5572,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions\/5572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}