Three Fugitives (Francis Veber, USA, 1989) August 16, 2006
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Comedy, 1980s, Film reviews, Crime , trackbackDir. Francis Veber; screenplay by Francis Veber; starring Martin Short, Nick Nolte
Three Fugitives has the unlikely honour of having a good beginning and end, but a middle that melodramatically stops the movie in its tracks. It’s rather strange because you’d automatically think any saccharine would be layered over the finale, but here the director seems to forget about moving the film forward, instead deciding to have the three principle characters sleeping whilst the awful (and I mean really bad!) soundtrack plays for what seems like hours.
Director Francis Veber’s main crime is not utilising the great set-ups in the comedy to their full potential. When the film works, it really works – the mismatched Nolte and Short are a great double-act when they’re playing off the idea that one is a lifelong criminal on the road to cleaning up his act, and the other is a bumbling bank robber who’s as in tune with the criminal underworld as he is with feminine beauty products. Later the film plays off the great premise that the duo are an escaping family with Short dressed up as a pregnant wife, and the pair playing mum and dad to Short’s young daughter. Yet, the film only intermittently finds comedy gold, and while it is an enjoyable comic-caper, it could have been much better.
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