Loose Cannons

With the good comes the bad, so I would be doing a disservice if I didn't take a look back at some of the worst films in the Bob Clark cannon. First up is the dreadful 1990 Lethal Weapon knock off, Loose Cannons.

Gene Hackman is Mac, a tough, grizzled, veteran cop who's been assigned a new partner against his wishes, isn't that always the way it goes. It turns out that his new partner Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, suffers from multiple personality disorder, which is brought on when he faces life threatening situations. Maybe being a policeman wasn't the wisest choice for employment.

This is a painful film to watch, which is sad since it has a great cast that also includes Dom DeLuise, Ronny Cox, and Nancy Travis. Everyone does their best to breath life into this mess, but there's just not a lot to work with. Surprising since it was cowritten by the brilliant Richard Matheson.

Supposedly Hackman was itching to star in a comedy. Now don't get me wrong, Hackman is a terrific actor, but not the best when choosing comedic scripts to star in. Case in point, Welcome To Mooseport. He's fared much better in comedies where he is the costar, like Get Shorty and Heartbreakers.

Here's a funny story about this movie. Back in 2013, police in Calgary were investigating a murder. They were searching through a landfill for clues and found some lost footage from this film. They recognized Aykroyd and immediately contacted his agent to figure out what they were looking at. When he was contacted about it, Aykoyd said that it should have stayed in the landfill where it belongs.

The late, great character actor J.T. Walsh was originally cast in the movie, but was fired immediately when Aykroyd refused to work with him because of his involvement in the movie Wired. Wired was based off the book that took a scathing look at the life of Aykroyd's best friend John Belushi.

This movie sat on the shelf for two years, and probably would have been better off if it just stayed there. It's a total waste of time.

It's available on dvd.