Mad Dog Time Reviews

A weird black comedy driven in equal parts by nostalgia for the sleazy cool of the Rat Pack and the childish rhymes of Dr. Seuss. Written and directed by Larry Bishop -- son of first generation hipster Joey Bishop -- it's a gangster story that's dressed to the nines, but never goes anywhere. Big Boss Vic (Richard Dreyfuss) gets out of the loony bin and finds his criminal empire in disarray. Trusted gunsel Mickey Holliday (Jeff Goldblum) has been fooling around with Vic's girl Grace (Diane Lane) and her hot-tempered sister Rita (Ellen Barkin); old associate Jules Flamingo (Gregory Hines) has been killed; right-hand Ben London (Gabriel Byrne) is planning a coup; smarmy Jake Parker (Kyle MacLachlan) is trying to take over Vic's game; and there's a scary new gunman named Nick (Christopher Jones) in town. This just might be the SKIDOO of its day, a fantastic farrago that sounds cool -- no matter what you say to the contrary -- but just isn't. Behind every attenuated bit of posturing you can almost hear the filmmakers falling about at their own cleverness, and the casting is so self-conscious you want to scream -- every bit player who isn't Michael J. Pollard is Billy Idol. It all comes to a bizarre head with Barkin in butter yellow satin, training her little gun on a roomful of gangsters and shrieking furiously, "Mick, Nick, Vic... ick, ick, ick!" Huh?