Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Miami Blues (1990)

This is a quirky black comedy with less appeal than the package promises. 

The movie stars Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh with a cast of interesting characters including familiar faces Fred Ward, Charles Napier, and Nora Dunn in a cops and robbers drama with comic overtones that often misfire.

Alec Baldwin plays Frederick J Frenger, Jr, a career criminal just released from the pen in California and arriving in Miami airport where he steals luggage and kills a pushy Hare Krishna type by bending his fingers back this sets the police looking for a criminal right at the beginning. 

Baldwin had already stolen a wallet with cash, credit cards, and ID for the name of Gottleib, which identity he adopted for a while.  He ordered a hooker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and that’s where they hooked up. She explained she was working her way through community college and really wanted a guy she could cook and keep house for. So that’s how the couple got together.  Baldwin was real cunning and Jason Leigh was a dumb as a rock, but they apparently gave each other what they were looking for.

Meantime, Detective Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward) is searching for the guy who killed the Hare Krishna.  He somehow found Frenger as Gottleib and just wanted to know if he knew anything about the crime.  He shares dinner with the couple and we have the three main characters together. 

As events unfold, Frenger learns that the detective is on to him so he somehow robs the guy and steals his badge, gun, and false teeth – a recurring joke throughout the picture.  Frenger starts playing cop but stealing the proceeds of whatever crime he’s forestalling. Like playing Robin Hood? Leigh offers. Yes, but I keep the proceeds myself, is Frenger’s rejoinder.

This strange mix of characters and drives go on with Baldwin promising to reform and Leigh happily playing house and Ward trying to get the evidence to put Baldwin back behind bars.  The two men end up squaring off at another crime scene and the movie is capped off with a final meeting between two of the three.

The DVD is from MGM and is in color 1.85:1 theatrical format with a running time of 96 minutes. Subtitles and the trailer are provided as extras.


Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age