Tequila Sunrise (1988)

Lest some of you think I bash Mel Gibson for no reason, you obviously have not seen this turkey.

Tequila Sunrise has the old, old plot, so old that even the dinosaurs knew it: two old friends who choose different sides of the law. With the corollary, the black hat isn’t so bad, and the white hat isn’t so good.

Mel plays bad guy retired drug dealer "McCussic", back for one last run. His performance is so bad he should have phoned it in. Kurt Russell plays good guy "Detective Frescia". At first your sympathy is with Mel since he appears to be minding his own business and Kurt looks like he’s keeping tabs on Mel to roust him. Actually, it’s not hard to find Mel. He eats dinner every night at Michelle Pfeiffer’s restaurant. He’s enamoured of her, as is Kurt, and of course, Michelle can’t seem to choose between them.

Michelle Pfeiffer does a good job of playing her one-note role, as does Kurt Russell, who gets a nice plot twist at the end. It’s just that it's a crime, for the amount of screen time Mel gets, his performance almost a total zero. His credibility is poor, he appears lost and anywhere else except in this movie. Mel's scenes with fellow bad guy Raul Julia are his best in the movie and Raul has to overact to compensate for Mel’s non-acting. Plot twist: Raul has convinced the stupid police that he is a Mexican detective working with them. Instead, he is altogether something else. His over-the-top performance along with Kurt’s and Michelle’s good ones save this from being a one-star wonder.

The writing, by Writer/Director Robert Towne, is fairly good, but unfortunately is not translated to action by the main attraction Gibson.

The cinematography is lush with nice sets to give the actors good backgrounds and strategic lighting. The overall scenic impression of the film is a very slick production. Too bad the acting does not support the work that obviously went into setting them up in the nicest way possible. I think director Robert Towne got it wrong, substance before style, not vice versa!

The way I add it up: Three stars for Kurt Russell, three stars for the supporting actors, four stars for the cinematography. One star for Mel Gibson. One star for the script. 12/5 = 2.4 which I call Two stars.




Recommended: No