His ex-wife asks the unsuccessful gambler and inventor Harrison for a small favor: to get her a parcel from a friend's apartment - without telling him what's in it. Suddenly he finds himself assaulted by villains and shortly after even under suspect of murder. The inexperienced P.I. Rachel is hired by an unknown party to rid him of the parcel - but soon befriends him. Together they try to figure out what kind of game is being played. A mysterious black box spells danger to a con man and female detective. "The Squeeze" is one of those movies that sadly doesn't work. Keaton's colorful performance can't save a convoluted script that tries to juggle wild comedy with thriller elements. There is a line in the climax that oddly summarized the film in a nutshell. <br/><br/>"Its seems like your imagination has finally outpaced reality," one character says. <br/><br/>It was so uncanny how well this phrase described the film that I began to think the writer, Daniel Tiplitz, was making a reference to himself! "The Squeeze" is a film with a realistic grounding, but is stuffed with outlandish, completely far-fetched ideas. Watching the film felt like viewing a dream of seeing the movie itself (if this makes any sense at all). I realized this when I tried describing scenes of the film and found it was much like describing a dream. <br/><br/>It starts out pleasant enough with a shady poker game where Michael Keaton hilariously tries to bluff the other guys at the table, but doesn't manage to be the least bit convincing. It was an acceptable beginning, but things were thrown completely off course when he gets home to his apartment that has a large rhino made out of TV screens sitting in it!<br/><br/>Anyway, Keaton gets mixed up with a young PI (Rae Dawn Chong) who uncovers lottery corruption. They try to piece a muddled mystery together, but the film is so out-there that the deeply buried story becomes lost. This isn't exactly a problem, however. I had an enormously fun time viewing the film, no matter how much it descends into bomb territory.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, nothing can stop the fact that this is pretty bad movie. It has a confused story, needless characters and some overly-violent scenes.<br/><br/>There is some fun to bad had here, and Michael Keaton is a riot as usual, but it simply doesn't work.<br/><br/>(2 out of 4) I remember watching this years ago. It was one of several comedies Michael Keaton made in the 80's, but you can see him beginning to stretch a bit beyond his cornball comedy roles (e.g. Night Shift, Mr. Mom, Gung Ho, Johnny Dangerously). You can just see a hint of the dramatic (and dark) flair he would reveal a few years later in Beetle Juice and Batman.<br/><br/>The movie itself is pretty contrived, although it has a great supporting cast. It was fun to see Meat Loaf (whose character is always sweaty, and carries around a battery-operated fan to keep cool) and John Davidson (who essentially plays…himself!).
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295 weeks ago