This failure of a 'joke' is really indicative of the ensuing 90 minutes. It's just one after another, and nary a giggle or a smirk or even a smile in sight. And I don't mean to be a major #DrefyH8er, but I think you can pretty much pin all of this on him. Sure the script sucks and it looks like shit (sorry, Joe Pytka aka the guy who would go onto to direct the original Space Jam and nearly nothing else), but it really starts and end with the Drefy.
Dreyf plays a cabbie named Trotter who works with David Johansen, singer for the New York Dolls turned actor who only ever plays cab drivers (need a fact check on this). Johansen is a dimwitted guy, kind of loveable and definitely looney. Oh right, that's his characters name: Looney. Looney likes to audio-tape his passengers in the backseat of his cab without their knowledge in hopes that he can record some horny make-out sessions? Sure, alright. He snags one of these encounters in the wild and just can't wait to play it for Trotter like a complete weirdo. In the process, he inadvertently records two shady men talking about a horserace happening the next day where they mention a pony that CAN'T LOSE. Trotter doesn't care about the audio of the make-out session because he isn't a deranged lunatic, however this catches his ear.
So he decides to put his retirement from gambling on hold and head down to the track ONE LAST TIME. And this incredibly stupid and random event sets in motion our entire 'plot' which consists of Trotter (another on the nose character name) making a series of increasingly larger horse bets for a variety of cosmically appointed reasons ("Letting it ride" in the parlance) and they all end up winning.
Along the way, he encounters a host of losers and shady track people, like "Cheeseburger"...
A lot of this hinges (I GUESS) on whether or not you care for horse racing and or have a working knowledge of that world. While I love gambling, I detest this 'sport' so I'll admit this film was already one foot in the grave before I ever hit play. I honestly think the film is functionally broken regardless of that, though; another gambling vice could've been subbed in and it still doesn't work. Take for example this scene in which Trotter buys a hamburger. What is this all about? Why is it shot like that (nothing else looks like this)? What is its tone trying to convey? Why does that man want to eat chewed-up floor burger? ...
It's a little throwaway scene to be sure, but it speaks volumes because there are moments just like it sprinkled throughout the picture. Like when Dreyfuss randomly breaks the fourth wall for now reason in the final act...
The most interesting part of the movie is seeing whether or not Jennifer Tilly is gonna pop out of that red dress (sorry).
Teri Garr, who is painfully underutilized in this, ends up making the only halfway decent goof when she spontaneously decides to become an alcoholic...
It also features a young Cynthia Nixon wearing braces...
And that's that. He ends up winning like a quarter of a million dollars while learning ZERO lessons. He's only ever a stuck-up jerk to all his so-called friends and a total asshole to Teri Garr, right to the bitter end. But he still wins. In a way, I want to give the movie credit for bucking the natural inclination for him to lose in the end (seeing as how there was no personal growth and all), but that's giving it far too much credit. He wins in the end because this movie is lazy and doesn't give a shit about anything, so he wins. I'm giving it 2 stars one each for Jennifer Tilly's.... (SORRY AGAIN).
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 508 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 510 ⫸
⫷ EPISODE 508 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 510 ⫸
Let It Ride is a 1989 American comedy film. It was directed by Joe Pytka (in his feature non-documentary debut) from a screenplay by Nancy Dowd (credited as Ernest Morton) based on the 1979 novel Good Vibes by Jay Cronley. It stars Richard Dreyfuss, David Johansen, Teri Garr, and Allen Garfield. The story is centered on a normally unsuccessful habitual gambler who experiences a day in which he wins every bet he places, and focuses on the personality contrasts and the perpetually upbeat, hopeful attitudes of losers. It was released on August 18, 1989 .
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