Mad Dog Time (1996)

You won't be disappointed!

Best movie of this year hands down!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

'Trigger Happy' - or 'Mad Dog Time' as it is better known - this gangster spoof circles around a vicious crime boss recently released from a mental asylum and his underlings who wish to take his place. From such a plot summary alone, the film certainly sounds quite promising. Donning a bathrobe and walking with outstretched arms like a messiah, Richard Drefyuss also has a memorable first scene as the mentally unstable mobster, however, the rest of the film is far less impressive. The most notable aspect here is the star-studded ensemble cast. In addition to Dreyfuss, there are pivotal roles for Gabriel Byrne, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Lane, Ellen Barkin and Henry Silva, while the likes of Burt Reynolds, Billy Idol, Gregory Hines, Richard Pryor and Rob Reiner also appear. The film trips up though by trying to assign sizeable roles to each of its big name stars. The result is a film with too many main characters for one to get to know in any real depth, which in turn renders the film hard to follow on occasion. It is not a consistently funny movie either; amusing moments abound, mostly from the strange ways various characters are killed, however, there are far too many jokes stemming from the fact that three of the main characters have rhyming first names. A stylistic decision to have fades to blue, red, etc. (instead of black) is a little jarring too. Infamous as the film that Roger Ebert selected for the worst movie of its year, 'Trigger Happy' is not as worthless at all that, but it is also easy to appreciate why the film was a disappointment to fans of its stars back in its day.

I cannot understand why this movie doesn't have better ratings or a better box office. I'm a harsh critic of movies --- I probably stop watching twice as many as I watch fully, because they're heading into cliché, want to be funny but aren't, or simply bore me. But I loved this movie. I loved the way it kept being funny without making a big deal of it. I loved the way it mocked the gangster movie ethos. And I loved the cool calm assuredness of Jeff Goldblum's character --- competence and intelligence in a character, without either histrionics or "flaws to make him more interesting" are so appealing.

If the Godfather can be rated as the greatest of realistic crime or gangster movies then Mad Dog Time should be rated as the greatest of surrealistic movies. This is a film which takes the serious reality of the mob world of killers and shows them in a strange weird way that should rate this film as one of the great films of the cinema art. It is like watching mobsters in a way the painter Picasso viewed reality with his famous Cubism. In some ways it is Film Noir but in other ways it is comic and even romantic. If you want to see a different kind of crime movie that is well acted and whose meaning may be no more than the art of strange film or showing what creative film making can do, then catch this one.

If you are used to seeing Gabriel Byrne in serious roles such as Tom in Millers Crossing or Keaton in The Usual Suspects I recommend you take a look at this film. Even if you are not a fan of Gabriel Byrne in particular, all the actors in this film give really great performances. If you've got about eleven bucks (that is close to nine quid) I say order it online, or rent it from you favorite movie rental place. Guaranteed to make you laugh, whether or not you normally like gangster type movies. Mad Dog Time/Trigger Happy is one of those movies you never forget, and find yourself watching over and over. You will talk about it so much your friends will be begging to borrow it.