The Big Kahuna (1999)

Am I Missing Something?

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A marvellous film covering many different subject areas. It is minimalist as most of it takes place in a hotel suite. It's a business convention where three salesmen (Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli) are selling a product. In short, they are trying to get a big monetary sales deal going with one client. Only their young cohort (Peter Facinelli) manages to encounter this customer, but the conversation gets side-tracked and the deal never goes through. I won't let you in on the details – but this leads to many an encounter – some of them quite impassioned.There are several areas covered – friendship, the nature of work, youthful and older employees, and religion – all of it in a very real and direct way. For a film with such a broad spectrum of topics bordering on the philosophical, it never becomes pretentious or wordy. The script lifts this film into several intense confrontations. The actors enhance all this - particularly Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito. Their performances are magnetic and really something to behold.

Set in a single hotel room, Danny Devito, Christian Bale, and Kevin Spacey, discuss aging, faith, and what it means to be a salesman. All actors at the top of their game, Christian Bale as the young conservative Christian newlywed on his first assign meant, Kevin Spacey as the middle aged jocular fast talker(similar to American Beauty), and Danny Devito as the suicidal old goat, ready to throw in the towel. Religion and Business clash, and boil over in the films final moments, and best of many dialogs.Like all single setting films, this resembles a play, however with oneiric fantasies of the characters as they'd like to see themselves, keep the movie afloat.I can't really think of anything I didn't like about this movie

Only the other night whilst watching an episode of Taxi did I remember seeing a film with Kevin Spacey and Danny Devito about six years ago, there was just one problem, I couldn't remember what it was called, hours turned into days, sleepless nights became more sleepless and I still couldn't remember, but I did remember thinking it was rather great. Well imagine my surprise upon venturing into my local poundland and finding a movie called Big Kahuna featuring, you guessed it Kevin Spacey and Danny Devito, with the biggest grin on my face, the feeling that I'd achieved a minor accomplishment, a 12 pack of Dorito's and some scented bin liners I approached the checkout, paid and promptly headed home. A pound, one whole English pound for a movie I would gladly pay twenty for any day, because this is truly a great little movie, granted not much really happens and settings nothing new, but when you've got such fantastic performances from a fantastic cast there can be no complaints, Dany Devito has rarely been better, this disaffected soul is genuinely someone you can feel for and completely side with, Kevin Spacey is, well Kevin Spacey and lets face it that has never been a bad thing, every time he talks you listen, Peter Facinelli gives a very subtle but no less engrossing performance, but on the whole the real star is Roger Rueff, the script is just beautiful with great line after great line flowing from the mouths of a great cast, it really makes you want to see it on the stage. This is a great little film that any self respecting film fan should at least give a go. I'm heading down to Poundland to buy up the remaining copies and I'm gonna hand them out to my friends.

Terrific existential angst study done by two of the best actors working today, Kevin Spacy as desperate Larry and Danny DeVito as worn-out Phil.... long time salesmen buddies hoping to make the one big killer sale that had eluded both of their mediocre careers to date and that would make everything seemingly right again. The location for the film was exactingly placed in a bland hotel in bland Wichita, Kansas, a worthy stand-in metaphor for the nothingness of existence where the great things of life are in very short supply for these two good friends who are impatiently waiting for the fabled company president Dick Fuller to arrive to provide that life saving big sale that would give them new purpose and reason to feel good about themselves again. Who would ever guess that a big order for industrial lubricants could do that? Transferring very intelligent and talky plays to the screen often doesn't work well, but when it does it is magical and deeply involving. It worked so very well here, and intelligently so, as Spacey and DeVito were wonderful playing off each other as salesmen friends so familiar that talk between them was almost like talking to oneself, or at least to one's wife. It was obvious that they loved each other as well as most marrieds do, as much of their dialogue was similar to that of a married couple, and the story's diverse philosophical meanderings that ranged from marketing to religion to love to marriage to character and to, of course, the meaning of life and the real value of shrimp versus cheese ball snacks, were all the more effective due not only to the well crafted script, but also due to the world-weary resignation of the lead characters playing off their near opposite, a wet-behind-the ears, young company research newbie named Bob who was oddly sent with them to the convention. Bob was innocently sincere and mostly good hearted, but at the same time was cocky and smug about things he knew almost nothing about but thought he knew so well. His gently delivered, but harsh and well-earned comeuppance at the end from DeVito's Phil was the one great thing that I knew all along was coming, and I was so glad when it came down hard on this naive, supercilious, and self-righteous member of the fundamental religious right. But sadly, as he dumbly disagreed with his comeuppance details that were so obviously dead on, Bob was not at that time wise enough to know that he had so much more to learn over the years before he could claim possession of any appreciable amount of human character. From this, such familiar feelings were surely evoked in all of us who once happened to be similarly young and naive as Bob is here. And, as it turned out the same way as in much of real life, the "big sale" was not made. Or.... was it? Truly a philosophical thinking person's film and one to be seen again and again for full value.There was a bit of resolve in what served as an epilogue, as it showed that these three ended up pretty much the same as they began, but somewhat tweaked for the better. Hopefully, like we all do.