Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Review: Overboard (1987)

Director: Garry Marshall
Starring: Kurt Russel, Goldie Hawn

This movie starring Kurt Russel and Goldie Hawn is a little more than I expected...although certainly not that much. It's about a hard-assed, fun loving Kurt Russel - I mean, construction worker, who is hired to make a cabinet for this snobby rich bitch played by Goldie Hawn. She's exuberantly over the top and not at all believable, and this isn't helped by the fact that the movie just brushes over her character without clearly defining it. Long story short, she snubs Russel, throws him off her ship and refuses to pay him any money. What a whore.

Well, karma comes-a-knockin' and she soon falls overboard too, losing her memory somehow and washing up on shore in small-town Elk Cove, a place she never would've visited otherwise. Russel decides to kidnap her and make her his "wife" so she can do the housework and take care of the kids to pay off the six hundred bucks she owes him.

See, that's a stupid idea for a plot. I was not excited at all when I first started watching this movie, and the silly, amateurish dialogue and weird-ass comedy didn't help. But I kept watching and sure enough, I see why people like this movie. Its strength mostly lies in the characters, as Russel and Hawn - real life husband and wife - do wonderful jobs at carrying the story and selling it to the audience. Maybe they're not the best actors in the world, but they work for this movie, and you really get to feel for them, as well as Russel's kids.

It's really not a great movie, but it's alright for what it is. It's solid and entertaining and actually gets a lot better, funnier and more interesting as it reaches the middle and end of the movie. Although I still have to wonder how the fuck Hawn's mother didn't know where she was if her husband did. That's a plothole that needs some cement, stat.

No comments:

Post a Comment