"Dad, the goat kicked your Geo's ass." -- Big Trouble

Here's a sleeper film that was tragically swept under the rug for events outside its control.

Big Trouble is a star-studded screwball comedy based off Dave Barry's book of the same name. Anyone familiar with Dave Barry knows that he's got a penchant for the absurdities and exaggerations, and this film has a dearth of both. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and showcasing the acting chops of Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, Johnny Knoxville, Janeane Garofalo, Jason Lee, and Andy Richter (with cameos from Barry Sonnenfeld, Martha Stewart, and Dave Barry himself), this sucker is rife with talent.

It starts by introducing the characters, using the voice of Tim Allen's character (Eliot Arnold) as the omniscient narrator, pausing the action from time to time to let the voiceover catch up. The movie splices in bits and pieces here that both get us up to speed and set the frantic pace of the movie. And boy is it ever frantic. It throws memorable character after memorable character at us until we almost drown in weirdos (not a bad thing, mind you). In short, the movie starts in Miami with Eliot Arnold working at his own two-bit advertising agency, Puggy (a homeless man who looks like Jesus with a Jones for Fritos and "Martha Stewart's Living") arriving via boat in search of good Cuban food, Henry Desalvo and Leonard Ferroni getting off a plane with the intent of assassinating Arthur Herk (a pompous perverted prick), and Snake Dupree and Eddie Leadbetter (a couple of ex-cons) just tryin' to get by. The number of characters increases exponentially as the movie progresses until it becomes prudent to start taking a tally. Like always, I don't want to spoil anything for you, so I'll just say a few more things about the plot: hunting rifles, goats, and cowboy boots with a "W" on them.

This movie is laughtastic. Literally everything and everyone is, in some way, just a little bit "off" and you never quite acclimate to this storm of satire, this flurry of funny. Fun is poked at everything from toad hallucinogens (and the effects therefrom) to Gator fans, from Russian arms dealers to private security officers. Although the movie shellacs everything in absurdity, many styles of humor can be found here: satire, parody, slapstick, witty dialogue, obscene wordplay, and others. It's a funny movie, capische?

But despite its great virtues, this movie bombed (no pun intended). Why? Simple. It was originally set to debut in December 2001, but it makes fun of airport security and culminates with a nuclear bomb danger. The producers felt that the humor would perhaps strike a raw cord after the September 11th tragedy, so they sat on Big Trouble for a year, publicized it little, and left it in theatres for a very short time.

Acting: 3/5 water pistols (It was ok, I guess).
Sound: 4/5 telephone cords (The music was form-fitted to the movie).
Visuals: 4/5 airplane doors (Well done all around. Creative camera angles, fun use of the "pause" button, and good special effects all have their cameos).
Humor: 5/5 Super Soakers (A splitter of sides).
Story: 5/5 heavy metal suitcases (For madcap speed and sheer ridiculousness, you'll find no better. I love it).
Special Features (DVD): 2/5 police cruisers (Sadly scant. We're given a commentary track, an 8 minute version of the movie, and two movie trailers).

Overall (not necessarily determined by the above categories): 4/5 Ugly Fish (Great fun).