Back to Back... Tsukimi burger joke not included

Back to Back: 5 out of 10: Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it a sequel? (American Yakuza 2?) Is it a rip-off of Pulp Fiction? Why it is all these things and more.

Too silly to be a crime drama and too serious to be a comedy; Back to Back is all over the map. What can you say about a film with both the always super cool legend Ryo Ishibashi, kicking and shooting it old school,and Bobcat Goldthwait exploding in the same movie?... heck this movie has them in the same scenes.

Yes watching Bobcat go all Islamic Jihad is worth a rental at least. Moreover,the cast such as Fred Willard, Tim Thomerson and Stephen Furst actually behave themselves. Leland Orser practically gives a one-man show as wheelchair guy. (Seriously, he could have had an Off-Broadway monologue with that character.) The blood squibs and bullets get a good workout and the movie has some decent action scenes.

So why not more love from moi? Well the script is all over the place. The good news is if you are bored wait five minutes and it is practically a different movie. (A father daughter comedy, no a kung-fu action er, no a one-man drama, no now it is a stoner film... make up your mind dammit.)




The film also commits some cinematic sins. First, if you purposely hide the identity of Mr. Big until the end, he had better be a character we have already met or a Frank Sinatra cameo. Second, if you already have an R rating, why are the dancers in the strip joint fully clothed. Last,there is nothing cheaper than the ethnic character that idolizes Elvis.I hate that crap. Especially when the soundtrack is filled with a twanging as if we were in 1950’s Arizona not 1990’s L.A... If I wanted to see a bad Nicholas Cage film I would have rented one, (There are plenty to choose from after all.)




Bottom line defiantly worth a look and it is entertaining but certainly not something I would go out of my way to see. Well except for the Bobcat explosion.



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