Gone Fishin’ (1997)
Gone Fishin’ -
Danny Glover——————————————————————————————–Gus Green
Joe Pesci————————————————————————————————–Joe Waters
Rosanna Arquette—————————————————————————————-Rita
Lynn Whitfield——————————————————————————————-Angie
Willie Nelson———————————————————————————————Billy ‘Catch’ Pooler
Nick Brimble——————————————————————————————–Dekker Massey
Carol Kane———————————————————————————————–Donna Waters
Edythe Davis———————————————————————————————Cookie Green
Directed by Christopher Cain.
Screenplay by Jill Mazursky Cody and J.J. Abrams.
This movie begins with two boys fishing in a polluted river and when one tries to smoke his father’s cigar he coughs too much. The other boy grabs the cigar and tells him he shouldn’t smoke. He throws the cigar away and when it lands, it ignites some liquid into flames which chases down a pipe back to an industrial park. The city is then without power for two days. This is our introduction to Gus Green (Glover) and Joe Waters (Pesci).
We fast forward 36 years and the two have developed a habit of leaving complete destruction in their wake (without realizing it of course). They decide to go fishing in the Florida Everglades and have their car stolen along the way. The culprit Dekker Massey (Brimble who gives a decent performance as the bad guy) has stolen money from the women he has married. Rita (Arquette) and Angie (Whitfield) are daughters of Massey’s victims and are seeking justice. Rita and Angie meet up with Joe and Gus together they chase their mutual enemy. I believe the effort was given but unfortunately the gags, painfully strained dialogue, and goofy situations just don’t translate to a funny movie.
When the movie finished and the credits rolled I was amazed to see J.J. Abrams name in the credits as a co-writer. This is one credit that he will never live down. According to Wikipedia the movies budget was 53 million dollars, which I thought was incredibly high.
There are a few moments in this movie where the actors are supposed to be scared and I thought that Danny Glover did an excellent job. Joe Pesci was less than his normally larger than life persona, but this movie does not have the material needed to shine. It probably looked funny on paper, but fell flat on film. If you feel like watching an old school film don’t let it be this one.
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Runtime: 127 Minutes
Production Budget: $53,000,000.
Box Office
Domestic: $19,745,922.
Worldwide: N/A.
CC Rating: 3 out of 10
Screenplay: I could not find the screenplay.
Directors’ Previous Movies: The Principal, Young Guns, That Was Then…This Is Now.
If you liked this try: Ruthless People, The Naked Gun, Burn After Reading.