Downtown
Movie #1
Date Released: 1.12.1990
Date Watched: 5.7.2020
Reaction:
The movie has its problems, for example the chemistry between the characters and the characters themselves are created with some intention but only achieve a hollow form. But, I will admit, I was a bit surprised by the relevant themes of this ‘comedy’ from 30 years ago. A white, privileged cop, working in the suburbs of Philadelphia, crosses the wrong rich constituent and gets assigned to downtown. There he encounters the disparities between the rich and poor parts of town, black and white worlds, and the assumptions police make about each.
It is both sad and amazing how much this movie reflects the current wave of anger over racial disparity and, in particular, the police’s role in that. It seems we have not come far in 30 years and one can imagine why anger and frustration have fomented over that time. Perhaps if these types of movies were not placed in the ‘comedy’ section, someone may have paid attention.
Needless to say, this little experiment started off a lot different than I expected. This little comedy, about which I had personally never heard, digs deep into the haves and have nots. It has a few funny moments, which are actually more just clever little details (like an article Joe Pantoliano is reading that has a block in the middle that just says ‘Hypertext’ ‘Footnote’ ‘Footnote’, as he goes on a tangent about the Soviets’ advantage when it comes to creating biospheres (not worth getting into this nor does it become relevant to the movie.)
Comedy #1 down. Many, many more to go.
Very timely in terms of current social issues
Not all that funny
Pretty violent
Great actors, middling writing
Seems like not a cheap knock off of Lethal Weapon, but a middling attempt to dig into deeper racial issues
Good soundtrack (Beach Boys, Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock, Kool Moe Dee)
Publishing notes:
These blurbs will get a lot shorter in time
I forgot that when I started this I was only looking for comedies, but I changed course during year one to include any movie I was willing to watch
Also starring Rick Aiello, son of actor Danny Aiello
