Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageThe Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)
Director: Renny Harlin
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A poorly streamlined vehicle for America's prime exponent of the Comedy of Hate, Andrew Dice Clay, this expensively empty action comedy is as much fun as a car crash. Shortly after Heavy Metal superstar Bobby Black (Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe) gets fried alive on stage, 'rock'n'roll detective' Ford Fairlane (Clay) is hired by rich bitch Colleen (Presley) to find bubble-headed groupie Zuzu Petals (Corman). When 'shock jock' Johnny Crunch (Gottfried) also gets his plug pulled, Ford starts looking for someone with lots of juice. That's it on the plot level, so the rest is padded out with Ford playing rock'n'roll (badly), driving flash cars, cracking wise, talking dirty to women, or standing around like a spare dick at a wedding while Die Hard 2 director Harlin smashes up cars, blows up buildings, and mistimes every comic scene. Worse still is the Diceman's cynical attempt to soften his bad boy image; he still comes over as a racist, homophobic, sexist asshole who mistakes sentimentality for true feeling.Author: NF
Cast & crew
Director: Renny Harlin
Producer: Joel Silver, Steve Perry
Cast: Andrew Dice Clay, Wayne Newton, Priscilla Presley, Morris Day, Lauren Holly, Maddie Corman full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 104 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now