Kuffs

'I'm only going to stick around until I clean up the neighbourhood,' announces reformed rebel George Kuffs (Slater). He lives on the mean streets of San Francisco where, we learn, it's customary for police districts to be sold off to private enterprise. After witnessing the death of his cop brother (Boxleitner), Kuffs inherits the family patch and sets about finding the killer. It's hard to believe that the writing team behind the beautifully understated Stand by Me concocted this hotch-potch, which mixes buddy-cop-thriller with rites-of-passage drama with slapstick farce. Amid the explosions and pratfalls, Evans (making his directorial debut) and Raynold Gideon throw in direct-to-camera monologues in which our hero comments on the action: this is as useful as Elmer Fudd analysing a Bugs Bunny escapade, but less funny. Granted, both characters and situations are deliberately exaggerated; but the romantic subplot, which sees Kuffs baulking at commitment (to Jovovich) also fails to ring true.