Jeffrey Jones

  • Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989)

    Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, March 2021) John Candy doesn’t step all that far away from his screen persona in Who’s Harry Crumb?, playing a bumbling private detective who eventually rises to the occasion in the face of adversity. It’s strictly on rails as far as John Candy comedies of the era go, an impression reinforced by obvious casting (Annie Potts looking amazing? Jeffrey Jones as a villain? Who could have seen that coming?)  Candy’s character loves to dress up as part of the job, which is a perfect excuse for movie-quality costumes and quirky accents. The similarities with Fletch are there, but it’s somewhat more slap-sticky than the Chevy Chase films. The result is not bad — even if your appreciation of the result will depend quite a bit on how you feel about John Candy’s roles in general, this one is enjoyable on its own terms, and the advantage of a bumbling-gets-better comic arc is that it ends on a moment of triumph that compensates for quite a bit of exasperating buffoonery. (It would have been better if his character had been consistently clever throughout the film, but those are the conventions of the subgenre.)  Some lines of dialogue are surprisingly good in a film mostly concerned about physical comedy. While nowhere near a classic, Who’s Harry Crumb? still works reasonably well even in the crowded bumbling-detective subgenre.

  • Mom and Dad Save the World (1992)

    Mom and Dad Save the World (1992)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) It’s possible to be kind to Mom and Dad Save the World on purely theoretical grounds, but only to a point. If, like me, you like the idea of comedy being created out of the collision between the sublime and the ridiculous, there’s plenty to like about the premise of the film. Here, an utterly typical middle-aged couple is swept up in interplanetary intrigue when the authoritarian leader of an alien race is smitten by the very average looks of the wife (Teri Garr, embracing an unglamorous mousy side of her we didn’t suspect existed) and kidnaps her as she’s off to a weekend outing with her husband. Once transported to another planet, it’s up to her husband (Jeffrey Jones, also going for full-out Barbecue Dad characterization) to escape the clutches of the evil stereotype, join the resistance forces, rescue his wife and save the world. Intended to be ridiculous from the get-go (including its Flash Gordonesque production design), Mom and Dad Save the World does make a lot of mileage out of taking a grandiose science-fiction plot and smashing it to bits with dumb comedy. The primary weapon here would be Jon Lovitz, who brings everything down a few levels with a hammy, typically obnoxious performance as the housewife-loving alien dictator. Lovitz is a tricky actor to unleash even on his best days—his persona often leaps into irritability, and this film is no exception. As a result, while Mom and Dad Save the World may be clever on paper, it’s more of a chore to get through than most people would expect, accounting for its lack of box-office success and a reviled critical consensus. It could have been better in different hands and with a subdued or absent Lovitz… but that’s not the film we have here. There’s some mild interest in having a family film featuring parents are heroes (even despite the premise being based on alien lust for earth women), but the potential is largely unrealized beyond the log-line. There’s a long list of films to watch before making your way to Mom and Dad Save the World.