Hickey & Boggs (1972)

Load of rubbish!!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

There are several things which are attractive from this film.The pairing of Robert Culp (also directing) with Bill Cosby again. They were very good on televisions I Spy and are just as good here.The nostalgic look at the LA Colesium with footage of a 1972 Rams-Falcons game including Rams Punter Pat Studstill and some vintage Dodger Footage, Culp sneaking in a line from one of the female co-stars telling Cosby he has a bad sense of humor.The action is pretty good and the photography are strong. The plot while predictable is OK. There is a lot of gunfire but not as much blood as the Clint Eastwood films of the same period.Film noir from the 1970's.

The guys from I, Spy are back and "it" hits the fan. Hickey and Boggs are two long in the tooth private investigators on their last legs, physically and financially. They get a case that seems like a good deal to make a few bucks. Then they uncover some things that the really, really bad guys do not want uncovered. The more the bad guys try to get them off the case the harder they press. Then one of their families is murdered as a warning and they go methodically ballistic. Now they are looking not for information but for some people to kill. Also featured is Bill Hickman, one of Hollywood's most sought after stunt drivers and the driver of the black Charger in "Bullitt." You never saw Bill Cosby portray a quiet family man turned into a methodical, cold blooded killer. Don't miss a chance to see it.

This is a warning for any memorabilia collectors. Any posters, lobby cards etc....that have a second sentence below the tagline are FAKES!!!! I have originals.....This was showing when I worked at the local cinema... Anyway....if a poster has the sentence "They hold their forty four magnums...." IT IS A FAKE - that was never on the originals. For one thing....Albert Hickey (Cosby) the ex cop....used a plain old Colt .38....Franklin Boggs used a Smith & Wesson model 27 .357 magnum. Yes it was a big gun...but neither used a 44 and Bob Culp would never have allowed anything as hokey as that line on the poster. Beware the websites that sell movie stuff....one big one has a cute little gold seal to attest that everything is "authentic" An authentic RIPOFF!!!!

Walter Hill wrote the deliciously knotty and fatalistic script for this marvelously gritty private eye mystery action thriller with the unlikely (and possibly incredible) duo of Jason Robards and Strother Martin in mind for the leads. Instead, the familiar "I Spy" team of Robert Culp and Bill Cosby wound up playing the titular rumpled, cynical, tight-lipped and terminally luckless desperate and destitute detectives for hire, a couple of rundown and weary inconsequential losers whose seemingly simple and straightforward case involving a missing rich girl ties in with a suitcase full of mucho stolen mob money and a bunch of dangerous, not to be trifled with gangsters who are willing to use any brutish means necessary to get their hot loot back.The wonderfully easy'n'breezy chemistry between Culp and Cosby effortlessly carries the picture from start to finish. Culp's laudably crisp and assured direction scores a completely on-target bull's eye with the resolutely hard-boiled, tough-minded and no-nonsense harsh tone in particular; this is the kind of top-notch rough'n'tumble modern-day film noir affair where several innocent bystanders are unfairly killed and everyone connected with the stolen bucks ends up getting their violent just desserts by the movie's thrilling conclusion. Peppered with a splendidly sharp line in sardonic humor, punctuated by three stirring shoot-outs (the first in an empty baseball stadium, another in a parking lot, and the last one on a beach), immensely enlivened by a sensational supporting cast filled out by such always welcome folks as Rosalind Cash, Michael Moriarty, Vincent Gardenia, Ed Lauter, and James Woods, and topped off with one of those quintessentially 70's amazing downbeat defeatist climaxes, this simply super sleeper overall rates as one of the finest, most shamefully neglected and undeservedly undervalued crime features from the 70's.