Bulletproof (1996)

Simply A Masterpiece

Sadly Over-hyped

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Rock Keats (Damon Wayans) and Archie Moses (Adam Sandler) are petty criminals and best friends. It turns out that Keats is undercover cop Jack Carter working for a year to take down crime boss Frank Coltan (James Caan). The big arrest doesn't go as plan. Jack gets discovered and Moses accidentally shots him during the escape. It's a big bust but Coltan is not part of it. Now Coltan is after Moses for revenge. Moses gets arrested and agrees to testify against Coltan. Jack and Archie are not happy with each other but are forced to work together when Coltan's men come after them.This is trying to be 48 Hrs. with Wayans and Sandler. On the face of it, this should work. They are good comedians at the height of their popularity. Sandler is wisecracking while Wayans is being as angry as possible. It doesn't work. I actually like it at the beginning when Wayans and Sandler are buddies together. The bar fight is great and loads of fun. Everything after that is an unlikeable mess. I don't like angry Wayans and Sandler gets more annoying as the movie goes on. The characters don't like each other and I don't like them together.

Is Adam Sandler in an action movie? Was no one else available? Was he your first choice? On purpose? Is Damon Wayans an action star? Are you sure? Substance abuse can destroy a person's life, did they know that when they made this movie? I like to think about all of the States of the Union this movie wasn't filmed in, like for instance Mississippi, Florida, Wisconsin, Delaware, Kentucky, North Dakota, Ohio.... Most of this movie was made on a sound stage on some movie studio's property. Wealth and power collude to enshrine mediocrity, that's what are lives are sucked into, the sewer storm drain of society. The good news is at some point in time all of us will be forever dead.

I actually wanted to like Bulletproof, despite my general dislike for Adam Sandler, because I like buddy movies and James Caan is a great actor. I give Bulletproof some credit for some slickly shot shoot-out sequences, but other than that everything else feels wrong to me. When I think of a good buddy movie, I think of likable characters, juicy dialogue to savour and some dynamicism in the action sequences. Some people watching Bulletproof may find these things, and I do respect that, however for me what I found here was the complete opposite on all counts. I really didn't care for any of the characters, finding them clichéd and annoying, especially Sandler's character. In fact, I found myself rooting more for the villains, but wished there was more to them. Bulletproof just wasn't funny to me either, I love action movies with comedy when it is good, but apart from one or two mildly amusing parts the dialogue was corny and the jokes rather tasteless. There is nothing dynamic about the action sequences, they may be slickly shot but the way they are choreographed at times is inept and the complete lack of subtlety in the violence leaves a bad taste in the mouth afterwards. The story is predictable with very little coming across as truly thrilling, while all the performances fall flat. Sandler has definitely done worse and more irritating performances, but his performance consists of near-unintelligible mumbling and I found myself annoyed by his character right from the start. Damon Wayans fares better, having more charisma, but the dialogue is so lame, the chemistry between him and Sandler so forced and the character so clichéd, it comes across as a wasted effort. James Caan is a great actor, but the first thought that came into my head after finishing Bulletproof was, what on earth was he doing here? He tried, but deserved so much better. Overall, a movie I wanted to like, but apart from one or two small things it didn't deliver. 1/10 Bethany Cox

This film has a really weird mixture of genres - toilet humour and action in one. It doesn't really pull it off - it should have stuck to one genre. The best thing I can say about the movie is that the dog in it is cute.The most disturbing sequence is in the middle of the film when Moses (Sandler) and Carter (Wayans) decide to stop off at a hunting lodge/motel. I'm not quite sure what the point of this sequence is - it just seems gratuitous in the extreme. The proprietor of the hunting lodge ("Charlie") is a very nerdy looking guy. For some reason, Moses starts a conversation with Charlie about porno, jacking off, homosexual sex, sex in a threesome... Charlie's photo of his "wife" appears to be Charlie dressed in drag. There is no reason for this really juvenile dialogue and scene. Anyway, the whole scene seems to be directed to the moment when a naked Moses ends up with Carter's gun up his butt and Charlie sees them through the window. It all reeks of school boy humour about homosexuality - horrified and titillated all at the same time - which I don't find funny at all.I have a friend who is always raving about Adam Sandler movies. This is the first one I've seen - after this, I'm not sure I want to see any more.BTW, this is my husband's account - he's seen Happy Gilmore, and he tells me it's quite good - maybe I should give Sandler just one more chance.Countess Skogg