Murphy's Law (1986)

Touches You

Sadly Over-hyped

Memorable, crazy movie

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Jack Murphy is an antisocial cop. Things are not good for him, he's just killed the brother of a mobster, and is now marked for death. His wife left him and is now a dancer, and when she shuns him, he drowns his sorrows in the bottle. And if that isn't enough, someone is stalking him, and kills his wife to frame him. Murphy is arrested and is handcuffed to a young street kid, whom he arrested earlier. They escape and Murphy tries to find out who did this to him.....If your familiar to the Bronsan movies of the eighties, especially the ones made by Cannon,,you know exactly what your in for. A short movie, with typecast Italian villains, Pretty grim violence (the air stewardess still gets me), and Bronsan shouting brilliant one liners.But wow, Arabella McGee, has the best one liners ever committed to film. It's as if the scriptwriters have left her part for their teenage sons to write, because she literally says the most immature put downs every couple of minutes.Suck on a door knob Donkey breath Whiskey breath, are just a few of the crackers, and they never fail to make me laugh.The actual plot is pretty good for the genre, and although the main villain channels Sondra Locke in Sudden Impact a little too much, she still convinces.All in all its a brilliant, cheesy action movie, that never fails to entertain.Plus it's the best movie ever to feature a man trying to stop a car by throwing shopping at it...

Murphy's Law (1986) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Violent and foul-mouthed actioneer from Cannon has Charles Bronson playing a tough cop who is framed for the murder of his ex-wife and her new lover. The real murderer (Carrie Snodgress) just happens to be a psycho he put away years earlier but Bronson must break out of jail (with sidekick Kathleen Wilhoite) and prove his innocence. This certainly isn't high art but fans of Cannon and Bronson are certainly going to have enough to make this thing worth viewing. Not only do we have Bronson being his usual tough self but we also get some pretty graphic violence, outrageous fights, a strange killer, nudity and just all sorts of whacked out craziness. We get that type of thing in several Bronson titles but the original idea here is teaming him up with a female sidekick who just happens to have a very foul mouth and is constantly coming up with new insults to throw at the star. I'm certain the potty humor is going to make many role their eyes but Wilhoite is so good and delivering it that I found it rather funny. Even Bronson himself seems rather amused by it because he's a lot looser here than in many of these Cannon movies. He even cracks a smile a couple times and it almost seems like it was real. This is another winning character he delivers and he's everything we want from Bronson and that's just rough and he doesn't care about anyones rights. Not only does he have to track down this psycho female but he must also battle some gangsters and this here leads to one of the most outrageous scenes where he has to break into the apartment and beat the guy to a living pulp. Thompson handles the material quite well even though we never really get any suspense or anything like that. He at least keeps the film moving at a nice pace and things certainly never get boring even with the longer than normal running time.

Murphy's Law: If anything could possibly go wrong, it will. Murphy's Second Law: Don't mess with Jack Murphy. (Substitute the usual word for 'mess.') Murphy's Law is a lot better than some people would have you believe. Yeah, yeah, it's a Charles Bronson film from the Eighties, a period when a lot of film enthusiasts sniffed that Bronson was little more than a stuffed dummy who phoned in his performances. Bronson is one of those actors who make condescension drip from the lips of some cineastes. Charles Bronson was no typical Hollywood actor. He didn't have to be. With that worn-out, weary, tough face he could set a scene just by being there. Bronson was Bronson, and we knew the kind of taciturn, honest, relentless character he'd be. Bronson was a private man, kept to himself, was realistic about his talents and proud enough to deliver the goods. With all that said, you either kind of like his star movies, or at least some of them, or you kind of don't. Murphy's Law is one I like. Jack Murphy is a police detective on the downslide. His wife, a stacked stripper at a gentlemen's club who fancies herself a dancer, has just divorced him. Murphy doesn't want to let her go, drinks himself into a stupor most nights and shows up for work with stains on his rumpled suit and bad breath. Then his wife is killed and he's arrested for her murder. Jack Murphy knows he must find out who the real murderer is, so he breaks out of jail. While he tries to identify the killer, the killer bumps off one person after another who helps Murphy or who was associated with him. Early in the movie we know who the killer is (this is no spoiler), a psycho named Joan Freeman (Carrie Snodgrass). Murphy put her behind bars ten years ago and now she's out. She's ready for some wet revenge. She leaves corpses in her wake. She pumps iron with a vengeance. She smokes. She's also handy with a garrote, a cross bow and a pistol. Never, never take a bath with her. With just this as a plot Murphy's Law might have been an efficient, violent and reasonably entertaining Bronson movie. What I like about it is the gimmick -- the relationship between Murphy and a foul-mouthed young thief named Arabella McGee (played by Kathleen Wilhoit). Murphy had been handcuffed to Arabella at the stationhouse after he was arrested. When he broke out he had to take her along with him. A movie cliché? Sure. I think it works because of Murphy's tough stoicism and Arabella's creative and energetic profanity. There's nice chemistry between Bronson and Wilhoit. Wilhoit looks more like a tomboy than a cutesy starlet, more a gamin rough around the edges. She's a good actress and holds her own with Bronson's screen charisma. When the handcuffs finally come off thanks to Arabella's lock- picking skills, she decides to stick around with Murphy. If he can clear his name, he'll clear hers as being an accomplice in the escape. And off they go, with Murphy now fighting a three-front war. Freeman is after him. A cop who hates his guts is after him. And a mob smoothie he beat up is after him. The climax is a rough battle between Murphy and Freeman in a dark, gloomy building already loaded with some of her corpses. Arabella proves useful. Murphy proves capable.

Veteran detective Jack Murphy is a highly wanted man, after being framed for the murder of his ex-wife, he escapes and sets off in pursuit of the real killer. But Jack not only has the killer to occupy his mind, he also has the mob hoping to bring him down as well.Murphy's Law is a very enjoyable and tidy thriller, it finds Charles Bronson in a role that requires a cool veneer, that he delivers is something of a given to this particular viewer, but the unflustered nature of the character actually lifts this film above many of Bronson's other 80s efforts. The plot is simple, and some of the dialogue comes heavy with a slice of cheese, but the set pieces stand up, and here we have a female villain worthy of the title. Carrie Snodgress is the lady in question and, although underused because of Murphy's other plot strands, she puts gusto and menace into the role of the vengeful Joan Freeman. A running plot strand involving Murphy and Kathleen Wilhoite's youthful, and foul mouthed Arabella McGee, only hinders the film instead of enhancing it, tho the simmering sexual tension between the two does makes for an intriguing arc, and it definitely helps the film's finale deliver the goods with added impact. Perhaps I'm being over biased towards Bronson? But I honestly believe that this film is seriously undervalued on internet sites, enjoy it's cool leading man and take in a great female villain-even if she is sadly under written. 7/10