Once Upon a Crime... 1992 by AverageMansReviews

Once Upon a Crime... 1992 by AverageMansReviews

Review Time

Warning: there is flashing effects/colourful effects/decomposing/animal cruelty/drugs/medical

Someone capture that dog! Oh now we are in line for a murder case of a person: briefly; we need some characters such as Neil and Marilyn Schwary [James/Jim Belushi and Cybill Shepherd:] a husband and wife that have been together for 10 years; Neil twice a year makes this journey to basically look at the latest fashion and then make cheaper knockoffs and he also has a system for the roulette wheel, his wife is quite submissive in the early stages anyway, they/we meet Augie Morosco [John Candy:] a retired/recovering addiction to gambling specifically the roulette wheel after he lost everything including but not limited to businesses, he is just purchased this dog from another pair of characters, all of these characters will eventually be suspects in the murder [and at some points we will meet our Director for this film; Eugene Levy as Casino Cashier.]

Generally speaking: the storyline/script is to begin with somewhat fragmented as we meet different characters in their own storyline and with the framework and pacing being I'm going to go with slightly eccentric as in you never know where you are going to go off next, so the comedy likewise has that eccentric feeling to things, I mean things at some point do have or find themselves in a better order of things which gives the comedy space to breathe a little bit before the next one coming element of it; in hindsight I get it with what they were trying to do; I believe that they were trying to make things disorganised for then later on so it could be verbally reconstructed in this investigation; which feeds back into the character developments of these suspects in the future so as I said earlier I get it; but at the time you may be thinking; what the hell are we doing? So broadly speaking I would say the framework and pacing of this; 94 minutes is good

Comedy and action; as I have already referenced; the comedy can be seen as eccentric but good fun, be it gambling at the casino; be it the ups and downs, medical situation and attempt of a fight or/and at one point or another dealing with a dead body and consequently this dog [which I should just point out the dog is absolutely fine he just gets placed on a bus] or/and this ongoing lighter situation or/and having to re-enact this escape; but clearly being too big to pull it off [because I am fully aware of the world we live in 2026; I am not body shaming, but at the same time that is the whole point of this particular skit/sequence of events.]

Character developments and performances; other than what I have already referenced; we have the old yet reliable outlay of at the heart of this film all these characters have their issues or/and needs hence why they are all involved in one way or another in this complicated adventure/crime and this is very much a cast performance all working off one another and being the biggest asset to this film by some distance, because without them this film would have absolutely fallen on its face.

This film receives: 8/10, this film is excellent; I think after all is said and done even though for a little while we have a very rocky beginning, the comedy, the enthusiastic nature and the chemistry of the cast really do hold this entire project together, there is an ongoing sequence underneath the ending credits and yes this film has 1 accredited award to its name, but unfortunately it is negative; Razzie Awards 1993 Worst Supporting Actress Sean Young: as Phoebe: she is another individual that participates in this wacky adventure/crime.