Starring: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Beverly D'Angelo, Charles Durning, Robert Stack Directed By: John Cassavetes Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Sony Pictures Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 99 Release Date: July 22, 2003 Running Time: 93 minutes Theatrical Release Date: May 30, 1986
Product Description: Get set for Big Trouble and double indemnity when Peter Falk (TV's "Columbo") and Alan Arkin (The In-Laws) reunite as a wacky pair of insurance swindlers. Beverly D'Angelo (American History X Vegas Vacation) aids and abets the inspired lunacy in director John Cassavetes' riotous farce. The trouble and the laughs start when insurance man Leonard Hoffman (Arkin) decides to send his three sons to Yale. To raise cash Leonard gets drawn into a bizarre scheme by Steve Rickey (Falk) and his screwball wife Blanche (D'Angelo). But their plot to collect an "accidental" death policy gets sidetracked by a series of hilariously unforeseen twists. Can these unlikely allies pull off the sting before they get stung? Falk and Arkin pile up big laughs as they get deeper and deeper into Big Trouble!System Requirements:Running Time 93 MinsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 043396103627 Manufacturer No: 10362
Amazon.com: The last film directed by John Cassavetes, Big Trouble reteamed some of the creators of the much funnier The In-Laws. But despite another script by Andrew Bergman, and a cast that reunited Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, this comedy doesn't live up to its predecessor. A spoof of Double Indemnity, the film casts Arkin as a nervous insurance agent faced with huge college tuition bills for a trio of sons headed for Yale. To make extra money, he gets involved in a scheme with a woman (Beverly D'Angelo) trying to kill her husband (Falk). That the whole thing turns out to be an adventure in insurance fraud shouldn't come as a surprise. Despite an inconsistent script, the chemistry between Arkin and Falk can still produce the occasional laugh. --Marshall Fine
Behind-the-scenes info for Cass buffs For a fascinating behind-the-scenes info about Big Trouble and a list of books about Cassavetes' work, go to Ray Carney's website dedicated to John Cassavetes (found through any search engine).
Falk and Arkin Can't Miss. Be Prepared to Laugh The In-Laws is the standard, but there are scenes in this one that I still can't get through without choking laughter 15 years later. This movie goes beyond off the wall in some spots, and the cast gets it done. It's all about Arkin, Falk, and of course, Richard Libertini in an "In-Laws" like wacky role. No cerebral stuff going on here, but you'll laugh throughout. Find this movie somehow. You won't be sorry
Cassavetes fans, don't bother. This film, as far as I know, is the "real" last film Cassavetes directed -- not LOVE STREAMS, alas, though that makes a much more fitting final movie. Cassavetes was probably trying to generate funding for a film biography of Django Rheinhardt he was preparing to make (which, of course, he never did get to); either that or he was doing a favor for his friend Peter Falk. In any case, the film has NO bearing on Cassavetes other work. You'll see no sign of his touch at any point, and little sign that he particularly cared about the project. It plays through as a mediocre commercial comedy, poorly written and not very funny. It's professionally done -- but that's about it. Don't even be curious.
hilarious...on the order of "The In-Laws". Falk/Arkin great! A follow up (but not a sequel) to the comedy "The In-Laws", Peter Falk and Alan Arkin pick up where they left off. A lighthearted comedy about an insurance salesman (Arkin) who unwittingly gets caught up in a scheme by Falk and his wife, played by Beverly D'Angelo. Many twists and turns in this classic! You will long remember the highway scene, the nose reconstruction, the drink, the kidnapping, the drugstore, the train, the homeless man, the adjuster. 4.9 stars
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