Education is something that shouldn’t be underestimated, which is a lesson learned by the protagonist at the beginning of Kuffs, 1992 action comedy written and directed by Bruce A. Evans. Protagonist, played by Christian Slater, is George Kuffs, irresponsible young man from San Francisco who never bothered to finish high school. Lack of qualifications means limited job prospects which never concerned fun-living George until the moment his girlfriend Maya Carlton (played by Milla Jovovich) told him that she was pregnant. Burdened by guilt and penniless, George reluctantly begins to consider job offer from his older brother Brad (played by Bruce Boxleitner), owner and manager of Patrol Special, private security force that serves as civilian auxiliary police. Before he is able to make his mind, Brad gets killed by Kane (played by Leon Rippy), vicious gang leader who is behind the series of robberies in the neighbourhood. George inherits Brad’s business and, instead of selling it, decides to run it in hopes of avenging brother’s murder. Police captain Marino (played by Troy Evans) appoints Officer Ted Bukovsky (played by Tony Goldwyn) to supervise his activities. Two men don’t get along well, but George nevertheless discovers that Kane is in cahoots with Sam Jones (played by George De La Peña), slimy businessman who want to buy Patrol Special as a cover for his own criminal enterprises.
Critics didn’t like Kuffs because they considered it too derivative and somewhat too obvious attempt to exploit last ounces of Christian Slater’s status as teen idol. At first glance, this film is indeed hardly original and it seems that milks various 1980s cliches and tropes, ranging from anti-establishment protagonist whose crime fighting agenda is very personal, use of automatic weapons and explosions and “buddy cop” subplot. What sets this film apart from other films is Evans’ clear intention that this film shouldn’t be taken seriously. It is evident even in the first scene when Slater dances with Milla Jovovich in underwear at the tune of Timbuk 3 song “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”. To underline his point, Evans even allows protagonist to address audience directly and serves as some sort of semi-ironic Greek chorus. There is even a scene in which one of characters’ dialogue is deliberately bleeped as some sort of commentary on absurdities of PG-13 rating and increasingly rigid censorship standards of 1990s Hollywood. Although his character is not particularly realistic or convincing (with visit to shooting range conveniently discovering his great natural talent with guns), Slater does what he can with the role and makes it likeable enough. Milla Jovovich appears relatively little in film and serves as nothing more than an eye candy, with more serious and demanding roles being set in her future. Character actor Leon Rippy, on the other hand, is quite menacing as vicious killer with unusual fashion sense, while ballet dancer George De La Peña slightly overacts as yuppie villain. Kuffs isn’t deep nor even well-written (there is a surreal suicide scene that looks so absurd that Evans had to later explain it through expository dialogue), but in the end serves its purpose by providing relatively short and easily digestible entertainment for less demanding audience.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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