Hulk Hogan, professional wrestler and one of the greatest icons of machismo in 1980s American popular culture, tried to expand his stardom on the big screen. The most ambitious of those efforts was Suburban Commando, 1991 science fiction comedy directed by Burt Kennedy.
Hogan plays Shep Ramsey, intergalactic warrior who just thwarted the evil schemes of General Suitor (played by William Ball). The work wasn’t Shep’s best and his superiors order him to take vacation, with the most convenient destination being Earth. He lands in Los Angeles where architect Charlie Wilcox (played by Christopher Lloyd), unable to win promotion from his hypocritical boss Adrian Beltz (played by Larry Miller), tries to improve his family’s finances by renting part of home. Shep comes and takes the offer and soon Wilcox family learns that their tenant, apart from formidable physique, has certain issues when it comes to interacting with people around him. Wilcox children, however, like the strange new member of the family and Shep gradually adapts to new surroundings. However, when Charlie accidentally takes in possession of Shep’s advanced tools, he inadvertently sends signal to Suitor who would send bounty hunters to take out Shep.
Script by Frank Capello was originally developed for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito (who rejected it in favour of much more successful Twins). With Hogan and Lloyd as second choices and with (then) minor studio New Line Cinema producing, Suburban Commando was interpreted as minor league Hollywood effort by critical establishment and that might explain almost unanimous panning and poor box office results. While the film had its set of issues, this fate wasn’t completely deserved. Direction was given by Burt Kennedy, Hollywood veteran whose speciality had been western comedies and for whom Suburban Commando was last feature film. His work here is adequate, providing the film with good pace, short running time and keeping the cartoonish violence within boundaries of family-friendly content. Humour, which is based on Hogan’s intimidating physical presence and “fish out of water” situations, works best in the first half, but varies in quality, with some gags being brilliant and some, like in the epilogue, disappointing. Hogan, while hardly a great actor, does a solid job in relatively simple role and keeps good “buddy buddy” chemistry with Lloyd, great character actor who apparently loved opportunity to play straight man in comical duo. The rest of the cast also does solid work, even in sometimes thankless roles like Shelley Duvall as Charlie’s wife or Jo Ann Deering as Belzer’s secretary. In the end, like with so many Hollywood comedies at the time, emphasis on humour is replaced with more reliance on pyrotechnics and special effects. Suburban Commando, despite its flaws, can still provide plenty of entertainment for the audience, especially those who are younger or big fans of Hulk Hogan.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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