Being “edgy” can be quite beneficial for certain show business careers and open many doors, but it also can close many doors that would be opened otherwise. Controversial stand up comic Andrew Dice Clay learned that the hard way at the zenith of his popularity in late 1980s and early 1990s. An attempt to start career of a film star in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, 1990 action comedy directed by Renny Harlin, failed despite having major studio and legendary producer Joel Silver behind it. Instead it became one of the most notorious flops of its time, with its bad results often interpreted as general audience’s unwillingness to digest Clay’s shock comedy in feature film format.
The film is based on the stories published by Rex Weiner. The protagonist, played by Clay, is Ford Fairlane, self-styled “Rock n’ Roll Detective”, a Los Angeles private investigator specialised for work related to the city’s music industry. Fairlane seems to have good life that includes mingling with stars, visiting hottest clubs and bedding hottest women, but his finances leave much to be desired, since his clients instead of money pay him with various exotic gifts like pet koala. This will begin to change with the series of events starting with spectacular death of Bobby Black (played by Vince Neil, singer of heavy metal band Mötley Crue), frontman of Blague Plague band who apparently succumbed to drug overdose while performing at concert. Soon afterwards, Fairlane is hired both by his old friend, shock jock Johnny Crunch (played by Gilbert Gottlieb) to find young woman called Zuzu Petals (played by Maddie Corman) who is supposedly his daughter. Johnny gets electrocuted by assassins and afterwards rich woman named Colleen Sutton (played by Priscilla Presley) also wants Fairlane to find Zuzu. Fairlane starts investigating, helped by his loyal assistant Jazz (played by Lauren Holly) and the trail leads towards sleazy music label owner Julian Grendel (played by Wayne Newton). Before he solves a mystery, Fairlane would also have to deal with goons led by psychotic English killer Smiley (played by Robert Englund).
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, made with a decent budget and with subject that could appeal young segments of the audience, not only had terribly underwhelming results at the box office, but was also savaged by critics and ultimately got Razzie for Worst Picture. This “achievement” is quite extraordinary, because the film was directed by young Finnish film maker Renny Harlin and released a week after another of his films, Die Hard 2, which actually became monster hit and one of the most successful titles of its time. In many such cases, too much criticism can be at the end of the day as unjustified as too much praise. The Adventures of Ford Fairlane isn’t an exception. It’s not as bad as its initial reputation (later altered into something of minor cult status), but its failure nevertheless can be connected to its main star.
The main problem with the film is that Andrew Dice Clay tries too much to make protagonist as undistinguishable from his “Diceman” character from stand up comedy performances. He uses fake Brooklyn accent, makes annoying sounds after each joke and tries very hard to make Fairlane as unlikeable as possible. His characters swears a lot, treats people like him, especially women, with disrespect and many of his jokes aren’t that particularly funny. It takes a lot of patience and understanding, something that most of audience will have in insufficient supply, for this film to be properly enjoyed. Thankfully, Harlin as director knows what he is doing, especially in spectacular action scenes that often provide black humour and compensates some of Clay’s shortcoming as a comic. Film is helped by an excellent cast, with many of its members having a ball playing noirish stereotypes, especially Wayne Newton as villain and Richard Englund as psychopathic hitman with English accent. Film has some good music, including Billy Idol’s song “Craddle of Love” that became massive hit, and even Clay proves himself as an accomplished rock’n’roll singer with song “I Ain’t Got You”. The plot is at times too complicated and satirical jabs on music industry are too weak. Some viewers could be disturbed with nastiness of some scenes that feature people being killed in unpleasant ways or cruelty towards animals. On the other hand, at the end quality of humour and script improves, especially with some interesting twists involving characters played by Englund and David Patrick Kelly. This could be enough to make The Adventures of Ford Fairlane entertaining enough to be recommended for less demanding viewers.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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