BEFORE: The weather has been cooperating - meaning that it's been insanely hot the last few days, but at least it's provided the perfect backdrop for last night's film, set in the Florida Keys, and tonight's film, set in Jamaica (?) Once again, Denzel Washington plays the chief of police...
THE PLOT: When police officer Xavier Quinn's childhood friend, Maubee, becomes associated with murder, The Mighty Quinn must clear his name. Or try to catch him, which could be even trickier.
AFTER: This film was based on an old Bob Dylan song of the same name, but I seem to remember that the Mighty Quinn in the song was an Eskimo - so right off the bat, we've got some continuity issues... Is setting the film on a tropical island meant to be ironic, or was it just a much more enjoyable place to shoot a movie?
I'm just not a fan of reggae music, so that's two strikes against the film right off. I can't decide what's worse, the music or the fake "Yah, mon" accents that the cast were forcing. Should I find this offensive? I'm not sure. Denzel's accent seems to mysteriously disappear when he sings a blues song in a bar though. But I guess he's spent time in the States, so maybe that's where he learned to sing?
Tonight, it's not the cop being framed, it's his childhood friend, Maubee - at least, that's what Quinn suspects, but can he prove it? A mysterious murder leads to a very complicated explanation - I'm not sure it made justifiable sense in the end.
Also starring Robert Townsend (last seen in "The Meteor Man"), Sheryl Lee Ralph, Mimi Rogers, Esther Rolle (last seen in "My Fellow Americans"), and character actor M. Emmet Walsh (last seen as the swim coach in "Ordinary People")
RATING: 4 out of 10 Red Stripe beers
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