Pure Comic Genius

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2011)

From the wonderfully crafted opening sequence i knew i was in for one and a half hours of side-splitting hilarity, and this movie delivered in every possible way.
The cast is fantastic with Costner playing a cardboard cutout, De Nero and Garcia as parodies of themselves, Charles Martin-Smith as a superhero mild-mannered accountant who changes instantly into a combat veteran the moment he touches a weapon, and Connery playing James Bond who time-traveled into the past and is working deep undercover as an Irish beat-cop with a Scottish accent just to throw everyone off track.
The costuming is great, with De Palma throwing a curve-ball by dressing everyone as a gangster movie cliché except Connery, who he dressed as an Irish potato farmer.
The dialogue is very well written and brilliantly satirises the more 'serious' gangster films that were so popular at the time. That the cast delivered this dialogue with stony straight faces is truly a credit to them, as lesser actors might have been tempted to overact, lessening the impact.
The plot is outstanding - it doesn't unfold - it explodes in your face, covering you in the director's trademarked warm corn syrup. A particular highlight is a certain death sequence which moves the plot along with skill and finesse rarely seen on the big screen.
De Palma's direction is brilliant in its strict defiance of originality. Every scene he shoots is refreshingly over-the-top obvious and no stereotype or convention is left unused.
The real stroke of genius comes towards the end of the film where De Palma - for absolutely no reason relating to plot or character development - uses the 'Odessa Steps' sequence from Battleship Potemkin, for a full 9 minutes. Complete with sailors getting shot. All the while managing to avoid even the slightest hint of tension.
Finally, Morricone's soundtrack fits the film perfectly. It's incredibly cheesy, at times wholly inappropriate, and all the while rooted firmly in the 80s.
It's a film that has to be seen to be believed.