Miami Blues

Plot synopsis:
Frederick Frenger, Jr. (who asks to be called "Junior"), a violent psychopath recently released from a California prison, starts a new life in Miami. Before leaving the airport, he steals luggage and kills a Hare Krishna after breaking his finger.
Junior checks into a hotel and hooks up with Susie Waggoner, a naive prostitute who is a student at a community college. They become romantically involved and take a house together, with Susie blissfully unaware of Junior's criminal activities and harboring fantasies of living happily ever after.
An investigation of the Hare Krishna murder leads grizzled cop Sgt. Hoke Moseley to come knocking on their door. Moseley shares a home-cooked dinner with the couple, upon Susie's suggestion, and plays it cool while seemingly indicating to Junior that he's on to him. He overtly suspects Junior has been in prison and wants him to come to the police station for a lineup. Being a proactive criminal, Junior goes to Moseley's home the next day, assaults him, and steals his gun, badge and dentures.
One interesting scene is when Junior is with Susie and she is busy taking a bath and working on a haiku. He decides to break into a nearby apartment. He steals a Desert Eagle handgun and a steak. As he is doing this, he speaks aloud a haiku of his own, "Breaking entering. The dark and lonely places. Finding a big gun".
Junior begins using the badge, demanding bribes as rewards after breaking up robberies, only to keep the loot for himself. He's highly enjoying his new role as criminal with a badge and the perks it holds for him.
Susie happily cooks for him. While at a grocery store, Junior witnesses an armed robbery and decides to break it up. He lectures the gunman about avoiding a life of crime, but the gunman runs a truck over him. Junior complains to Susie that the "straight life" has made him too soft.
Moseley tracks down the couple through a utility account opened up in Susie's name. He pretends to run into her at the grocery store, where they swap recipes. After she lies that she has left Junior, Moseley tells her that Junior is a murderer and that he and the police are looking for him.
Back home, to test whether he will lie to her, Susie deliberately ruins a pie by adding too much vinegar to it. To her disappointment, Frenger compliments the dessert and eats it with gusto.
The next day, Junior asks Susie to drive him around town on errands. Their first stop is a pawn shop, which he robs. In the course of the robbery, the pawnbroker chops off several of Frenger's fingers before being killed by him.
Badly injured, he limps to the car, but Susie drives away upon realizing what he's done. Moseley pursues him to the house, where he shoots and kills Junior. Junior, being ironic with his last words, tells Moseley, "Susie's gonna get you, Sarge." Susie then arrives and Moseley asks why she stayed with him for so long. She explains that he ate everything she ever cooked and never hit her.

Tags: tragedy, cult, neo noir, murder, violence

Review:
They're usually hysterical!!Anyway, there is some violence, some 'dark' comedy (e.g. Ravindra!), etc., but overall, I think this movie was very entertaining and a nice offbeat surprise with some great performances and lines.
"Miami Blues' is a pretty unusual film about a charming psychopath played by Alec Baldwin(in what could be his best role yet), who beats up an outsider detective(Fred Ward),steals his badge and dentures, and shacks up with a sweet simpleton hooker(Jennifer Jason Leigh).
See this movie for Alec Baldwin and the crazy character he plays, because it's a role you won't soon forget!.
It's pure entertainment, one of the fastest-moving 97 minutes you will find, thanks to a good combination of violence and humor.The three main characters in here are all low-life scumbags but interesting and definitely fun to watch.
Alec Baldwin plays a psycho thug and exhibits a good flair for comedy, which he has pursed several times in movies after this one.
Alec Baldwin walks away with quirky crime picture, having the time of his life.
Then Baldwin is off and running through Dade and Broward Counties, stealing wallets and identities, staging impromptu holdups, and running giddily amok.Tired old cop Fred Ward picks up his scent, and even shares a meal of many brews and Leigh's pork chops with the couple.
and entertaining movie, though, in NO WAY do I consider this a comedy.Excellent performances by Baldwin and Ward, but especially Jennifer Jason Leigh.
It's got enough interesting faces in its supporting cast to help it make an enjoyable cult-favourite type of film.Alec Baldwin plays psychopathic hoodlum "Junior" Frenger, who arrives in Miami intending to "start over", or in his case simply move on to a new assortment of victims.
(He begins by messing up a Hare Krishna in an airport.) He hooks up with Susie Waggoner, a sweet, simple minded hooker played by the endearing Jennifer Jason Leigh.
A tough homicide detective, Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward, good as always) follows his trail, but gets victimized himself when Junior gets the drop on him, and steals Hokes' gun, badge, and false teeth.
Junior then has the time of his life pretending to be a cop, while entering into a domestic situation with Susie."Miami Blues" does get fairly violent sometimes, but if this sort of thing doesn't bother you, you can have a good time with this story and these players.
You can be or do anything you want, said Sartre, and you can break all the rules -- as long as you're willing to take the consequences.In "Miami Blues" the Belmondo part is played by Alec Baldwin, a guy fresh out of prison who has chosen a life of wilful disobedience.
Fred Ward, looking grizzled and great, is a homicide detective whom Baldwin clobbers and whose identity he steals.I don't know why certain things happen.
Alec Baldwin plays a recently released sociopath murderer and thief who manages himself to steel a police badge in Miami.
Fred Ward also does a great job playing the cop desperate to recover his badge from Baldwin.
This movie greatly shows Baldwin'versatility, and kind of makes me thing of a much lighter version of Henry; Portrait of a serial killer, in the way that both movies deal with leading characters that even thought their morals are highly questionables (they kill and steel just for the kick of it) they are not entirely unlikeable to the audiences witnessing their acts.
Living with his wife (under a lie) Jnr starts to live out the life as a cop AND a criminal while Moseley tries to get him.I've seen this film a couple of times and still am not 100% sure what it wants to be, a comedy, a violent crime thriller or a mix of both.
A charming thief named Junior (Alec Baldwin) embarks on a romance with a hooker named Susie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a young, naive Southern gal, in this offbeat character study by director George Armitage.
I also question why the lead detective, a rather hapless guy named Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward) feels compelled to have dinner and engage in social chitchat with Susie and Junior.A couple of plot sequences were hard for me to watch because of the graphic violence.
I liked the music, which included "Spirit In The Sky".Despite a weak script, "Miami Blues" is worth watching once, mostly for the really fine performances of Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh..
MIAMI BLUES (1990) ***1/2  Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Fred Ward, Charles Napier, Obba Babatunde, Nora Dunn, Paul Gleason.
For most of the film the detective he plays is beat-up and helpless, leaving little time for any positive character development.Baldwin and Ward are both good working actors, but Jennifer Jason Leigh is great.
I don't like his hair in this film, it's cut too short on the sides.Alec plays this weirdo ex-convict and the film consists of him just kind of going around robbing and beating up people.He takes up with a hooker, a rather plain-Jane girl who must have been born with the word stupid stamped on her forehead.The cop is looking for Alec after Alec kills a Hari Kirshna who was pestering him at an airport, by breaking his finger.
This was never explained.The cop befriends Alec and Susie, the hooker, and even stays for a supper of pork chops, behavior that struck me as a little odd.The killing and robbing continue with Alec after he manages to relieve the cop of his badge, along with his false teeth.The only thing I can figure is that this was supposed to be some kind of comedy crime caper, only it isn't particularly funny.
It stars Alec Baldwin, Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Charles Napier.
Hooking up with gullible prostitute Susie Waggoner (Leigh), Frenger, by now under suspicion for the killing of a Hare Krishna man at Miami airport, steals the identity of the policeman investigating him and ups his crime spree...This is all about the characterisations, for the story is simple and played as a darkly comic hard boiled cop picture.
And with Leigh and Baldwin also making good on the characters as written, this is very much worth a look for the acting performances.It's not under seen or under valued, the respective ratings on internet sites and critical appraisals are about right.
In this quirky, little gem, Willeford's characters come alive as they are so well portrayed by Alex Baldwin (Freddie), Fred Ward (Hoke) and Jennifer Jason Lee (Susie).Hoke Moseley is a recurring lead character in other Willeford books but this encounter with Freddie will be most memorable for viewer and reader.
Full of rough violence and noir situations, but played mostly as very dark comedy.Alec Baldwin is very good indeed as a killer sociopath who somehow is also very likable when he's not robbing and beating people.
And Jennifer Jason Leigh underplays to great effect as a pretty, dumb hooker, who falls for Baldwin, and doesn't figure out just what kind of dangerous, crazy guy he is until very late in the game.
That said, it doesn't add up to a lot emotionally, Leigh's role is underwritten, and there are several gaping logic holes the film just ignores (Ward has dinner early on with Baldwin and Leigh, clearly knows he's a criminal, but just leaves?!?)But - those flaws noted - I've seen it twice, and fully enjoyed myself both times..
But the comedic elements didn't work for me; I guess I was just never in sync with its sense of humor.I was much more interested in Jennifer Jason Leigh's character, of the three (Ward and Baldwin are certainly no amateurs).
Alec Baldwin displays the marks of genius here, over the top, beyond the fringes of insanity and then he pulls back from sociopath to sweet, chummy boyfriend to his thespian equal, Jennifer Jason Leigh, who plays the dim-witted,sweet girlfriend forever to endearing believability.
"Miami Blues" takes the glamour out of Miami in the 1980's Alec Baldwin shines as "Junior" in this offbeat, quirky, action/crime/comedy adventure.
Charles Napier, a welcome Demme mainstay, is in a peripheral role here as a colleague of Wards' Mosley, but he's just one of many familiar faces that show up unexpectedly throughout the film."Miami Blues" is a unique blend of comedy, and action crime thriller that will get your attention with it's visual flash, and hold your interest with its well paced plot and odd characters.
Suzy coming into Fred's life seems unexpected to him, but it gives him something to work toward, the American Dream.Fred Ward plays an at times pitiful Sgt Hoke Moseley.
He plays a cop and all of the scenes with him and Baldwin's Junior are pure gold, it's just a great rivalry what we have with these two.
One of the great scenes in this movie is Jennifer Jason Leigh's defense of her husband's good qualities.I just watched the 1970s BBC drama based on Trollope's 'Palliser' novels, and there's a remarkably similar character: Ferdinand Lopez appears as an 'adventurer' who, in the end, is a victim just like Junior Frenger.
Miami Blues is not the best movie I've seen but it's got an attraction to it.Here we got three fine stars, Alec Baldwin, Fred Ward and Jennifer Jason Leigh.Baldwin is the main character,a hardened criminal that on a murderous journey in Miami meets Leigh's half-witted prostitute and Ward's polic eofficer who is out to get him.They are all very good in their roles.Ward is unshaven, dirty and got false teeth which Baldwin steals from him along with his gun.Baldwin is pretty good as the bad guy,not excellent but ok and Leigh makes a good performance as a dumb callgirl.It starts out fine but as it goes on it gets somewhat ridiculous, laughable and violent.
Miami Blues follows Fred Fenger (played by Alec Baldwin) after his release from prison, and his almost immediate return to a life of violent, petty crime.
Like many 1990s movies made after Miami Blues (many of which are better), the film-makers establish a lyrical (and non-judgmental) approach to Mr. Fenger's one-man crime wave.
Accompanied by a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and chased by detective played by Fred Ward we watch Mr. Fenger stab, shoot, and bash his way across urban Miami.
Co-star Fred Ward (who also co-produced the film) shines as a seedy detective whose badge is stolen by a charismatic ex-con, well portrayed by a young, slim Alec Baldwin.
Their performances and that of Jennifer Jason Leigh, as a young prostitute who falls for Baldwin's character, have much more depth than normally seen in such action fare.
I wasn't sure if the movie wasn't a huge parody or what, but this is almost, you could say, Miami Vice played for laughs.Alec Baldwin, featuring a very odd hairstyle, I just couldn't place my finger one what it was..
While settling down in Florida, he picks up a perky call girl played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and is being hunted down by one sad sack of a detective, played by Fred Ward.I have no idea what happy juice Alec Baldwin was on at the time, but Mr. Baldwin is just plain scary in the movie.
Baldwin and Leigh never did better IMO-so I credit the director and screenwriter in particular.Ward's character will be with me forever as this guy isa genuine original and gives the feeling that the actorhimself created touches (such as the denture) which were quirky but not jarringly false.
I don't mind a black comedy, in fact I'm quite fond of them, so where are all the between-the-lines jokes in this mess.If it could qualify for anything it would be a crime movie based on character development, but the trick is they just don't develop a whole lot.
The three main actors are fine and if Alec Baldwin is not one of my favourites he is certainly good here as is the seductive Jennifer Jason Leigh and eccentric, Fred Ward.
This, to say the least, was a very interesting movie.Alec Baldwin (The Cooler, "30 Rock") plays a psychopath who pops into Miami and starts making a name before he can even get out of the airport.Krishna Ravindra (Edward Saxon): My name's Ravindra.
The movie is your regular action-comedy but features Alec Baldwin at his very best.
You gotta love a film that includes a burglary Haiku."Miami Blues" is a frumpy and sleazy movie, and I mean this in a good way.
Its great plot has Alec Baldwin playing a scummy manipulator fresh out of prison who hooks up with dumb-as-a-sack-of-rocks prostitute Jennifer Jason Leigh.
One thing leads to another and Baldwin is running around the grimey-est parts Miami, posing as a cop and stealing like a bandit.Baldwin snagged his badge from Fred Ward, a down-on-his-luck cop who also gets his false teeth swiped.
Alec Baldwin plays the ruthless killer with wonderful comic timing and Fred Ward's pursuing policeman is equally engaging.
I do not like to watch movies on TV because they cut a lot and stack the commercials so heavily at the end that you can never stand to see how they turn out--although missing the inevitable chase scene is good.But here we have some surprising play amidst the usual corrupt cops and big city decadence.
You can guess who gets what.Fred Ward plays a crusty detective whose gun, badge and dentures (!) are stolen by Baldwin.
(Alec Baldwin) flies to Miami airport where he steals a suitcase and gets hassled by a Hare Krishna devotee before casually breaking one of the guy's fingers in retaliation.
She's unaware that he's an habitual thief and that during his time in Miami; he's been carrying on business as usual.Detective Sergeant Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward), the veteran cop who's investigating the killing at the airport, comes to Junior and Susie's place because he says that Junior has been identified as a possible witness.
The assault on Moseley led to him being hospitalised but after being discharged, this previously laid-back cop becomes extremely determined to hunt Junior down and bring him to justice.This movie's run-of-the-mill plot is illuminated by its characters and Alec Baldwin gives a particularly energetic performance as the violent sociopath who's also an inveterate thief and a pathological liar.
Deception also features strongly in his modus operandi as he arrives in Miami under an assumed identity, indulges in a sham version of suburban life and masquerades as a cop.Jennifer Jason Leigh makes the naïve Susie a sympathetic character and Fred Ward is great as the sleazy, unshaven and cynical cop who's really struggling to cope but remains good natured despite being humiliated by Junior, ridiculed by his colleagues and having personal problems with his false teeth, alimony and indigestion.
It is witty, deep in their depiction of the characters, specially the ill-fated relationship between the incorrigible, still lovable (damn, he can't help but do what he does) Junior Frenger (Alec Baldwin) and the still more lovable, naive, loving Susie (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
(superbly played with riveting wired intensity by Alec Baldwin) gets out of jail and goes to Miami, Florida to embark on a crime spree.
Moreover, Freddy steals the gun, badge and false teeth from weary, hard-luck homicide detective Hoke Moseley (the always excellent Fred Ward in peak scraggly form) and starts posing as a cop so he can more easily break the law.
The film features a sociopathic thief named Junior Frenger, played with great relish by Alec Baldwin, who after murdering a guy in San Francisco, travels to Miami to seek some new victims to steal from.
He then moves to a hotel room and hires a dozy hooker, Susie (played well by Jennifer Jason Leigh, love the accent), who takes a liking to Frenger, who then moves in with Susie.
Soon after a haggard and world-weary cop, Hoke Moseley (great performance from Fred Ward), is on his trail.
Alec Baldwin moves to Miami, steals a cop's identity, falls in with a dizzy hooker and spends the rest of the movie committing a few random crimes and trying to evade capture from inept detective Fred Ward.
The gags fall flat, the story goes nowhere and it's instantly forgettable.Baldwin isn't convincing as the bad boy, Jennifer Jason Leigh is pretty good, and Fred Ward deserved better than this hokum.
"Miami Blues" is a great adaption of Charles Willeford's first Hoke Moseley novel.
The scene where Fred Ward as homicide detective Hoke Moseley and his cop buddy (Charles Napier!) crack jokes over the body of a murder victim while the victim's friend weeps a few feet away is priceless.Alec Baldwin does great work as Freddy Frenger, sociopath and ex-con, who immediately after his release from prison goes right back to beating people up and robbing them.
Leigh, Baldwin and Ward all do excellent work and the movie looks like it was as much fun to make as it is to watch.
One particular victim is a police detective named "Sergeant Hoke Moseley" (Fred Ward) who not only has his gun and badge taken from him but also his false teeth in the process.
I especially liked the performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh who was not only quite erotic but also seemed to be the perfect balance between both of these tough and hard-willed characters.
They were all very memorable.Alec Baldwin really nailed Freddie Frenger - what a change from the usually portly all American hero persona (like Dave Robicheaux in Heaven's Prisoners) to the nihilistic punk in Miami Blues.
Miami Blues is the first film based on Charles Willeford's series of novels featuring hard boiled detective Hoke Moseley.
~Spoiler~Alec Baldwin, looking like he was doing a guest stint on Miami Vice, plays one of his quirkiest characters in Miami Blues.
Baldwin ends up robbing Ward and steals his gun, badge, and even his false teeth.