(This review originally appeared online at Bumscorner.com in 2006.)
After suffering through FORGET ABOUT IT (2006), that's exactly what I wanted to do. It's advertised as being "from a producer of AS GOOD AS IT GETS and JERRY MAGUIRE", but he must've been lost in the shuffle since IMDb lists about twenty executive, associate, and co-producers with their fingers in this pie. Maybe they just wanted a lot of people around to share the blame. Anyway, they should've gotten the producer of GET SHORTY instead, since that's the kind of movie this one desperately wants to be.
Michael Paloma plays a portly wiseguy named Nitti who steals four million dollars from Don Giovanni (also Paloma, doing a bad Brando impersonation) and disappears into the witness protection program. He's relocated to a desert resort community in Phoenix, Arizona, where his new neighbors are retired oldster pals Sam, Carl, and Eddie (Burt Reynolds, Robert Loggia, and Charles Durning). Before long, they stumble upon Nitti's buried stash and start living it up along with their gal pal, former Vegas showgirl Christine DeLee (Raquel Welch), until the wiseguy gets wise.
In one sequence, the three geezers visit a nudie bar and throw wads of cash around, gaining the full attention of all the girls and angering some faux bikers who feel left out. As we've already learned from ARMAGEDDON, there's always a gang of faux bikers who get mad when you throw too much money around in a nudie bar. But not to worry, because these are three tough old coots and they beat up the bikers. Really, it's just as funny as it sounds.
Meanwhile, a Mafia hit squad led by tough-guy Richard Grieco and a duo of greedy FBI agents with the hots for each other are zeroing in on Nitti's location, and we just know that when all these various characters converge it's going to be a real melee. Not a funny melee, though--just your standard unfunny melee. I don't think anything funny actually occurs during this entire movie, except maybe the parts where Burt and Raquel perform "Dueling Facelifts."
If you're one of those people who shout "Oh, boy! Richard Grieco!" you may enjoy the parts that he's in. Fan fave Tim Thomerson shows up again (he seems to be doing that a lot lately) as one of them cowboy-hat-wearin' car salesmen. There's even a brief, thankless cameo by legendary comedianne Phyllis Diller, who probably wished she were back doing a crappy Bob Hope comedy instead. Guys like Bob Hope knew how to make crappy comedies that looked pretty good and were sorta funny. Even some of today's lowest-budget indy filmmakers are turning out comedies better than this with far less resources and no big names.
Technically, FORGET ABOUT IT is subpar in every respect. BJ Davis directs it with less finesse than one of those comedy specials that Don Adams and Don Rickles used to churn out. The camerawork and lighting are dreary. Even the editing is bad--shots are stacked on top of each other like Jenga blocks, and with each new scene comes yet another blast of overbearing music to convince us of how funny it is. There's a shootout at the airport in the closing minutes that actually might've been slightly cool if that awful music weren't there to pound it into the tarmac.
None of the lead actors really put much into their characters, and you can hardly blame them. Burt coasts on his usual comedy persona at its most casual. Raquel, still lookin' good despite the obligatory surgical enhancement, isn't going for an Oscar here. The fine actor Charles Durning seems lost most of the time in a role that doesn't give him much to do besides look old. For his part, Robert Loggia tries to put some spark into this clunky story, which is no less than you'd expect from the only man alive tough enough to challenge Ben Gazzara as King of the Universe.
All in all, this has got to be one of the lamest comedies I've ever seen, and I've seen AT LONG LAST LOVE. It makes DELTA FARCE look like a Marx Brothers film. If you happen to spot FORGET ABOUT IT lurking on a video store shelf my advice is to do exactly what the title suggests. I wish I could.
Buy it at Amazon.com
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