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Double Take |
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Mild-mannered Wall Street banker Daryl
Chase is unwittingly sucked into the
high-stakes world of international drug
trafficking in the shoot-em-up/buddy comedy
Double Take. It begins when Daryl
notices an unusually large deposit by one of
his company’s south-of-the-border clients. He
makes the mistake of telling the bank
president (one of many characters whose
loyalties aren’t what they seem) and soon
finds himself on the run, framed for the
murders of two police officers. Before Daryl
can get out of New York City, a two-bit con
man named Freddy Tiffany adheres himself to
the frightened fugitive like toilet paper on the
bottom of his shoe. Freddy is annoying, but he
has the street smarts to complement Daryl’s
Harvard education. The men trade clothes
and personas and set out for Mexico
where they hope to get the whole mess
straightened out. To do so, they must elude
the FBI, CIA, border guards and other
suspicious authority figures brandishing
automatic weapons. How surprised Daryl
must be when he discovers that Freddy is
even higher on the "most wanted"
list than he is.
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positive elements: There’s not much
about the "heroes" or their
behavior that is especially noble. Still, the
movie vilifies the right bad guys (brutal thugs,
drug traffickers, officials on the take, etc.) and
wants to see justice prevail against them.
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spiritual content: In the opening
scene, a neon cross in the background reads,
"Jesus Saves." A passing
comment finds the profane, perverse Freddy
referring to himself as a Christian.
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sexual content: No sexual
activity, though Freddy makes several
crude references to intercourse. Daryl’s
girlfriend is a runway model who appears
along with her colleagues parading skimpy
lingerie at a fashion show. Freddy owns a
wristwatch with a bare-breasted woman on its
face. An attempt to act cool leads Daryl to tug
his crotch in the direction of a passing female.
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violent content: Vehicles and
buildings are strafed with bullets. Flurries of
gunfire leave quite a few people dead. A
high-ranking Mexican official is assassinated.
A federal agent is shot in the head at
point-blank range. A bad guy shoots himself in
the foot, then accidentally empties a pistol into
himself as he tumbles down a flight of stairs.
People are attacked with knives. A man is
crushed by a falling chandelier. Empty squad
cars are blown up by a rocket launcher. An
inert woman appears to have been murdered
(we learn later that it was just an act). One
man is thrown from a moving train.
Elsewhere, characters rough each other up,
and several people are bitten by a dog.
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crude or profane language:
Incessant. No f-words, but just about every
other profanity in the book gets screen time.
Over 100 instances include misuses of God’s
name and more than 30 s-words. Daryl gives
Freddy the finger.
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drug and alcohol content: The drug
cartel is portrayed negatively—as an evil
empire with deep pockets and the ability to
corrupt greedy American officials. Armed
hoods load bags of cocaine onto an airplane.
Freddie makes a crack about rolling someone
up in a "blunt" (a hollowed-out
cigar filled with marijuana). A number of
characters smoke cigars. Daryl and Freddy
consume beer, cocktails and Colt 45.
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other negative elements: Some
viewers will object to jokes that pander to
racial stereotypes. Mexicans wade into Texas
where they are met by border guards.
Southern white folk are tone-deaf,
shotgun-toting "crackers." Freddy
relies on various urban/hip-hop cliches in his
ghetto posturing and uses the n-word to refer
to fellow African-Americans. He also calls
women "b--ches." All come across
as more demeaning than humorous.
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conclusion: This film tosses a whole
bushel of Hollywood formulas into a thresher
and hits the juice. The buddy cop movie. The
"road" picture. The
highbrow/lowbrow identity swap.
Unfortunately, it does nothing to improve on
any of them. Double Take’s plot is both
obvious and muddled. Upon entering this
88-minute maze, the exit is so obvious that the
only surprises are red herrings and illogical
twists that offer mere distractions before we
get the expected conclusion. Jones (The
Replacements, Fox’s Mad TV) and
Griffin (UPN’s Malcolm & Eddie)
give it the college try, but don’t have the best
chemistry or much to work with. Even so,
harsh language and a significant body count
are it’s biggest drawbacks (it wouldn’t have
taken much more in either department to
bump Double Take out of PG-13
territory and earn it an R rating). Take comfort:
If you choose to skip it, you won’t be missing
much.
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