Bird on a Wire (1990)

	Directed by: John Badham	COUNTRY USA GENRE Action/Comedy NORWEGIAN TITLE Midt i siktet RUNNING TIME 110 minutes
	Produced by: Rob Cohen
	Written by: Louis Vnosta David Seltzer

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Rick Jarmin	Mel Gibson
Marianne Graves	Goldie Hawn
Eugene Sorenson	David Carradine	½
Albert Diggs	Bill Duke	½
Jow Weyburn	Stephen Tobolowsky
Rachel Varney	Joan Severance
Lou Baird	Jeff Corey

Review

The action-comedy genre was arguably close to its zenith when John Badham took a trifling, almost unwritten script, assembled Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, and crossed his fingers that star power would suffice to make a good film. It doesn't quite, but to the extent that Bird on a Wire actually works, it is because of Gibson and Hawn's charisma (if not chemistry), and a carefree and fun mood that makes this a partly enjoyable experience. When it is not enjoyable, however, it is excruciating, with tacky, tasteless action scenes in which menacing, cardboard bad guys keep spraying and chasing our ever-fleeing couple with a variety of guns and vehicles. It would have been ultra-violent had it not been for the fact that the bad guys are clinically unable to hit their targets. If you enjoy an endless array of virtually plotless chases, Bird on a Wire will probably work well for you. If not, it offers the odd useful scene here and there and a handful of great laughs. Hawn looks incredibly good in one of her last films as an eye-catcher.