Boxoffice-March.1988

fooled by Bums's act and he threatens to send him back to
the slammer. But Bums finds a way out when he intercepts
one of Baird's phone calls, a call asking Baird to take over the
practice of Dr. Maitlin (Charles GrodinJ, a prominent Beverly
Hills psychiatrist and radio talk show host who is recuperating
from a nervous breakdown.
Bums escapes and goes to California, where he impersonates
Baird and is soon living the good life while giving unorthodox
psychological advice over the absent psychiatrist's
regular radio call-in show. Bums becomes an instant celebrity,
but his new status is jeopardized by a street person (Walter
Matthau), who recognizes the prison-issue pants that
Bums had been wearing when he arrived in L.A. and threatens
to expose him as a fraud. Bums spends most of the film
fighting to keep his cushy job and to develop a romance with
—
the gorgeous Donna Dixon, while Dr. Maitlin and the real Dr.
Baird try to dethrone him.
One weakness of "The Couch Trip" is the vaguely
sketched nature of Aykroyd's character. At times he seems
to be purposely humiliating his patients; at other times he's
supposed to be genuinely concerned. His behavior seems
guided not by any consistent character traits, but by whatever
the writers think would be goofiest- In fact, all of the
roles seem to be written this way, as if having "crazy" characters
freed the writers from the nuisance of using any kind
of logic. This sloppiness extends to the plotting as well,
which unflinchingly allows such absurdities as having two
characters fly from London to Los Angeles in roughly four
hours.
Grodin is a master at playing mild-mannered men who
become completely maniacal, but his efforts here are in the
service of sub-par material. Matthau has a few funny moments,
but his part is little more than a cameo (and, tmthfully,
the film would probably not have benefitted from more of
him). As for Aykroyd, his best moments come early in the
film; his scenes giving advice to his radio listeners are the
the funniest and are over much too quickly. Aykroyd can be
an extremely inventive performer, but his comic talents
have yet to be fully utilized on the big screen. Let's hope that
his next cinematic excursion is better than this "Trip."
The film is rated R for language. Eric Williams
and it's
even more depressing as we start to realize that he
just doesn't know how bad these films are. Which brings us
to "Rent-A-Cop."
Burt plays Tony Church, a sullen Chicago cop (sullenness
being the only mood that Reynolds can convey anymore). At
the beginning of the film he is trapped in the middle of a
drug bust that goes bad, and several of his fellow cops are
slaughtered. The massacre takes place in a ritzy hotel,
where Delia, a prostitute, is plying her trade when she accidentally
comes face-to-face with the killer. Delia, we should
reveal, is played by Liza Minnelli, complete with enough
wacky, kooky hooker outfits and grating mannerisms to
make you wonder who in the world would pay to be in the
company of this woman?
The rest of the story is self-evident: The killer begins
stalking Delia, so she enlists the protection of the sullen
Church, who was kicked off the force because of the killings.
As a botched oil-and-water romance develops between the
two, we're introduced to various nasties who populate Chicago's
mean streets. The nastiest is Delia's madam, played
with hilarious stiffness by Dionne ("Do You Know the Way
to San Jose?") Warwick. Liza Minnelli? Dionne Warwick?
Has Bob Hope's casting director been moonlighting?
"Heat" and "Malone," the two slight cop dramas that Reynolds
starred in last year, were epics compared to this
astoundingly bad film. The frisky banter that is supposed to
draw us to Burt and Liza has the grace of a duck full of
cement, and the action is lumbering when it isn't unintentionally
funny. Toward the end, Delia — who has a microphone
hidden on her — is captured by the killer and driven
off in a van. With Church on the receiving end of the microphone
and giving chase, Delia makes small talk with the
killer by asking things like, "Gee, why are we driving north on
Lakeshore Dnve^" Why not just ask for his address and home
phone number and save us all a lot of time?
Reynolds has developed a genuine hatred for film critics,
and he tends to imply that he's doing quality work while they
continue to pick on him for no real reason. But if a restaurant
critic had been served the dietary equivalent of "Rent-A-
Cop," he wouldn't just write a bad review. He might die.
The film is rated R for language and violence.— Tom Matthews
RENT-A-COP
Starring Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnc.lli, fames Remar and
Richard Masur.
Produced by Raymond Wagner. Directed Jerry London
Written
hy Dennis Shryack and Michael Blodgett.
A Kings Road release. Action, rated R Running time .95 min
Screening date: 1/6/88
Suppose we were to start a fund to pay Burt Reynolds to
not make movies anymore? It's not that we wouldn't miss
him; we like Burt. He has provided us with some fun and
memorable moments at the movies. But whatever knack he
used to have for picking good projects and then turning in an
enthusiastic performance within that project has completely
left him. It's getting to be downright embarrassing to see
this (seemingly) nice guy trapped in perfectly awful movies.
R-23 BOXOFFICE