Stand-up comic Andrew Dice Clay takes on a different identity -- that of "rock-and-roll detective" Ford Fairlane, a Sam Spade in the body of an Elvis impersonator -- but he takes along his same Brooklyn braggadocio. This gives a revitalizing new slant to the generic rudeness and smart-assiness of the hard-boiled private eye, as well as to his customary first-person narration ("I felt like I'd just played water polo in a urine tank"). But the film is too indulgent of, deferential to, enraptured with the man, to allow him to emerge as an autonomous character. Not to mention (what with the mechanical koala, the runaway coffin, etc.) too damn silly for it to matter. With Lauren Holly, Wayne Newton, Priscilla Presley, and Ed O'Neill; directed by Renny Harlin. (1990) — Duncan Shepherd
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