Friday 9 October 2015

The Big Kahuna
Dir: John Swanbeck
1999
***
 Adapted from Roger Rueff's play Hospitality SuiteThe Big Kahuna deals with the themes of honesty, love and religion through the actions of three industrial lubricant salesmen who try and lure an important CEO to their hotel room during a convention in Wichita, Kansas. The dialogue comes only from the three main characters who are played perfectly by Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli. The idea is fairly satirical, the story, delivery and pace is often over-dramatic, almost like a cheap soap-opera or kitchen-sink drama. The story gets a little ridiculous too but all three actors play it straight and the script is always sharp and thick with metaphor. However, it is a one trick pony that gets tiresome quick. The performances and script are always good but it never really gets anywhere and is somewhat predictable. It's a little too subjective for my tastes and I can't help but think it probably works better on the stage as it was intended. There are a couple of golden scenes within the film that I adored but these were always at the cost of twenty minutes of repetition.

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