Good ol’ boys on the take in New Orleans with Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin

This has the office camaraderie of Burt Reynolds’ “Fuzz” from fourteen years prior meshed with the milieu and more serious tone of “Cat People,” Eastwood’s “Tightrope” and Gere’s “No Mercy,” the latter of which came out just months before this. “Cop Land” was obviously influenced by it a decade later.

It’s rich with the ambiance of NOLA, including Cajun, zydeco, R&B, and gospel music in the soundtrack. Many praise Quaid’s thick Cajun accent while others view it as overdone. I side with the latter but, then, I tend not to care about accents in movies, so it’s all good (for me). It just seems Dennis’ head detective comes across too convivial, but this can be explained by the fact that Quaid later admitted to being coked-up during the shoot in which he was only sleeping one hour a night. Nevertheless, both Dennis and Ellen consider this the favorite of the many films they've made.

While it was overpraised at the time of release and I’d watch “Cat People” and “Cop Land” over it any day, it’s superior to “Fuzz” and certainly worth checking out for those interested. Aside from the amusing (and sometimes grisly) dramatics, not to mention Barkin’s beauty, I liked the insightful commentary on legalism: If you want to get technical about it, people break laws every day, like jaywalking. But what if you ARE the Law? Where do you draw the moral line? How much is too far? Where is the proverbial point of no return?

It runs 1 hour, 41 minutes, and was shot in New Orleans.