I remember watching Freebie and the Bean as a kid and I even remember the short lived television series and I found the film to be enjoyable. I can recall a climactic scene when one of the cops takes on a kung fu kicking cross-dresser. However in later years I came across some extremely negative reviews and decided to re-watch this film after a few decades.
This is a freewheeling film that is a sort of a cross between of MASH and Dirty Harry. James Caan and Alan Arkin play two off beat San Francisco cops trying to take down local crime boss Red Meyer who his also being targeted by a hit-man. In the opening scenes we see them emptying his trash into their car boot to look for evidence.
As the story goes on the plot meanders, at one point we have prolonged scenes where Arkin accuses his wife of cheating on him at other times the story is confusing. The film is an early example of the buddy cop film and also has high levels of gun toting violence, police brutality and zany car chases which must have inspired The Blues Brothers.
I still enjoy some surreal elements of the film such as the scenes Caan and Arkin have with Alex Rocco in his office and the anarchic style is enjoyable to an extent but too often it descends into silliness at the expense of plot development.
However one thing noticeable was the amount of shootings in this film. These two guys make Dirty Harry look like a pacifist. They just brandish their weapons with no regard to the term reasonable force and at times so many ordinary members of the public are put into danger when they are about.
The other issue is the casual racism, homophobia and sexism in this film. I understand the film is of its time so certain derogatory terms are expected but did actress Valerie Harper really had to be listed as 'Beans Wife' in the title credits? Harper plays a hispanic character who is made to look rather brown faced. Then again Arkin is as convincing as a Mexican origin cop as Charlton Heston was in Touch of evil. The blame for all this has to be laid at director Richard Rush to be so behind the curve.
Still the film is fun, Arkin and Caan make a good team and have some good banter. It is actually Arkin who is unpredictable even though he is more cautious compared to the gung ho Caan.
However the similar themed Busting that came out at the same time, which starred Elliot Gould and Robert Blake now looks like to be the better film.
This is a freewheeling film that is a sort of a cross between of MASH and Dirty Harry. James Caan and Alan Arkin play two off beat San Francisco cops trying to take down local crime boss Red Meyer who his also being targeted by a hit-man. In the opening scenes we see them emptying his trash into their car boot to look for evidence.
As the story goes on the plot meanders, at one point we have prolonged scenes where Arkin accuses his wife of cheating on him at other times the story is confusing. The film is an early example of the buddy cop film and also has high levels of gun toting violence, police brutality and zany car chases which must have inspired The Blues Brothers.
I still enjoy some surreal elements of the film such as the scenes Caan and Arkin have with Alex Rocco in his office and the anarchic style is enjoyable to an extent but too often it descends into silliness at the expense of plot development.
However one thing noticeable was the amount of shootings in this film. These two guys make Dirty Harry look like a pacifist. They just brandish their weapons with no regard to the term reasonable force and at times so many ordinary members of the public are put into danger when they are about.
The other issue is the casual racism, homophobia and sexism in this film. I understand the film is of its time so certain derogatory terms are expected but did actress Valerie Harper really had to be listed as 'Beans Wife' in the title credits? Harper plays a hispanic character who is made to look rather brown faced. Then again Arkin is as convincing as a Mexican origin cop as Charlton Heston was in Touch of evil. The blame for all this has to be laid at director Richard Rush to be so behind the curve.
Still the film is fun, Arkin and Caan make a good team and have some good banter. It is actually Arkin who is unpredictable even though he is more cautious compared to the gung ho Caan.
However the similar themed Busting that came out at the same time, which starred Elliot Gould and Robert Blake now looks like to be the better film.