Tequila Sunrise (1988)

Directed by Robert Towne. Starring Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, J. T. Walsh, Raúl Juliá, Gabriel Damon, Arye Gross, Arliss Howard, Ely Pouget. [R]

It’s a setup as old as time: Gibson and Russell are long-time buddies on the opposite side of the law, and they’re both interested in the same woman—a pretty restaurant owner (Pfeiffer)—who is used, to varying degrees, against each other. Writer/director Towne’s script is almost as convoluted as the brilliant one he wrote for Chinatown, but here, the payoff is meager and the journey to get there is too low-energy to simply enjoy the sights (if for nothing else, the stars, scenery and architecture are photographed splendidly). The individual performances from said stars are pretty good, but when they get paired up, there’s such a shortage of chemistry that they’re unconvincing as either old friends or new lovers, and Gibson is saddled with just about the kindest and gentlest criminal a neo-noir has ever seen. Juliá does some zesty work in the second half; maybe the movie should have been about him instead? Dave Grusin’s score employs a jazzy sax that sounds like it was imported from rejected tracks off the Lethal Weapon soundtrack.

51/100