Stakeout (1987)

Directed by John Badham. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, Madeleine Stowe, Aidan Quinn, Dan Lauria, Forest Whitaker, Ian Tracey, Earl Billings, Jackson Davies, Tony Pantages. [R]

Entertaining buddy cop picture with an amusing hook: after violent criminal Quinn escapes from prison, detectives Dreyfuss and Estevez are assigned to stake out the house of the fugitive’s old flame (Stowe), and Dreyfuss inadvertently becomes intimately involved in her life and falls for her. Crowd-pleasing blend of comedy, romance and violence isn’t always successful—the grim scenes with vicious Quinn on his getaway often feel like they’re from a completely different movie—but Dreyfuss is in fine form, he pairs well with partner Estevez (whose reaction shots generate some of the biggest laughs), and Stowe, in her first starring role, is an appealing presence with come-and-go Latina accentuations. Follows formula conventions, but Jim Kouf’s script has enough nifty inventions to avoid the generic doldrums, and Badham executes the material with slick precision.

77/100