Does he point at someone?: Amazingly.......NO! I thought he was gonna, but no.
Best Line: "It would seem to the British government that Cascara is the dot above the "i" in Shit!"
Water..........bottled water.......a most 1980s subject for a film, no? Lord knows what fee Mr Caine received for this film, but I don't think it could have been more than a drop in the vast ocean of his wealth.
We got the man acting as the Governor of Cascara (cue Bromhead accent and mannerisms), a long forgotten British colonial backwater out in the Carribean, a benevolent governor who seems to have gone troppo and is a weed farmer in his spare time. Dastardly American big business with drilling rights return to the island and strike gold, liquid gold!
.............no, not oil. WATER! Perrier Water to be exact with an added laxative property. Yep, this is the sort of concept we're dealing with here. As the various factions begin to squabble over who owns what, local rebel forces attempt an uprising and larger scale governments get involved, its up to our Mickey to be the one who has to pour oil on these troubled waters (sorry).
I'm sure that in 1985 this must have been very topical, what with the Falklands being recent news, Thatcher impersonations and poking all manner of fun at various establishment figures, but in reality it all falls a bit flat and loses its fizz (sorry). In some ways it reminds me of Carlton Brown of the F.O. a film which covers the same sort of topics, but does it a lot better and in a less obvious manner.
Also, Caines wife in this film is so annoying and grating that they really should have thrown her into the sea at some point.
So, a reasonable nothing of a film really. This one does what it aims to do, but theres much better out there. I designate it a rating of Highland Spring
Right, interesting details:
1 - The music. We got chirpy upbeat reggae throughout this baby..........by EDDY GRANT no less!
2 - This film is an absolutely overflowing (sorry) with character actors doing their thing.
We got Leonard Rossiter as an uptight stiff arsed governmental figure. (alas, no Cinzano.)
Fulton Mackay as a dishelleved drunken stoner priest
The wonderful Fred Gwynne as a good ol' boy Texas oil baron.
Billy Connolly, no less, as a singing rebel revolutionary. His characters trait of singing all his lines gets pretty tired, pretty bloody quickly, let me tell you.
4- Eventually, this all leads up to a plea to the UN in the form of a protest song being hollered out by the Big Yin. Not the best way of appealing for help, frankly, but what can you do?
Even the people he's supposed to be appealing on behalf of know this is a bloody terrible song and idea, but what can they........wait who's tha........???
.....wha????
How did they get in there????
Cue sans Macca happy ending
Outfit of the film. Hmmmm, theres a lot of snazzy troppo shirts being worn by Snr Caine. But the hat takes it.
