The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane: Rare & Under Appreciated #2

Wedged between the hit sequels that were A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 and Die Hard 2, Renny Harlin directed the little seen, comedy thriller The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane. Little seen because it's odd. Odd, odd, odd.

It's defining feature is of it's lead, Andrew Dice Clay, for whom this was meant to be a star making vehicle. Clay, a dickish, unrelentingly sexist, foul mouthed stand up, was established in the U.S. at the time (late 1980's) for his controversial live monologues. Fortunately, Harlin and Clay play the character of Ford Fairlane...Rock and Roll Detective, in such away, that he comes across as heroic and likable...but only just. The guy is a complete cock, forever taking advantage of his under appreciated assistant, the sexy Lauren Holly, but retains enough charm to take the audience with him on his latest case.

The rest of the film is a crazy blending of elements...some that work, and others that don't. Some of these elements are:-

1/ Oliver Wood's, glossy early 90's cinematography...all lit with primary coloured filters and the obligatory (for the time period) smoke machine.

2/ The soundtrack, mainly consisting of late 80's Milli Vanilli-esque pop/funk is shite. Better are the inclusions of Motley Crue and Tone Loc. The stand out track goes to Clay himself who perform a classic rock 'n' roll number as a demonstration of how it should be done (see video below).

3/ The wild cast is a combination of music stars (Morris Day, Sheila E, Vince Neil) and a who's who of weirdos (Ed O'Neil, Gilbert Gotffried, Pricilla Presley, Wayne Newton, Robert England, Kari Wuher and David Patrick Kelly).

4/ The ridiculously barmy script layers one investigation over the other, mixing them into such a complicated colourful concoction, you forget to follow the separate story strands, and just sit back and let the madness entertain you. The plots neatly converge at the end while the characters, from Robert England's leather wearing maniac to Ed O'Neil's disco obsessed cop all having their stories tied up neatly.

5/ There's tones of surreal elements like Fairlane talking to camera, Deadpool style, and the fact the detective never gets paid by cash (but instead with gifts, including a cute running gag with a Koala Bear). Oh, and Ford calls his dick Stanley...after the power drill.

Like Hudson Hawk, which Joel Silver also produced just one year later, Ford Fairlane was trying to do something a little bit different. It's very much a product of it's time and, as such, has dated horribly. But I can guarantee, you'll not want to take your eyes off it, in case you miss some unexpected lunacy.