Shortly after Stakeout, this was the second John Badham movie I saw in a theatre all by myself, at the age of 18. And when you watch something so early in your life, it leaves a mark on you despite whatever depth it might lack.
I never forgot Bird on a Wire as certain scenes have been engraved into my memory. Like Mel Gibson acting gay and the final showdown at the zoo. I remembered well that there WAS chemistry between the characters, and that even though I never even liked Goldie Hawn, to the extent of finding her repulsive, she was okay in this one.
But within decades, I must have forgotten the main story and the premise. Which, thanks to some Italian channel, I got reminded of yesterday. And in hindsight, I see this movie as a missed opportunity for John Badham and Mel Gibson. It could have been much, much better.
Even though most action scenes are lame, there's something valuable with the basic idea: Ex-lovers accidentally coming together after 15 years. The girl not even being sure if it was really him (now, that was odd! Not convincing at all, but worth the suspension of disbelief) as she checks those booth pics she always kept. Yeah, it IS him, and he hasn't even changed much!
Anyways... Fate makes them come back together as the man is now exposed to his ex-nemesis who has unfinished business with him.
Forget about the stereotypical action-comedy structure - the two are convincing as the leads for a troubled romance. Goldie has that Legally Blonde spirit (waaay before LB was made!) as a lawyer, and Mel is fresh out of Lethal Weapon, this time not suicidal but pretty much willing to survive, despite the same crazy energy.
The opening scene was great. David Carradine was a good choice for the role but he wasn't given enough material to develop some truly nasty, hard boiled character like he later found in Kill Bill. The death of the auto shop owner was sad and I'm puzzled as to why they didn't come up with a softer solution to the attack in that scene.
Joan Severance was mesmerizing as usual, a bit more mature than she was in Wise Guy, adding natural visual effects to feature films like this one and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
Let's be honest, I love the era because I was a teen back then. I can assign some kind of value to almost every mediocre production from late 80s - early 90s.
But still, I'll insist that this duo had greater potential than what was used in the movie. They could have carried the David Addison - Maddie Hayes dynamics to a series of feature movies, like Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas have with Jewel of the Nile.
Without investing too much, you can watch this every ten years. Not bad at all.
I never forgot Bird on a Wire as certain scenes have been engraved into my memory. Like Mel Gibson acting gay and the final showdown at the zoo. I remembered well that there WAS chemistry between the characters, and that even though I never even liked Goldie Hawn, to the extent of finding her repulsive, she was okay in this one.
But within decades, I must have forgotten the main story and the premise. Which, thanks to some Italian channel, I got reminded of yesterday. And in hindsight, I see this movie as a missed opportunity for John Badham and Mel Gibson. It could have been much, much better.
Even though most action scenes are lame, there's something valuable with the basic idea: Ex-lovers accidentally coming together after 15 years. The girl not even being sure if it was really him (now, that was odd! Not convincing at all, but worth the suspension of disbelief) as she checks those booth pics she always kept. Yeah, it IS him, and he hasn't even changed much!
Anyways... Fate makes them come back together as the man is now exposed to his ex-nemesis who has unfinished business with him.
Forget about the stereotypical action-comedy structure - the two are convincing as the leads for a troubled romance. Goldie has that Legally Blonde spirit (waaay before LB was made!) as a lawyer, and Mel is fresh out of Lethal Weapon, this time not suicidal but pretty much willing to survive, despite the same crazy energy.
The opening scene was great. David Carradine was a good choice for the role but he wasn't given enough material to develop some truly nasty, hard boiled character like he later found in Kill Bill. The death of the auto shop owner was sad and I'm puzzled as to why they didn't come up with a softer solution to the attack in that scene.
Joan Severance was mesmerizing as usual, a bit more mature than she was in Wise Guy, adding natural visual effects to feature films like this one and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
Let's be honest, I love the era because I was a teen back then. I can assign some kind of value to almost every mediocre production from late 80s - early 90s.
But still, I'll insist that this duo had greater potential than what was used in the movie. They could have carried the David Addison - Maddie Hayes dynamics to a series of feature movies, like Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas have with Jewel of the Nile.
Without investing too much, you can watch this every ten years. Not bad at all.