"This is the '90s. You don't just go around punching people. You have to say
something cool first."
— Joe Hallenbeck
is a 1991 action film starring
Bruce Willis as a former Secret Service agent, now working as a private detective, and Damon Wayans as a retired professional football player. The two join forces to solve the murder of Wayans' character’s girlfriend (played by the then-obscure
Halle Berry). The entire film consists of often violent action scenes and an endless parade of one-liners. Classic example of
better than it sounds.
Tropes
- Bad Ass Boast: "You touch me again and I'll kill ya."
- Big Bad: Sheldon Marcone.
- Bond One-Liner - The final scene of the movie has the Damon Wayans and Bruce Willis discussing future use of Bond One-Liners.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Darian. However, she comes from an extremely troubled home so it's understandable (mostly).
- Card-Carrying Villain: Milo
Joe: You're the bad guy.
Milo: I am the bad guy.
- Chekhov's Gun: The duo comes across a box of shotgun shells. Later, Jimmy uses one to help Joe, Darian and himself escape Marcone.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment
Milo: Just once, I would like to hear you scream in pain.
Joe Hallenbeck: Play some rap music.
- Crapsack World: Taken almost to parodic heights.
- "Nobody likes you. Everybody hates you. You're gonna lose."
- Deadpan Snarker: Hallenbeck always win the snarking contest against other characters. See below.
- The Dragon: Milo.
- Drugs Are Bad: Manages to do this in a reasonably subtle way, contrasting Joe's zero tolerance with justifying Jimmy's addiction through his tragic backstory.
- Embarrassing Middle Name
- Eureka Moment: Overlaps with Oh Crap with Joe, as Jimmy hints that the supposed key he tossed into Marcone's fireplace is "the kind that Shred."
- Faux Affably Evil: Marcone and Milo. Both lose their niceness VERY quickly.
- Friend To All Children: Despite his drug problems and short temper, Jimmy is remarkably good with kids, if Darian is any indication because they quickly bond with each other after a little friction.
- Gorn: Brutal moments punctuated by humor. There is a scene where Bruce Willis punches a guy's NOSE through HIS BRAIN!!!! Also the infamous helicopter scene.
- Helicopter Blender
- If We Survive This
Joe Hallenbeck: "I swear to Christ that if I survive this fucking case I'm gonna dance a jig." He does.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Joe. However, it's buried pretty deep under a cover of sarcasm and self-loathing so it's nearly a Hidden Heart of Gold at certain points.
- Like You Would Really Do It: Unintentional, retrospective aversion for modern viewers—yes, they really would kill off Halle Berry's character after a couple of scenes, because when this film was made she was a no-name playing a bit part.
- Little Miss Badass: Darian Hallenbeck.
- Love Hurts: "I wish the sky wasn't blue. I wish that water wasn't wet. And I wish I didn't still love my wife."
- Metaphor Is My Middle Name
- One-Hit Kill
"Told ya."
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner - quote on top of the page
- "Touch me again and I'll kill you."
- Private Detective: Joe Hallenbeck.
- Punctuated Pounding
- "I told ya [BIFF!] if you touch me again [BAM!] I'll KILL YA! [POW!]"
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness - Milo
- As well as Scrabble Man
- "The envelope, very smart. See, Jake, here's a man who knows when a situation is untenable."
- Stuffed In The Fridge: Cory. An especially egregious example when you condsider that Joe and Jimmy spend the rest of the movie tossing out flippant one-liners.
- Take Me Out At The Ball Game
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Joe and Jimmy.
- What Would X Do?:
Jimmy: What would Joe do...
(beat) He'd kill everyone, and then smoke some cigarettes.
- World of Snark: The WHOLE movie is flooding with this.
0 reviews