The cult favorite Joe Pesci vehicle finally comes to Blu-ray.
The name Tom Schulman is nowhere as famous as it should be. This is a sheer crime in the film world if there ever was one, since the screenwriter was responsible for a number of titles which countless audiences surely count as some of their favorite films. Dead Poets Society; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; and What About Bob? were each Schulman brain children which have gone on to become bona-fide classics. It’s with a small bit of sorrow, then, that, despite Twilight Time’s recent re-issuing efforts, Schulman’s lone effort as a writer/director remains sadly unheralded despite its intriguing title, game cast, and plentiful moments of hilarious black comedy.
The dark comedy opens with the execution-style murder and decapitation of eight underworld criminals whose heads are then decapitated and given to mobster Tommy (Joe Pesci) with instructions to deliver them to a powerful mob boss as a final job before retiring. When a luggage mix-up means that fellow airplane passenger Charlie (Andy Comeau) ends up with the bag full of heads, Tommy goes on a desperate hunt to locate him. However finding Charlie won’t be so easy since he’s just taken off for a Mexican vacation with his girlfriend Laurie (Kristy Swanson) and her parents Dick and Annette (George Hamilton and Dyan Cannon). Tommy isn’t giving up so easily, though, and soon forcibly recruits Charlie’s roommates Ernie (David Spade) and Steve (Todd Louiso) to help track him down.
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag captures perfectly the spirit of the madcap comedy. The manic energy seen throughout never lets up, even in the film’s easier-paced moments. There’s an ongoing chase element at play with Tommy going to great lengths to track down Charlie, including torturing his college roommates for information in hilarious ways. When the chase makes its way into the Mexican desert, the film’s hilarity kicks into high gear, especially when the cracks start to show in Tommy’s patience and overall grip on reality (which includes a imagined moment where he sees all the heads serenading him with “Mr. Sandman”). Meanwhile, the film takes on a sort of farcical nature in the instances which see Charlie doing everything he can to get rid of the titular heads. Although he tries burying them, hiding them, and a number of other methods, fate has decreed that he is destined to not part with the heads, much to his frustration and Laurie’s sanity.
It’s a testament to Schulman’s creative sensibilities that 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag should contain so much darkness in its general concept. I mean, this is a film about a group of people caught up in mayhem while trying to grab ahold of a bag full of severed heads. The amount of potential situations filled with black comedy are taken full advantage of in one side-splitting moment after another. There’s the scene featuring Ernie (a medical student) and Tommy arguing over the selecting of heads from a group of cadavers as replacements for the ones Charlie has, as well as the moment when the blind hotel employee mistakes one of the heads for a piece of laundry, leading to it come back to Charlie smelling clean and fresh. The moments with Laurie’s foul-mouthed grandmother (Ernestine Mercer) are pure gold as she continuously belittles and nags Tommy, leading him to throw her out of a moving van and Annette stating in amazement, “I just can’t believe it…I thought the old battle axe would never die.”
Pesci is naturally a pro here and a delight to watch, even if the actor is forced to go back and forth between straight man AND comic relief simultaneously. Comeau makes for a great second lead and never lets the movie drag or feel slow. The same goes for Swanson, who has great deal of fun as the one voice of reason in a lunatic bunch. Meanwhile, Hamilton, Cannon, Spade, and Louiso all make the most of their supporting roles, each enjoying their own fair share of laughs along the way.
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag was one of the last vehicles Pesci took on before deciding to throw in the towel for a while. In all fairness, it’s sort of easy to see why. While the film is fun, it isn’t the best fit for an actor like Pesci who in comedies (Lethal Weapons aside) always excelled at playing the frustrated put-upon schmuck. Here, he’s the instigator, the clown annoying everyone else. While such a fit would’ve been better suited to the likes of Danny DeVito, Pesci still gives it his all regardless, utilizing his uncharacteristic charms and getting a handful of laughs back as a result. For some, that’s more than enough.
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag is now available on Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
