The Adventures of Ford Fairlane

February 6, 2008

Rated: R Runtime: 104 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane was supposed to be the big breakthrough film for one of the hottest comics of the 1980’s, Andrew Dice Clay. It was supposed to do for him what 48 Hours did for Eddie Murphy. However, the “Dice Man” was quite polarizing and loved to be surrounded by controversy including getting “banned for life” from MTV for language during one of their award shows. By 1990 when Ford Fairlane was released there were as many people who hated Clay passionately as there were who were rabid fans. This no doubt contributed to a lack of success at the box office as the movie only did a little over $20 million total.

Andrew Dice Clay in Ford Fairlane Andrew Clay’s career went downhill after the release of Ford Fairlane perhaps due to all of the controversy. It’s easy to forget just how funny this character is, and Ford Fairlane captures The Diceman at his most sexist, politically incorrect best. No nasty nursery rhymes here, but when Ford wakes up with two hotties who upon realizing what/who they’ve done proclaim “But Ford, we just wanted to be held!”, he quickly answers “You got the bonus plan!”. In fact, many of sexist pigs who are fans of his work can pull an insane nmber of quotes from this movie.

But is the movie any good? Critics hated it, still do. We love it. It captures that time between the excess of the 80’s and the beginning of the whiney depressing grunge era of the early 90’s. And it makes fun of the music industry as part of the story. The plotline is simple, Ford is a famous private investigator in Los Angeles specializing in the music industry, he’s known far and wide as “the rock and roll detective”. He gets involved in a case surrounding the death of a rockstar. This is not an edge of the seat thriller, this is pure comedy with a dash of action. The story exists as a platform for The Diceman to do his thing.

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane is one of those movies that you need to just check your brain at the door, sit back and enjoy. We give it a strong 4 stars. The studios were slow to release The Adventures of Ford Fairlane on DVD, but since they have, it has found a new life. It’s also typically a bargain, this one belongs in every guy movie collection.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Andrew Dice Clay, DVD, Lauren Holly, Morris Day, Priscilla Presley, R, Wayne Newton 

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Comments

One Response to “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane”

  1. Mack Guffin on February 6th, 2008 10:30 am

    Priscilla Presley was hot.

    I think my favorite part is Gilbert Gottfried riffing on CHINATOWN:
    “She’s my sister…she’s my daughter…she’s my sister…she’s my daughter…she’s my sister AND my daughter!”

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