A witty, well-made assasination thriller. All all-star cast, with Bridges doing justice to the lead.

Good film.

Commonly pegged as a thriller, this plays more like a gonzo parody of the paranoia cinema of Frankenheimer and Pakula. Bridges is uncharacteristically dull, a cipher around whom an outrageous plot unfurls with undoubtedly the funniest performances Huston and Perkins ever gave. The cast, apart from Bridges, is extremely impressive and the film has a certain freewheeling charm but it's all pretty uneven and everyone involved seem just the slightest bit hung over.

fantastical interludes seeming to exist outside of plot, character, and the film's very aesthetic are never explained, key narrative revelations make no sense, belinda bauer reveals herself to be one of the most beautiful women who ever lived: paranoid post-vietnam america through the lens of a ramshackle satirist, funded by drug dealers.

Having heard what the director had to say about it, it might have been better not have shady smugglers finance a movie. Not to say it couldn't have been better, but it can't be good for a first-time feature director to have to film over two years.