Bird on a Wire

Starring: Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn, David Carradine, Bill Duke, Stephen Tobolowsky
Directed by: John Badham
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
1990

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A member of the witness protection program (Mel Gibson) is found out by a corrupt FBI agent (Stephen Tobolowsky) who sells him out to the drug dealers (David Carradine, Bill Duke) who want him dead. Now, the only person who can help him is a woman (Goldie Hawn) whom he used to date years ago, although she only reluctantly agrees.

Review:

Tim: Bird on a Wire is a lightweight, silly action adventure movie that flashes a few signs of life before finally succumbing to the sheer ridiculousness of the entire story. The basic premise is interesting enough, but the movie inexplicably mixes deadly serious actions with our characters making jokes and laughing like they don't have a care in the world. These moments are hard to watch, because it just feels out of place and odd. Still, this movie does enough right to be fairly entertaining. This is not a good movie by any means, but it isn't terrible, either.

The big sell here was the combination of Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn. I definitely understand the focus on the two stars, and I admit that they seem to have a great deal of chemistry together. In most parts of the movie, they seem to genuinely be having fun around each other. That energy translates on screen, and it is hard not to get caught up in these two characters. The plot around them is often filled with cliches and absurd events, but the two of them on screen works. Mel Gibson is fairly good in the role. He has the ability to be strong and heroic while also being very funny at the same time. He seems to have fun with the role, and I found little fault with him. Goldie Hawn is fairly decent when she interacts with Gibson, but I didn't love her here. Her screams and yelps got old fast, and they quickly became annoying. When you look at the Hawn-Gibson pairing, it works. When you look closely only at Hawn, it is easy to find fault with her performance.

I like movies that pit ordinary people against extraordinary odds. I loved that Gibson wasn't a former military office or a cop, but just an average guy who continually finds himself in crazy and unpredictable circumstances. Likewise, Hawn is in over her head as well. Director John Badham gives us a number of exciting scenes, from car chases to airplane/helicopter chases, explosions, gunfights, and much more. While this movie needed those action sequences to keep it interesting, it quickly becomes apparent that logic and realism are thrown out of the window. The ridiculousness of these scenes continues to climb and climb until we finally end up at the zoo. I honestly believe that setting climactic finales in amusement parks or zoos or carnivals is a bad idea, and it is completely ridiculous here. I was tracking with this movie from the very beginning, but I just had to throw my hands up at the zoo scene. This climax is just so stupid and crazy that it completely throws the movie off the tracks. It ends in silly fashion, and simply fizzles out at the end.

Bird on a Wire is a movie that has some fun scenes and a lightweight, entertaining feel to it. In the end, however, it is just far too silly and absurd to be very good. I found myself entertained, but only to a certain level. This movie has some guilty pleasure qualities to it, but it isn't a very good film at all.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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