Oh yeah. It’s about to get weird, stupid and slightly, racially offensive today.
Tony Costas, a brash, obnoxious, sexist and racist Detroit cop who has long since stopped following the rules, gets told that he will have to work with Inspector Fuji, a straightlaced policeman from Japan. Fuji is in Detroit searching for a Japanese engineer who has gone to America with plans for a top secret car part. The pair naturally fail to get along at first, but as the investigation continues, they almost begin to come close to tolerating each other’s presence.
So I guess I am on a odd couple like buddy cop kick as of late. I mean Dead Heat with Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo was odd enough, but man, a racists Jay Leno and Pat Morita kicking it around Detroit in Collision Course. I just had to talk about this movie after discovering it and tracking it down cause the trailer was just ridiculously offensive. How often do you honestly hear such condescending dialog like “I speak some Japanese” and proceed to list off Japanese car makers? That is not even the tip of the iceberg in terms of what happens in this movie. I just can’t seem to get over the whole Jay Leno being a suedo action star that is racists towards Mr. Miyagi himself. 80′s man, weird times.
Oh yeah the movie, ummm, standard police procedural. I mean you got a Japanese engineer who has some secret car plans or something and Leno and Morita have to team up where cultural clashes are a given. Personally, I just can’t buy Leno being hard street cop ala Axel Foley from Beverly Hills Cop. His chin might afford him some protection from the copious amounts of punches, but man just watching him try to be a tough guy is rather comical. I guess maybe that is what they were going for since the movie is rather funny in a shake your head kind of racial divide way. It’s the perfectly, odd couple pairing that I think just nails this movie for me. Pat Morita just does his docile talking and ass kicking in the best way possible. He plays a more active version of his Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, but he does kind of take the abuse from Leno.
I don’t even know what else to discuss about this movie. It’s just yet another relic like Dead Heat in which studios just got a little carried away with all the buddy cop stuff and try really hard to differentiate themselves. Frankly this is basically Rush Hour before Rush Hour ever became a reality. Hell I would be willing to bet that Bret Ratner stole this idea. Just saying.
