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The Big Kahuna

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Every sale begins with a smile.

The place: an industrial lubricant company's 16th floor hospitality suite overlooking beautiful downtown Wichita.
The reason: the Midwest Manufacturer's annual convention.
The hors d'oeuvres: a cheese ball and carrot sticks.
The mood: not good.

In The Big Kahuna Larry Mann (Kevin Spacey), Phil Cooper (Danny Devito) and Bob Walker (Peter Facinelli) are three midwestern businessmen at crucial stages of their lives. Larry is a smooth talking slick operator whose brutal honesty comes as no surprise to his old pal Phil but shocks and offends young Bob. Recently married, deeply religious and a bit nervous about his first convention, Bob's wholesome righteousness irks Larry to no end. Trying to keep the peace is Phil, whose been in the business the longest. Recently divorced and emotionally and physically exhausted, Phil has suddenly found himself forced to reassess his life and purpose. As the evening progresses with the three men waiting for an important potential client to stop by - The Big Kahuna - they find themselves opening up in unexpected ways. As the night turns to day, each man has been transformed in ways that they - and the audience - would never expect.

Persons of interest

Kevin Spacey .... Larry Mann
Danny DeVito .... Phil Cooper
Peter Facinelli .... Bob Walker
Paul Dawson .... Bellboy
Roger Rueff .... Screenwriter, Playwright: Hospitality suite
John Swanbeck .... Director

Non-agency intellgence sources

Studios and distributors:

Lions Gate Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Salesmen.

*Shudders*

If there's one thing that annoys me when I goes into a shop it's those annoying people who keep annoying you when you're looking at all the stuff. The Big Kahuna is all about people who sell things for a living and other people who buy things for a living.

*Shudders*

Being based on a play, this film spends almost all of its time in one place, the second rate hospitality suite of a nondescript hotel in Kansas. How's that for excitement central? The dialogue is full of theatrical language & structures but it still makes for an effective film script in that three disparate men are trapped in this tiny, infuriatingly bland space with no-one on whom to vent their frustrations but each other, and themselves. With different ideas, different ideals and different goals there's plenty of room for conflict, the core of any good drama.

Kevin, Danny and Peter all nail their characters to the wall. Danny is tired of life, Peter is fanatically innocent and Kevin is wound as tightly as a cliché. They pull everything out of the script that there is to be found and take it to the greatest height to which it can aspire. That's not nosebleed country but you will find yourself short of breath.

The Big Kahuna is a great film for theatre buffs who are looking for a nice slice of life. These salesmen don't die but they might just fade away.