A cast of characters including assassins, FBI agents, a pair of innocent teens and their parents, converge on a Miami airport when a couple of street people steal a suitcase not realising it contains a nuclear device that's triggered to go off very soon.
Special Agent Matti
Trouble. Just plain old trouble.
The book must've been a great read, an intertwining of various lives and stories that seem like an impenetrable tangle but resolve into a scarily wholesome form of normality (if a nuclear family can be called normal). Unfortunately, Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone have brought something to the screen that is a mish-mash of tired ploys and lazy plots. Big trouble blunders its way across the screen in slap-dash fashion, achieving its greatest heights in second rate slapstick.
Tim Allen is again miscast as the hero (see also Joe Somebody) but fortunately his on-screen time is shared with the rest of the ensemble cast. Rene Russo is as sexy as ever, Stanley Tucci overacts as ever while Ben Foster manages to make his character more real than anyone else. It's interesting to note that DJ Qualls really does look like that (see also The new guy).
From observation of the real world: 4 out of 5 audience members are male; 2 out of 5 audience members will leave before the film finishes; 1 out of 5 audience members will talk on his mobile phone rather than watch the film.
You do the maths.
M (Low level violence)
85 minutes (1:25 hours)
Film: 23 May 2002
DVD rental: 20 November 2002
VHS rental: 20 November 2002
DVD retail: 23 April 2003
VHS retail: 23 April 2003