OxfordPress.com

Grade: B+

Verdict: A bang-up, very dark comedy

Details: Starring Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, Dennis Farina, Janeane Garafalo and Omar Epps. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Rated PG-13 for profanity, crude humor and sex-related material. 1 hour, 39 minutes.

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Review: "Big Trouble" is a black comedy about terrorism for our times. You may have heard about the film's ominous McGuffin -- a nuclear bomb in a suitcase, which among other things is smuggled aboard an airplane. It was this conceit that scotched the film's originally scheduled release last Sept. 21, and it would probably not have been digestible then.

But now we can see that "Big Trouble"'s scarier device is a squirt gun. This weapon shows up, willy-nilly, whenever other more conventional (and deadly) artillery does -- and indeed each time the squirt gun is fired, real bullets are in the air as well.

The point director Barry Sonnenfeld is trying to make in his rollicking and irresistible film is that innocence and malevolence exist side by side, each confusing the other, with sometimes tragic results.

The story, based on a novel by humorist Dave Barry, is set in Miami. Over a set of recurring (and ultimately circular) journeys, a picaresque of characters intertwine and dis-intertwine: There's a loser dad (Tim Allen) with a disrespectful son (Ben Foster). A shady, rich creep (Stanley Tucci) being tailed by a pair of hitmen (Dennis Farina is one of them), with a fed-up wife (Rene Russo) and a disdainful stepdaughter (Zooey Deschanel). There's a couple of cops (an exasperated Janeane Garafalo and her partner, Patrick Warburton, "Seinfeld's" Puddy, who does the exasperating).

There are also Russian arms dealers, a pair of clueless but ill-meaning thugs (Tom Sizemore and Johnny Knoxville, from MTV's "Jackass"). A couple of very serious FBI agents. (They know about the bomb.) There's a maid and a weird homeless guy.

And a frog. Martha Stewart has a, ahem, guest role as well.

Through plot devices of deliberate crudeness, this complex assemblage convenes at the airport, at a dive of a bar, at Tucci's house, downtown, at Tucci's house again, and finally, the airport. The resulting black comedy touches upon easy targets (flaky dads, fat guys), but its effortless tonal control, air of random menace and seeming willingness to see its characters in pain gives it a kick, sometimes an uncomfortable one in an uncomfortable place.

The central trick Sonnenfeld pulls off is the delicate pas de deux between the broad and the sharp, the crude and the subtle. In the former category, I suppose, would be the enormous Florida toad that squirts a hallucinogenic pus-like substance into its victim's eyes, or the merciless barrage of hilarious putdowns the thugs endure from Tucci's stepdaughter.

In the latter category there are several nice touches, like the televisions that keep getting shot out, or the sly quote marks that appear on the slogan of a charter air service: "'Your' Gateway to the Bahamas." At one point, an impassive Farina watches as Allen, desperately scrambling in a kitchen for a weapon to use against a band of kidnappers, finally holds up a rolling pin in triumph. Says Farina dryly: "We got a 'Die Hard' situation developing here."

And there is, finally, an extended airport-security sequence. It's not exactly a blueprint for getting an atomic bomb onto an airplane, but it's not exactly outside the realm of plausibility either. Six months on from the wrenching events of Sept. 11, the sequence gives you the diciest thrills of the evening, but thrills nonetheless.

Sonnenfeld is not a profound filmmaker. He used to work with the Coen brothers (as cinematographer on "Blood Simple," as a camera operator on "Miller's Crossing"), but he's just operating in Coen Lite territory. Of course there's a happy ending, and Sonnenfeld isn't the type of person who would actually do something to stop someone from coming to see one of his movies. (Particularly after the flop that was "Wild Wild West.") But there's something to be said for the work of someone who isn't always nice, and knows the world isn't either.