For some unfathomable reason, Quick Change - co-helmed by the star and the screenwriter, both making their directorial debut - did a fair impression of a lame duck at the American box office. So much so, in fact, that it came across the water a good ten months after its American release, not exactly the ideal "buzz" a film company would desire for its "product".
All the more surprising, then, that this urban-nightmare-slapstick-comedy-love-story succeeds just as well as many a Hollywood comedy, with the added bonus that the cast is an absolute gem, the always watchable Murray being backed up by Jason Robards, Geena Davis and Randy Quaid at every turn.
Murray is a bank robber with a cunning plan, Quaid and Davis are his accomplices, and Robards his Police Department adversary on the end of a telephone line. All goes smoothly until the trio have to get from the scene of the crime to the airport in order to escape New York and start a new life in the tropics. The city closes in - wrong turnings are taken, roads are closed for repairs, and the hapless threesome become completely lost as they battle to catch their plane against the nemesis that is the Big Apple.
It's all complete nonsense, of course, but it's enjoyable nonsense, directed with workmanlike professionalism and acted as beautifully as you'd expect from such a distinguished cast. Not exactly film of the month, but certainly not the complete dodo you may have been led to expect.