Review of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane

Let’s educate on why the likable jerk works in the media and why The Adventures of Ford Fairlane fails on that regard. But first the story, Ford Fairlane (Andrew Dice Clay) is the womanizing “Rock n’ Roll Detective” who’s hired to investigate the murders of Bobby Black (Vince Neil), the lead singer of The Black Plague and his radio DJ best friend Johnny Crunch (Gilbert Gottfried). Most of the clues to the crime include a trio of CD’s, answers from a groupie Zuzu Petals (Maddie Corman) and wealthy socialite Colleen Sutton (Priscilla Presley), and the name ‘Art Mooney’. The important thing about despicable comedic jerks is they have connections to something relatable, in a way that reveals their attitude toward humanity. Ford’s only character traits are he loves 1950’s memorabilia, he’s a womanizer and he has a Brooklyn greaser parlance. On top of everything else, Andrew Dice Clay’s lines are mostly shock and insult comedy, which got really old really fast. Another problem may be Renny Harlin’s cinematic eye, which clearly has a forte on action and suspense rather than comedy. Because the two genres conflict each other on every scene, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane loses interest in humanity and has little time to develop other characters. To conclude, Ford Fairlane isn’t funny because he’s an archetype of other funny jerks, with little substance and no intelligence within him. It especially doesn’t work because of the director’s mistranslation of Clay’s stand up.

(1 ½ Noosed Koalas out of 5)