I watched The Adventures of Ford Fairlane again recently and had to write this review. I loved this movie the first time I saw it and still love it. Sure, it's obscene and rude, but if you appreciate humor for humor, however rude it is, you'll be entertained by this movie. Let's face it, Dice isn't the crudest comic in the dirt theater scene.
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane is a comedy filled with foul language, sexual innuendo, and straightforward sexual suggestions with visual aids, but it's also a great parody of those smoky gumshoe flicks and a good action movie to boot. .
As a rock and roll detective Ford Fairlane, Dice laments the money issues he faces with his private investigative firm. He cannot pay his secretary, Jazz, and clients continue to send him non-monetary compensation. INXS sends him an Australian Koala as payment.
The dialogue is sprinkled with a liner and bits of Clay's stand-up act, including his neck-crack, comical cigarette-lighting body gyrations and spastic voice blurs, "... eby ... ebbedy ... maybe I died in that blast ... "The film is a vehicle for Dice's brand of humor, and the director pulled it off perfectly.
We are treated on the awkward side of Dice as his character unravels a corruption in the record business. Wayne Newton plays Julian Grendel (appropriated: Grendel at Fairlane's Beowulf?), A mysterious record mogul, with a dark secret Ford must reveal.
Robert Englund is perfect as Grendel's thug, and the final showdown at Ford's PI office is funny, but also impressive and satisfying in a way. Even a standing comic can play a Hollywood hero.
It is also a love story. After foiling Grendel's plot and defeating Smiley (Englund), Ford sets out to find Jazz and seal that romantic ending. For me the movie works, it's fun, funny, exciting and entertaining. Even endearing. But it is certainly not for the prudish.
Anyone who doesn't appreciate Andrew Dice Clay's brand of humor has to watch this movie and see Dice in his prime. He brings his crude but silly and adorable stand-up character to the big screen. Lighting effective too, as there is always a twinkle in Fairlane's eyes, bringing a sort of charm to an otherwise rough character.
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane is well written and contains all of the key elements that make the movies successful, and more. And it still works today.