Men at Work

Red = Spoilers 

Men at Work is a 1990 comedy written and directed by Emelio Estevez and starring Estevez along with his half-brother, Charlie Sheen. They say it got bad reviews when it came out, and that it has poor ratings on websites like rottentomatoes.com, but I’ve always liked Men at Work, and I’ve always considered it somewhat of a cult classic. I don’t think old movies like this are appreciated enough for what they were back when they came out. I mean, this came out in 1990. Do you realize how long ago 1990 was? Yeah… That long… 

What’s it about? We start underwater, where numerous barrels of toxic waste are being dumped into the ocean and begin leaking. A local councilman, Jack Berger, pulls up to have a shady meeting with the head of the chemical corporation, Max Potterdam, that’s producing these chemicals and tells him that he’s breaking their deal and refusing to be corrupt and allow him to dump his chemicals anymore. Max doesn’t take too kindly to this news and tells his two hitmen, Biff and Mario, to dispose of Berger. What Max doesn’t know is that Berger recorded the entire conversation that he and Berger just had, incriminating Max. After another day of disturbing the peace and loudly doing their jobs, Carl and James are placed on probation and assigned an observer to watch them on their route. Their supervisor’s brother in law, Louis. After work one night, the pair see a woman in the apartment across the street arguing with Councilman Berger through her apartment window. The woman leaves and Carl shoots him in the butt with a pellet gun and the two hide below the window before the two hitmen, Biff and Mario, come into the apartment and strangle Berger to death. Biff and Mario put the body in a barrel and take it to get rid of it. Unfortunately, through some faulty driving, they lose the barrel, and the body. Carl and James, with Louis riding along with them the next day, find the barrel with the body inside. Carl and James begin to fight over whether or not Carl killed him with the pellet gun before Louis inspects the body and tells them that he was strangled. Later, in Carl’s apartment, Louis and James watch as Carl attempts to get some information out of Susan, the woman seen arguing with Councilman Berger the night he died. As Carl and Susan are talking, a pizza delivery man shows up to see James pulling the dead body of councilman Berger across the room and Louis kidnaps him. Carl and Susan leave her apartment and James, Louis and the pizzaman are forced to follow them. Susan is speeding through town and James is chasing her when the cops pull him over. Louis uses the pellet gun to make them drop their guns and handcuffs them together. Meanwhile, Carl and Susan are discovered by Biff and Mario and taken to Max Potterdam at an illegal toxic dumping site. They’re sealed in barrels and prepared to be dumped with the rest of the toxic waste when James, Louis, and the pizza guy show up in a garbage truck. Carl’s barrel falls off the pallet that was carrying him, accidentally releasing him. And Carl and James quickly go to find Susan and rescue her. Carl finds the barrel with Susan in it, and opens it, releasing her, and getting her off the truck before Potterdam can smash it. They stop the chemical company from illegally dumping toxic waste into the ocean and send Potterdam sliding down a long tube, into a large pile of steaming waste.  

What’s good? It’s a good script. It’s got a bunch of good lines in there. I’m a big fan of the “golf clap” scene. That’s always been my favorite scene of the movie.  

What’s bad? Well, it was made in 1990. So, the quality is equal to that of anything coming from… 1990. There was no digital video or sound back then. Everything was analog. I think Mario was still on the original Nintendo back in those days… 

The acting? The acting is good from most of the people. Some people aren’t actors anymore. It’s easy to see why. The guy who plays Potterdam makes this “sneer” look almost the entire movie. I don’t know if he was told to do it, or if he was just doing it as some sort of a method thing. Whatever it was, it was wrong. It didn’t make him more of a villain, it made him look like an idiot.  

The effects? There weren’t really any effects to speak of. Aside from the exploding air bags. Or, maybe when they blew up the car. But those can all be done practically.  

Why were they sleeping on the beach? Why was James sleeping on the beach with some random chick in the beginning? Who was she? 

Were they night surfing? Were they surfing at night? Isn’t that incredibly dangerous? Don’t they specifically tell you not to do that because of how many people drown doing it? 

Why is he shooting that sign? Carl just seems to have it out for Councilman Berger. He certainly doesn’t like that sign of his.  

Has she seen Carl spying on her before? Has that stewardess seen Carl spying on her before? And if so, how many times? 

How many people is Carl spying on? How many people is Carl looking in on? He recognizes more than a couple of them. The one guy with binoculars even sees him staring back at him. It’s like that episode of The Simpsons where they’re making fun of Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window.  

The dueling garbage teams. A nice running gag is the dueling garbage teams that go back and forth with each other throughout the movie. It starts with backing into their truck. And slowly progresses until they’re literally cutting each other’s brakes and blowing each other’s cars up. Like, he cut the brakes of a GARBAGE TRUCK… Did he not care how many people he was going to kill? 

Their license plate literally says, “HIT MEN”. How can you get a novelty license plate that says “HIT MEN” and not be suspected of some sort of crime? I mean, even if you’re doing it as a joke, you’re obviously of some sort of criminal mind frame.  

James and Carl just throw garbage cans back. They’re just constantly throwing garbage cans around and generally being very loud people. And why not? What’s stopping them? 

Golf clap. The infamous “golf clap”. I love this scene. I remember seeing this scene when I was younger and thinking how funny it was and imagining doing it to someone back then. I still think it’s funny, and I still think about doing it to people now… 

He pauses in the middle of a sentence. James pauses in the middle of a sentence to turn around, look at a woman, and go “good god…” and then continues talking as if nothing happened. That just goes to show how distracting women are… 

Why do they clean the truck? What’s the point? They’re just throwing more garbage in it the next day? Why even clean it in the first place? It just seems like a waste of time.  

You would think they would close the curtain. You would think those hitmen would close the curtain before they killed that guy, as more than a couple people could probably see into the apartment, as is illustrated by the current situation.  

Why didn’t they secure the barrel? Why would you stick a body, in a barrel, in a trunk, and not secure the barrel? Or at least, find a way to close the trunk? And then, he’s driving like it’s The Fast and the Furious or something. 

Jägermeister smoothie? Ice cream, day-old coffee, jagermeister, and aspirin… That’s what being a young, single man is all about right there… 

He’s driving a garbage truck. Louis reaches over to choke James as HE’S DRIVING A GARBAGE TRUCK… Did that not occur to anyone else in the truck at the time? That they’re on a highway, with other cars? And he’s driving a garbage truck? 

They “Weekend at Bernie’s” the Councilman. It seemed like a pretty common theme in years past to have dead bodies around and trick people into not noticing that they were dead? I guess people don’t really do that anymore? Not as much as I’ve seen.  

Carl keeps waving to the window. Carl has to wave 5 or 6 times to the guys back at the apartment. Why would he keep doing that? Wouldn’t he just keep doing what he was doing and try not to blow his cover? Literally the worst spy ever… 

The pizza guy didn’t know Nixon was dead. The pizza guy didn’t know Nixon was dead. He just saw somebody in a chair getting pulled across the apartment. Louis is the one that pulled him in. He could’ve just let him go. He’s the one that said, “he saw too much”.  

Rigor Mortis is already setting in. By the time they get in the truck, councilman Berger’s body is already starting to stiffen up. His arms are stuck in the forward position and he’s standing up in the front seat.  

Stealing a cop car is a felony. I’m pretty sure that stealing a cop car is a felony. Not that they really had any choice in the matter. I’m just saying, wouldn’t those cops know who Carl is and everything? Since they watched him take their keys? 

Carl had to fall. If Carl didn’t fall off of that pallet and out of that barrel and let James know that they had to go look for Susan, James never would’ve known to go look for Susan. So, it was pretty serendipitous that Carl fell right there. 

All those barrels of toxic waste. Why do they have all those barrels of toxic waste? How much toxic waste are they making? Like, geez… 

Did he land in a big pool of toxic waste? He fell down a big slide into a pool of literally steaming water of what I can only assume is full of toxic waste. That can’t be healthy. He should’ve have been instantly mutated like a Toxic Avenger or something. That would’ve been some sort of ending to that movie… 

So, yeah. Go and see Men at Work. I’ve always liked it. It’s a classic movie with a good script and a good time attached to it. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…