Verdict
Summary
A spoof of the private eye genre, but still half-heartedly “straight” as a hardboiled action movie, The Blue Iguana features a cool cast and groovy music, but because it’s so cockeyed with its approach it sort of falls flat as a comedy.
Plot:
A private eye / bounty hunter goes to Mexico with a mission that gets way out of control when he crosses hairs with a local gangster and his beautiful moll.
Review:
Down on his luck private eye / bounty hunter Vince Holloway (a baby-faced Dylan McDermott) is strong-armed by corrupt I.R.S. agents (one of whom is played by Dean Stockwell) into going to a backwater Mexican town to retrieve 20 million dollars from a local bank. How he gets it is up to him, but as soon as Vince arrives, he gets in hot water with the scuzzy gangster who runs the town, a cocky, trigger-happy blowhard named Reno (James Russo) after Vince locks eyes with Reno’s girl Dakota (Pamela Gidley) who is all but Reno’s prisoner. When Vince checks into a hotel called The Blue Iguana, which is operated by a tough dame (played by Suspiria‘s Jessica Harper), Vince makes shady deals with local hustlers and social climbers, including a streetwise kid who knows the lay of the land. After making a bad alliance with Dakota, Vince learns his lessons the hard way, but at the end of the day, there’s still 20 million to be had … if the I.R.S doesn’t get to him first.
A spoof of the private eye genre, but still half-heartedly “straight” as a hardboiled action movie, The Blue Iguana features a cool cast and groovy music, but because it’s so cockeyed with its approach it sort of falls flat as a comedy. Writer / director John Lafia seems to be having fun with his own little world building, and while his cast is mostly game for all the silliness, McDermott is too young and inexperienced an actor here to make much of an impression. The movie needed a much more seasoned actor in this role.
Kino Lorber’s recent Blu-ray release of The Blue Iguana comes to high definition for the first time, and while there are no special features (just like Paramount’s old DVD release), the movie looks solid and strong in high definition. It also comes with a slipcover.
