Movie review: ‘Big Trouble’

An actor’s ability to make an audience laugh is obviously what makes or breaks a comedy film. Rodney Dangerfield offers one of the best examples with “Back to School” (click here to read my review). Much less common is when an entire cast is uniformly excellent as well as uniformly funny. Obviously, the best examples are “Caddyshack” and “National Lampoon’s Animal House.” However, one comedy that is nearly as good as those classics and certainly not as well-remembered or iconic, is “Big Trouble” from 2002. It is terrifically funny from its gags to its dialogue and the actors’ delivery – and it bombed big time at the box office. Still, you can enjoy it big time right now. It’s not often that you get an amusing private eye literally defusing a nuclear situation and it’s even rarer when a movie this funny and special didn’t get the notice it should have received.

‘Big Trouble’
(2002; 85 minutes; rated PG; directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Tim Allen, Rene Russo and Stanley Tucci)

HERE’S A SENSATIONAL COMEDY YOU NEVER SAW

(NOTE: I expanded this review with more opinion and updated links on Sept. 7, 2015. I again expanded the review on May 21, 2017. I again expanded it on May 15, 2018. I again expanded the review on Jan. 1, 2023. I again expanded it on Nov. 18, 2025.)

Watch “Big Trouble:” If you’d like to see a film funny from start to finish; experience greatness from the headliners to the actors with the bittiest of bit parts; and have the just-can’t-wait to see it from one line to the next. I cannot stress enough that you not delay a second longer in checking out “Big Trouble” starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo or watch it again. It’s as fall-down funny as can be – unlike many other comedy films you’ve seen. Somehow, I missed it in theaters and I say it is one of the five best films of all time that you most likely don’t remember.

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I just can’t express enough superlatives about “Big Trouble.” You simply have to watch it. Both Allen, who was three years past his hit TV show “Home Improvement” in this one, and Russo, who was three years past her sizzling turn in the remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair” (click here to read my review), give razor-sharp performances.

You are also fortunate to get the best from:

• Master prankster Johnny “Jackass” Knoxville giving a very surprisingly effective turn in what is a subdued role for him …

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  … along with the always excellent, actor’s actor Stanley Tucci as an acid-tongued bad guy who licks the maid’s toes in a rather creepy scene …

• … plus, you get Dennis Farina as a bad-luck, longsuffering hitman who gets unintentionally tormented by fans of my beloved University of Florida Gators …
• … and Janeane Garofalo, who is cast out-of-type as a cop and manages to hit an out-of-the-park grand slam home run with her effort with the role.

You get all that and also enjoy a simply delightful piece of work by the simply delightful Zooey Deschanel as Russo’s droll, bitingly sarcastic daughter; the stoic Ben Foster as the wonderfully recalcitrant son of Allen; and, finally, the overrated Sofia “Modern Family” Vergara as the vulnerable maid “Nina,” who literally runs into the arms of a homeless guy living in a tree in her backyard after her boss licks her toes.

Whew!

The supporting cast is so good it should have earned seven if not eight figures each. Compared to some of the crap that rakes in $100 million plus these days, “Big Trouble” is a gem and should have been better rewarded by moviegoers.

The story revolves around the lives of a bunch of people who converge through will or fate with a smuggled nuclear bomb from Russia. The film is based on Pulitzer Prize winning Miami Herald writer-turned-novelist Dave Barry’s novel of the same name, but it’s great to note that screenwriters Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone do an outstanding conversion – especially since it could have been fumbled all too easily. “Big Trouble” offers a ton of hilarious one-liners pulled from what was Barry’s first novel, plus a number of ongoing jokes.

The film’s characters are for the most part paired to start:

• Allen, who plays “Eliot Arnold” and Foster, who plays “Matt Arnold”
• Russo, who plays “Anna Herk” and Deschanel as “Jenny Herk”
• Knoxville as “Eddie Ledbetter” and his bossy partner “Snake Dupree” played to perfection by Tom Sizemore
• The hitmen – with Farina as “Henry Desalvo” and Jack Kehler as “Leonard Ferroni”
• The cops – with Garafalo as “Monica Romero” and her partner “Walter Kramitz” played by Patrick Warburton, who is best known for his role as “David Puddy” for 10 episodes on “Seinfeld” as one of “Elaine’s” boyfriends – and he’s also the video MC in the introduction to Disney World’s “Soarin’” ride at EPCOT
• The two loners at the start of the film, Jason Lee and Vergara, become paired quickly. You’ve already read about Vergara’s entrance to the film, while Lee plays “Puggy” and begins as the short-lived narrator before giving way to Allen
• The two FBI agents Omar Epps and Heavy D as “Alan Seitz” and “Pat Greer”
• Even the weapons dealers are paired with Daniel London as “John / Ivan” and Lars Arentz-Hansen as “Leo,” who run “The Jolly Jackal” and sell more weaponry than spirits
• Finally – Andy Richter, who is known best as Conan O’Brien’s sidekick, is paired with himself by playing brothers “Jack Pendick” and “Ralph Pendick” in separate scenes

The true loner here is Oscar nominee Tucci (not for this one), who plays “Arthur Herk” and is paired in name only with Russo at first. Tucci is on his crooked bosses’ hit list for stealing their crooked money. Fittingly, he’s the only character who remains alone at the end – hallucinating Martha Stewart’s head on his dog’s body while handcuffed to a piece of furniture. Yes, that will make sense when you see the film (just as much as the maid getting her toes licked).

Bouncing from one to the other are Allen and Russo …

• A Golden Globe winner and four-time nominee (not for this one), Allen was an interesting choice for co-star here. He was coming off voicing the first two “Toy Story” efforts and the two “Santa Clause” films (the second came the same year as “Big Trouble”) but was still best known and won and was nominated for TV’s “Home Improvement.” He does good work and is totally smooth as the frustrated father, even more frustrated with his life – and he pulls off the jokes really well. Allen was also in “Wild Hogs” and “Christmas with the Kranks.” If you like something a little different, check him out in “Galaxy Quest.”

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  Russo doesn’t play the blatantly sexual character she did in “The Thomas Crown Affair” three years earlier, but she’s lookin’ for love and finds it with Allen. The role doesn’t stretch her talents much and she doesn’t smolder here, but her competence carries the day instead of letting this character be a liability of the film. Russo was in “Get Shorty” (click here to read my review) and “Major League” (click here to read my review) and its sequel. She was also in “Just Getting Started” and “Thor.” She was also in the underwhelming golf flick “Tin Cup” (click here to read my review) with Kevin Costner.

Still, it’s Knoxville along with Deschanel who make the biggest impression from my own multiple viewings of this one …

• Johnny shows the ability for comedy he’d revive three years later in “The Dukes of Hazzard” (click here to read my review). It’s really cool to note that such a performer has such great timing and uses each moment of screen time to perfection. He wasn’t so good in “Bad Grandpa” (no, not to be confused with the Zac Efron-Robert De Niro comedy “Dirty Grandpa” – click here to read my review). Knoxville should do more mainstream films. He really has talent for more than a niche audience and he’s totally watchable on screen.
• It is an outstanding, understated performance is by Zooey. She is a three-time Golden Globe nominee and whose character is wise beyond her teenaged years and the ultimate attraction for Foster. Her pithy comments are priceless and without them the film wouldn’t have been whole. I haven’t watched any of her work outside “Big Trouble” and she was in “Almost Famous” and was nominated for TV’s “New Girl.”

And, continuing a look at the supporting cast only keeps the bar up there …

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  Farina, who played both sides of the crime fence in his big screen and TV careers, is smooth and cool in the face of incredible frustration. From chasing off some youthful gang members with a pistol to the final indignity of goats on an airport runway (yes, goats), Farina uses his acting chops well here and makes it look easy. He was in “Saving Private Ryan” (click here to read my “not” a review) and played an FBI agent in the original “Dr. Hannibal Lecter” film (“Manhunter” – click here top read my review) before his death in 2013 at the age of 69.

• Oscar nominee (not for this one) Tucci just explodes onscreen from his first frame to his last. He is wonderfully manic here and truly gives his all. Although I doubt he’d ever say that “Big Trouble” is a prime slice on his resume, he should. It’s a true winning role for him in my eyes. He has been in “The Hunger Games” and “The Devil Wears Prada.” Tucci was nominated for “The Lovely Bones” and I especially liked him in an episode of TV’s “Monk” where he “plays” a method actor who intrudes on the headliner’s current case.
• Getting into the mix is Foster trying to “kill” Deschanel with a squirt gun in a high school game. He does a solid job as the disenchanted, disinterested teenager who believes his father is the world’s biggest idiot. Foster has been in “3:10 to Yuma” and “The Messenger” in a resume that continues to grow each year.
• A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Sizemore does a workmanlike job as the leader of the two-idiot criminal team, but not much more. Still, he doesn’t make a mess of things and deserves a better than passing grade. Sizemore was better in the De Niro-Pacino crime drama “Heat” (click here to read my review) and much better in “Saving Private Ryan” as Tom Hanks’ tough sergeant. Sizemore was nominated for a TV movie named “Witness Protection.” He died at 61 in 2003 of a brain aneurysm.

• 

  A two-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Lee gives his usual smooth but bland performance and is the best description of a weak link in “Big Trouble” as you can find. Still, he’s not bad – he grades out OK. He’s not up to the quality of his supporting work in “Dogma” (click here to read my review) so I’ll just keep him as only so-so here. Lee was also so-so in the rather disappointing “Mallrats” from director Kevin Smith, was also in “Almost Famous” and was nominated for his work on TV’s “My Name is Earl.”

• DJ Qualls, who plays Allen’s son’s best friend “Andrew Ryan,” is in his first credited big-screen role here. Qualls, who is a versatile character actor, did a wonderful job playing the odd student in 2000’s “Road Trip” (click here to read my review) and has a sizeable TV resume including “Lost,” “Breaking Bad” and a really neat episode on “The Big Bang Theory” (click here for my look at the series when it jumped the shark).
• Kehler is the quieter of the two hitmen and he and Farina have every conceivable piece of bad luck (including goats on a runway that delay their flight back to New York). Kehler doesn’t have much to work with, but he certainly knows how not to force what time he has on screen. Among his impressive resume of 162 credits and counting, he was in “Fever Pitch” and “Waterworld.” Kehler died at 75 in 2022 of complications from leukemia.
• The two FBI agents played by Epps and Heavy D (credited in the film as Dwight “Heavy D” Myers) are droll, intelligent and forceful. They arrive at the “Jolly Jackal” establishment, which has “more AK-47s than Budweiser,” and kind of take over from there. Again, I wish the film expanded to three hours so they could have gotten additional screen time. I really liked Epps on TV’s “House, M.D.” and he was in “Scream 2” and played baseball speedster “Willie Mays Hays” in “Major League II” – remember, Wesley Snipes was the original “Hays.” Heavy D was in “The Cider House Rules” and “Blue Streak” before his death at 44 in 2011 of a pulmonary embolism.

Throughout the film many of the characters quote the Discovery Channel for the arcane facts about the issues they face, such as it is only the female mosquito that bites or the hallucinogenic effect of the toad’s venom. At one point, when whacked out after being sprayed in the face by a toad, Tucci hallucinates seeing his dog with Martha Stewart’s head on its body. It’s barking his name … “Herk! Herk! Herk! Herk!” Actually, like Barry’s work, it does make sense and has context. You’ll just have to watch the movies and find out for yourself.

Heck, even radio is funny here, with a running subplot about a sports radio show and the University of Florida Gators football team (and fans of the Gators get the parting shot – pun intended – at the hitmen).

If I had to choose, the single funniest scene is when Knoxville and Sizemore are driving Deschanel and Lee, their hostages, to the airport. They see a sign with arrows: one way for departures and a different one for arrivals. Knoxville, in confusion with absolute seriousness, says, “We’re arriving … then we’re departing.” Sizemore is flummoxed, too, and, with no answer when asked which direction, he says, “What do you think?” When Knoxville repeats the “arriving … departing” in the airport terminal while looking at the flight monitors, it’s just wonderful and Deschanel’s biting sarcasm is icing on that slice of the comedic cake.

Everything winds up with a neat, if somewhat twisted, bow by the time the credits roll. As I’ve already written, if you’ve never heard of this one, make sure you see it.

It simply boggles the mind that “Big Trouble” earned a paltry $7.3 million and was therefore ranked 156th in ticket sales for the year, according to Box Office Mojo. It was made on an $18 million budget, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film was “Spider-Man” with $403.7 million. The other films from 2002 that I have reviewed:

• “Big Fat Liar” (really good kids flick) – click here for my review
• “Rollerball” (crappy unwatchable reboot) – click here for my review

Some cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

• Allen’s birth name is Timothy Alan Dick; and Knoxville’s birth name is Philip John Clapp.
• David Koepp, better known for his writing credits, is the voice of the sports radio show host who verbally spars with a Gators fan, who is voiced by director Barry Sonnenfeld in the running joke.
• According to Wiki, “Big Trouble” was originally set for release in September 2001, but the 9-11 terrorist attacks pushed it back to the next spring and it didn’t come out of the box well with a smaller advertising footprint.
• Pairings were also a part of the actors’ work in other films in 2002. Both Farina and Lee were in “Stealing Harvard” and both Qualls and Deschanel were in “The New Guy.”
• Dave Barry has an uncredited role as “lawyer,” which is a character that fits right into his sense of humor.
• Another note about Barry: The author’s novel had Tucci hallucinating Elizabeth Dole instead of Stewart.
• The audience is the big winner on another front since the wooden, talentless Katie Holmes had originally signed on to play “Jenny Herk,” but the part thankfully and to the eternal gratefulness of anyone who watches ultimately went to Deschanel. Thank you, casting director or fate. Thank you, thank you … and THANK YOU!

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