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‘Fifty/Fifty’
By Hal Hinson
Washington Post Staff Writer
March 01, 1993
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"Fifty/Fifty," actor Charles Martin Smith's tongue-in-cheek action-adventure film about a couple of lifelong mercenary pals in Southeast Asia, is a not bad grade-B genre picture that's about one major star away from being a not bad grade-A genre picture.The story is nothing new. Sam French (the stalwart, unmemorable Robert Hays) and Jake Wyer (a lean and alert Peter Weller) are hired guns willing to work for anybody who can come up with the cash. But when a CIA operative (played by third-time director Smith) enlists them to bring down the repressive government of Tangara, the two suddenly find themselves caring about something other than money -- primarily a slinky guerrilla princess named Suleta (the radically beautiful Ramona Rahman). The revolt's progress (and the love affair between Rahman and Weller) follow the standard Hollywood formulas regarding such things, while Smith and screenwriters Dennis Shryack and Michael Butler hijack as much as they can get away with from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." But it's not the stolen bits that bore us; it's the original stuff, the stuff Smith "didn't" steal, that bombs the biggest. For once, plagiarism doesn't seem like such a bad idea. As a director, Smith (who played the nerd in "American Graffiti" and the accountant in "The Untouchables) appears to have picked up a few pointers during his days as an actor. His film sense is erratic, but it's there in his staging and his dynamic camera eye. He has an exciting way of looking at things, particularly action. He has real potential. For some reason, Weller is always a fun actor to watch, and here he's allowed to express a little of the sexy flakiness he had in "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai." What he needs is a decent sidekick, and Hays just doesn't make it (Kurt Russell would have been ideal). Weller and Hays keep bantering and bickering, and the match isn't equally met. It's as if Weller were being asked to match wits with a beefsteak tomato. Coming soon to video stores everywhere. "Fifty/Fifty" is rated R for violence and language.
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