Downtown

(Richard Benjamin, USA, 1990)

The Beach Boys must be a little depressed at the way movies keep using their music as the epitome of white wimpiness – usually in contrast to black rap and funk music.

In this listless variation on the never-ending mismatched-cops formula, Anthony Edwards is the Beach Boys fan moved downtown and handed Forest Whitaker as a partner – the loose gun in an all-black police station.

As you might expect, the wimp starts to toughen up, while the rebel becomes a sensitive, sharing, family man.

The film uneasily walks a thin line with its broad gags about domestic violence and unemployment in a decaying black community.

MORE Benjamin: Made in America, Milk Money

© Adrian Martin November 1992