Bird on a Wire [Blu-ray]

Bird on a Wire is almost the perfect distillation of a “lousy movie.” Not terrible, but nearly every scene is a cliché of some sort, many of them inexpertly executed. While not original, there is nothing wrong with a motorcycle chase through the narrow alleys of Chinatown. To have that Chinatown chase in Racine, Wisconsin takes a real disregard for what clichés to use when. Many superior movies have used the same cliché, but is it really true that you can exchange a watch for a hotel room or used car? Did pre-internet small town used car salesmen and hotel clerks really know the value of high-end women’s time pieces?The premise of the movie is a good one: a man in witness protection program runs into an ex who had presumed him dead, and they both end up on the run from the criminals he was hiding from. They end up being chased to all the prior places he had been hiding showing his prior aliases. It is basically the Bourne Identity meets When Harry Met Salley. That could be a good movie, but this is not.The casting of the movie – at least the two stars –is also good. Mel Gibson, as Rick, and Goldie Hawn, as Marianne, are both charming on-screen presences, and their chemistry is good. Remarkably they have very similar hairstyles, but both pull it off in their own way. Most importantly, both were bankable movie stars in 1990. Nothing is made of the fact that Goldie Hawn is 11 years older than Gibson; they seem appropriate together (Goldie Hawn has a strong claim for a spot on the over-45 Mount Rushmore). The whole film feels like after a decent idea, and some fortunate casting, everyone just stopped trying.The rest of the cast is unimportant but mediocre. I confess to some prejudices against actors which would not have existed in 1990: Ned Rierson from Groundhog Day is not believable to me as a corrupt DEA agent, and David Carradine is mostly famous to me for dying in a Bangkok hotel room auto-erotically asphxiating. To go to Bangkok, of all places, to kill yourself that way seems a particular shame. It’s like going to Rome and choking to death at an Olive Garden.Rick and Marianne run from set piece to set piece retracing Rick’s time in the witness protection program: he had been a southern mechanic in Detroit, a gay hairdresser in Racine (just outside that town’s bustling Chinatown), a handy-man at a veterinary farm. At the veterinary farm the lovely veterinarian (Joan Severance) offers to call off her wedding (scheduled for two days hence) if Mel Gibson is interested in getting back together. That a woman would leave her fiancée for 1990 Mel Gibson is possible, but barely.The narrative feels like four different scripts – none of them very good – were combined without any real sense of continuity. Is Goldie Hawn’s character a hard-driving career woman who saves the day or a ditzy blonde who ruins everything? Depends on the scene. Is the movie a light rom-com chase picture or a surprisingly gory, at times, action movie? Depends on the scene.Secondary characters are introduced either to be immediately killed: the garage owner who Rick was working for when he runs across Marianne, Rick’s partner from their drug smuggling days that got him into trouble in the first place (note to screenwriters: if a character is on screen for 45 seconds, the entire time in two flashbacks, his death is not going to mean much to the audience). Or for reasons never really explained: Marianne’s boyfriend seems like a nice guy, but seems only to exist to make one phone call that Marianne could have made herself.The final conflict is particularly out of context with the rest of the story but works OK as a stand-alone set piece. A shoot-out at a zoo, utilizing the storytelling convention of Chekov’s Pirahna, is preposterous but entertaining. It is sort of like the final scene in Jurassic Park, if Jurassic Park was made by a hack.The only thing unexpected about the movie is how poorly they pull off the expected. It is essentially the perfect Saturday-afternoon-on-TBS movie from the 1990s. Bland, forgettable, but with just enough star power to keep you watching the last thirty minutes before the Braves’ game came on.

The movie itself was good. I enjoyed the story and pace of the movie, but I also like both of the main stars in almost everything I have seen them in so that may be why I liked it as much as I did. The 4 star is for the quality of the Blu-ray. It is PAL format and it played fine on my multi-region Blu-ray player. However, the actual quality of the movie transfer was not great. Throughout the movie there were obviously deeply grainy areas which maybe is acceptable to what but a bit annoying. I expected better for a Blu-ray disc. Even my extremely old VHS copy from when I copied it from TV to the tape has a better quality transfer. I was trying to upgrade to Blu-ray so I could get rid of the VHS tape. It was disappointing. I might have been better off just purchasing the DVD version. It was PAL format, but I don't think that impacted quality of transfer because I have played numerous PAL formatted discs in my multi-region player and they did not have a grainy picture like this one does.

Private Benjamin was one of Goldies greatest movies. But this bird on a wire was good too. Not on the same level as PB, but okay. This is one of Mel's earlier movies. The chemistry between the two actors seemed a bit forced at times. I don't think they really liked each other all that much in real life. Tough job. "I love you!" (Really I don't like you much but kiss me anyway)..This story is, start in the middle, go both ways. It's funny at times and you get to see Mel and Goldie in their heyday! He's a guy that's deeply hidden in a witness relocation program. There are some very bad dudes looking for him. And he thinks he's finally found a spot where he can settle. After years of hopping around, he finally settles for being a mechanic in some rural garage. He and the owners are friends. I think the owner knows that Mel's talents far exceeds where he wants to be ...But hey, the owner is getting old and needs a partner. Don't look a gift...er..Mel in the mouth, right? All seems nice and calm...And then Goldie stops for gas. They were an item before he disappears. Goldie wants to know why he left when they were so close. Mel panics. Calls his bugg-out squad, and causes enough commotion that a corrupt FBI agent, (a plant especially put there to find Mel in the Witness Relocation) finds Mel and tells his old buddies that are looking for him where he is. And the race is on. Goldie and Mel run for their lives as the Hit Men get on their trail. Fast paced action. Lots of fun to watch them run as they hash out their abrupt separation! I especially like how Goldie plays the ultimate pampered rich chick that gets into these situations where she becomes Sigourney Weaver but complaining about her manicure the whole time! Nobody does it better.Would I watch it again? Apparently I did.Was it worth the watch? If your just watching all off a certain Stars movies, kind of a video-biography, yes.Would I have gone to the box office? Nah....I'd waited on the video

We had seen this years ago and opted not to keep it in our DVD collection. But television and movies are so bad and so PC today, we gave this another chance. Storyline is good, but the writing and direction are all over the place -- some of it aimed at grownups, some at 5-year-olds. It can't decide if it's supposed to be serious or slapstick. Ends up being neither... just boring.

Love, love, love this movie, even after the 100th time viewing! Used to have the VHS but it went by the wayside and cant find it on DVD anywhere that is affordable. So I rented it to share with my grandson who had never seen it before. Now he loves it also. Have to keep these young people up to date with the really good movies of the past too, right? ;-)

I remember first seeing this film at the cinema, on its original release in 1990. I enjoyed it back then, but then I didn't see it again for many years. I noticed that it was available on DVD on Amazon, so I decided to buy it and I watched it again tonight.I have to say, it's a fairly generic chase film, but I quite enjoyed seeing it again. I quite enjoyed Mel Gibson in this, though Goldie Hawn was a bit annoying at times, with all of her shrieking and manic behaviour. The film is, basically, a series of action and chase scenes, with a basic plot holding it all together. It's nothing that you probably haven't seen before in much better films, but it's enjoyable enough if you switch your brain off and are in the right mood. Some scenes did make me laugh, even after all of these years, so it couldn't have been too bad. It's not a film that would probably stand up to repeat viewings, though and I doubt that I will want to watch it again very soon. As a one-off watch, though, it should entertain anyone who isn't too demanding. Just don't expect too much from this film and you should enjoy it.I have decided to give this film three stars, as it is fairly watchable,but hardly mind-blowing. You should like it, but you won't miss much if you decide against buying it. I'd maybe consider a purchase once the price drops a bit, as it isn't worth a full-price purchase, in my opinion, anyway.

Bloody terrible conversion to Blu-ray,One of the worst iv'e seen wish i hadn't bothered,No new added extra's same as the old DVD and the picture quality is no different,Don't waste your money stick to the DVD!

Blue ray clarity. It's a light hearted movie with some fun action. Mel before the crazy kicked in. Goldie reprises her zany blonde routine, yet again. Indeed she spends almost the entire film in a state of utter shock and confusion switching seamlessly from open jawed disbelief to screaming in terror and back again, leavened with a sprinkling of dumb air head for good measure. Its an act you can see in most of her films. That said, it's an easy way to while away some time.

Not quite as good as I remember but some films age better than others.What made it a little more fun is when I noticed a member of SG-1 playing a police officer. Indeed :)Also of course good to see Caine from The TV series Kung FuPicture and sound acceptable but defiantly not razor sharp.

Usually when a small company buys movies from a big Motion picture studio, you get asuperb edition packed with extras for a price slightly higher than usual. With Bird on a wire blurayit's the other way around. You get no english subtitles, absolutely no extras and very mediocrepicture transfer. There should be a much better edition of such a great movie as this one.