Quick Change

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Biography

Quick Change is a 1990 comedy film starring Bill Murray , who also co-directed with the film's screenwriter Howard Franklin . Geena Davis , Randy Quaid , and Jason Robards co-star. Other cast members include Tony Shalhoub , Stanley Tucci , Phil Hartman , Victor Argo , Kurtwood Smith , Bob Elliott (comedian)|Bob Elliott , and Philip Bosco . It is based on a book of the same name by Jay Cronley .

The film is set in New York City , particularly in Manhattan and Queens , with scenes taking place on the New York City Subway and within John F. Kennedy International Airport . Times Square , the Empire State Building , and the Statue of Liberty are also briefly seen.

Quick Change is the only directorial credit of Bill Murray's career.

Plot

Grimm, dressed as a clown , robs a bank in midtown Manhattan . He ingeniously sets up a hostage situation and then slips away with an enormous sum of money and his accomplices: girlfriend Phyllis and best friend Loomis.

The heist itself is comparatively straightforward and easy, but the getaway turns into a nightmare. The relatively simple act of getting to the airport to catch a flight out of the city is complicated by the fact that fate, luck and all of New York City appears to be conspiring against their escape.

For starters, construction work obscures the roads to the airport, resulting in the three robbers becoming lost in an unfamiliar part of the city. Then, a con-artist/thief robs the trio of everything they have (except the bank money, which they have taped under their clothes).

When changing into new clothes, they are almost gunned down by the stressed incoming tenant of Phyllis' apartment, as members of the fire department respond to a call by pushing their hydrant-blocking car out of the way only to make it roll into a ditch.

When the three crooks eventually manage to flag down a cab, the driver is hopelessly non-fluent in English. An anal-retentive bus driver, a run-in with mobsters and Phyllis' increasing desperation to tell Grimm the news that she is pregnant with his child add further complications.

All the while, Rotzinger, a world-weary but relentless chief of the New York City Police Department , is doggedly attempting to nab the fleeing trio. A final confrontation on board an airliner at the airport occurs between the robbers and the chief, who gets the added prize of having a major crime-boss dropped in his lap.

Cast

Bill Murray as Grimm

Geena Davis as Phyllis

Randy Quaid as Loomis

Jason Robards as Rotzinger

Tony Shalhoub as Cab Driver

Philip Bosco as Bus Driver

Phil Hartman as Edison

Stanley Tucci as Johnny

Kurtwood Smith as Lombino

Critical reaction

This little-known film features what critics claim is one of Murray's finest performances: a jaded man who has just had too much of The Big Apple. The film also features strong performance by the supporting cast, particularly Robards as the Rotzinger, who, while almost as burned out as Murray, is still determined to capture the robbers as a swan song to his long career.

Roger Ebert in his July 13, 1990 Chicago Sun-Times review wrote: "'Quick Change' is a funny but not an inspired comedy. It has two directors...and I wonder if that has anything to do with its inability to be more than just efficiently entertaining."

Home media

Quick Change has been released on VHS in both NTSC and PAL regions in 1991, on Region 1 (NTSC) DVD in 2003 and on Region 2 (PAL) DVD in 2006.

Copyright Citations

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