KUFFS

US, 1992, 102 minutes, Colour.
Christian Slater, Milla Jovovich, Leon Rippy, Ashley Judd, Bruce Boxleitner, Tony Goldwyn, George De La Pena.
Directed by Bruce A. Evans.

Kuffs is an amusing variation on the Lethal Weapon kind of story. It is serious but also comic – with Christian Slater as George Kuffs talking to the audience and inviting them into his story. Slater, who plays this kind of role very easily as in Pump Up the Volume or Heathers, is a reckless young man who wants to escape responsibility by going to Brazil. However, his brother (Bruce Boxleitner) is killed and the young man has to take over his special force, the Forty-Niners?, the patrols who police the streets of San Francisco.

Milla Jovovich appears as the girlfriend. Ashley Judd has a small role. Ballet dancer George De La Pena is a villain. Tony Goldwyn, who had been the treacherous friend in Ghosts, is the policeman who has to babysit Slater.

The film was written and directed by Bruce A. Evans, a Hollywood writer whose only other film was Mr Brooks with Kevin Costner, Demi Moore and William Hurt (2007).

1.An entertaining film? The blend of the serious and the spoof? Younger characters, younger audiences? Law and order, society, violence and guns?

2.The city of San Francisco, the streets, the homes, churches …?

3.The title, the focus on George? Christian Slater and his screen presence? Addressing the audience, taking the audience into his confidence? The tone, the comedy?

4.The introduction, George, Maya and her pregnancy, issues of responsibility, the note, the phone call? The brother and his work? Robert, care? The hospital? The parents and the jokes? The baby? George’s life?

5.George in his family, his relationship with Brad, his style, at high school, the birthday? The turkey? The church, his brother dying? His wanting to borrow money from him to go to Brazil? Issues of revenge? Identifying the criminals? The role of the law? His being taunted? Justice?

6.The districts and the system for policing them? Brad and his work? Sam Jones? Bill? The decisions, the head and the staff, their reactions to Kuffs?

7.The training, running, the guns, Ted – drugged? Kane as a villain, following him, the robbery, Jumper, being shot?

8.The variety of people, the fights?

9.Kane, sleazy, violence, the murder of Brad, the church, the girls, the bribe, his death?

10.Jones, buying, the railway system, the car, the confrontation, the roof? The lift? Death?

11.Ted, suspending? His wife? Helping? The explosion?

12.George, in action, his type, experience, surveillance, at home, the shootings? The arrest, the escape, the laundry and the dog? The roof?

13.The variation on the police patrol film? The comic elements? The serious underlying tone?