Tonight's Movie: Bird on a Wire (1990) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn star in the chase film BIRD ON A WIRE (1990), available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

Rick Jarmin (Gibson), a gas station mechanic working in Detroit, has been in a witness protection program for 15 years and is currently known as Billy Ray.

One rainy day who should show up to gas her car but Rick's ex-girlfriend Marianne (Hawn), who's in town on a business trip. Marianne believes Rick died in a plane crash and is stunned to see someone who looks so much like her late fiance.

Marianne initially accepts that it's not Rick, but curiosity later draws her back to the gas station, where she watches "Billy Ray" from a distance. Depending on how one looks at it, her timing is either great or awful, as while she's watching the station a pair of killers (David Carradine and Bill Duke) move in with deadly intent.

The long and the short of it is that Rick and Marianne are reunited in the wildest circumstances imaginable and end up on a prolonged road trip, attempting to stay ahead of the hitmen. They never know who to trust, with Rick's previous government contact (Jeff Corey) inexplicably retired and the new man answering the phone (Stephen Tobolowsky) quickly revealed to be in cahoots with the killers.

The movie is in the tradition of THE 39 STEPS (1935) and all its progeny, as the initially angry Marianne gradually learns why Rick ran out on her and they rebuild their relationship while working together to escape the bad guys.

There's also a touch of THE GREAT IMPOSTOR (1960), as Rick has known a lot of people and picked up many skills using various identities during his 15 years on the run. This plays into a finale set in, of all places, a zoo, where Rick knows the layout and the animals thanks to one of his many past identities.

Is this a great movie? Well, no, but it's reasonably fun. I always enjoyed Hawn in films like FOUL PLAY (1978) and SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES (1980) "back in the day," and she has good chemistry with Gibson. Her character is a nice mixture of smarts -- Marianne is an attorney -- with Hawn's trademark goofy charm; Gibson's sense of humor meshes smoothly with Hawn's. Incidentally, offscreen there was a decade age difference between the lead actors but it's not something I noticed watching the film.

The movie has a nice mix of actions, threats, and playfulness as the two characters reconnect. I particularly felt that Hawn seemed genuinely mirthful when she started laughing uncontrollably just after they escaped being run over in a train tunnel. I laughed out loud a few times while watching and for the most part enjoyed it.

My biggest complaint about the film is that while it's PG-13, the language gets pretty rough, and the movie also takes as many opportunities as it can to discuss or leer at Gibson and Hawn's rear ends.

Other than that, I found 110 minutes on the run with Mel and Goldie to be a fun way to spend Super Bowl Sunday, and I suspect others might be entertained by it as well.

The movie was directed by John Badham, whose big film of my college years was WARGAMES (1983). It was filmed by Robert Primes and scored by Hans Zimmer.

The Blu-ray is from a new 2K master and looks great. Soundwise, I noticed that I had to turn up my TV higher than the norm, but other than that it was fine.

The Blu-ray special edition Blu-Ray extras consist of the trailer; a trailer gallery for nine additional films available from Kino Lorber; and a new commentary track with director John Badham, producer/second unit director Rob Cohen, and historian Daniel Kremer.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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