Despite Routine Plot, `Undercover Blues' Is Fun

Movie review

# # 1/2 Undercover Blues, with Kathleen Turner, Dennis Quaid, Fiona Shaw, Stanley Tucci. Directed by Herbert Ross, from a screenplay by Ian Abrams. Metro, Grand, Everett 9, Parkway Plaza, Totem Lake, Newmark, SeaTac 12, Factoria, Crossroads, Kent 6. "PG-13" - Parental guidance strongly suggested, due to mature humor, mild profanity. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somebody got the bright idea to update "The Thin Man" for the '90's, and "Undercover Blues" is the surprisingly entertaining result.

It's a standard ploy to mine the past and give it a facelift, even to the point of drawing some direct parallels. In the popular and still wonderful "Thin Man" series of the '30's, William Powell and Myrna Loy combined sophisticated wit and detective mystery as married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles - and let's not forget their clever pooch Asta.

Making it fun

In "Undercover Blues," Kathleen Turner and Dennis Quaid play matrimonial lovebirds Jane and Jeff Blue (another pair of alliterative names), and instead of a smart dog they've got an adorable baby named Jane Louise (Or is it Louise Jane? They can't agree). Together they're a domesticated team of secret FBI operatives, enjoying a maternity vacation in New Orleans.

But when a former nemesis named Novacek (Fiona Shaw) swipes some highly volatile plastic explosives, the Blues are pressed into duty to foil the plot, all the while coping with a pair of snooping Big Easy cops (Obba Babatunde and comedian Larry Miller), and a small-time mugger named Muerte (Stanley Tucci) who harbors a major grudge against Jeff after a series of humiliating encounters.

As in the "Thin Man" series, the plot takes a back seat to the husband-wife banter, so it's a pleasure to find Turner and Quaid so wonderfully matched. Both are well at home with Ian Abrams' delightfully mischievous dialogue - Quaid flashing his perfect smart-aleck grin and Turner back in peak form with an effortless performance that does justice to the esteemed legacy of screwball comedy. With these two, a sequel would be quite welcomed.

Especially if the same team could be given a bit more plot to wrestle with. "Undercover Blues" is disposable fun, but it could have been something more. The plot is utterly routine, even though it gives the Blues ample opportunity to outsmart everyone while being the parents of any toddler's dreams. That makes this a "cute" movie which veteran director Herbert Ross ("Steel Magnolias") handles with his typically light touch, and more liveliness than he's shown in years.

It's their film

Ultimately, however, the film belongs to Turner and Quaid, whose obvious pleasure extends to Shaw and especially Tucci, who after playing really nasty villains for years reveals some heretofore unknown comedic flair.

TV sitcom exports Tom Arnold and Park Overall aren't so lucky - their characters are ciphers - but Tucci pulls up the slack. He's the movie's stooge, and he nearly steals the show.