(1987)
2
Derek Armstrong
Blake Edwards' late-'80s dud streak is typified by Blind Date, Bruce Willis' first starring feature. It's astounding, in retrospect, that Willis grew into such a movie star from such meager beginnings. It took five screenwriters to churn out some of the most miserable material that romantic comedy audiences have ever been forced to suck down. Not a single moment of Blind Date is believable, to say nothing of funny. Basinger should have changed her name to DeBasinger just for this one role, because Edwards spends so much time debasing her. The poor girl looks like she wants to do a good job, but she's asked to act out a criminally uncharitable character, a nice girl who gracelessly plows through all civilized company as soon as she gets a stiff drink in her. One of the script's many inconsistencies is that Willis, after babysitting this drunken rag doll through hours of destructive episodes, takes revenge by reciprocating her aggressive intoxication -- at which point Basinger's character actually tells him to "pass out...it's what you're going to do eventually anyway." Did the screenwriters divide the task up by pages, writing the next without reading the one before it? Every set piece falls flat and just squirms there on the floor. Worst of all is the psycho ex-boyfriend played by John Larroquette, whose recurring joke is that he keeps driving his car into the display windows of department stores. However bad a blind date you think you've had, this movie is undoubtedly worse.
cast-crew for Blind Date on AllMovie
Blind Date (1987)
/_derived_jpg_q90_80x60_m0/StElsewhere-Promo1.jpg?partner=allrovi.com){kind=small}
