“Is she a hooker?”
Lookin’ to Get Out has a reputation and it’s not a good one. A notorious bomb in the career of late director Hal Ashby (Being There, Harold and Maude) it was discovered that he donated his director’s cut print to UCLA and this extended version finally “gets out.”
It’s still a failed effort, but I’m glad that his version finally got out.
Unlucky gambler Alex Kovas (Jon Voight) loses $10,000 to New York hood Joey (Allen Keller) and has till the next night by 7pm to come up with the dough. He goes to his pal Jerry Feldman (Burt Young) to tell him of his woes and the duo goes to a café for some eats.
They’re threatened by Joey and his enforcer Harry (Jude Farese) during their breakfast so Alex comes up with the plan to jet to Vegas to earn the owed money. The duo show up at the MGM Grand and con their way in by saying that they’re pals of Bernie Gold (Richard Bradford), the casino owner.
Alex also meets up with old flame Patti Warner (Ann-Margaret), with who he has a daughter (a five-year-old Angelina Jolie in her first film appearance), as well as spotting Smitty Carmichael (Bert Remsen). Carmichael is down on his luck and a waiter at the MGM Grand, but in the day he was a skilled gambler who won big.
Alex comes up with the scheme that they’ll bankroll Smitty, since they’re given carte blanche being “friends” of Bernie Gold, and break the bank of the Grand. However, Joey and Harry follow them to Vegas to strong-arm the money out of them that they’re owed. Can Alex and Jerry’s luck change or will they end up being as unlucky as ever?
I’m reminded of a joke by Walter Matthau. Jack Lemmon had asked the Matthau’s to a sneak peek at Lemmon’s film Save the Tiger (methinks). Lemmon was proud of his work and eagerly waited for the end of the film to get Walter’s opinion. When the film was over Jack proudly asked what Walter had thought of the film. Walter responded in his usual deadpan, “is it too late for you to get out of the picture?”
Jon Voight might not be “Lookin’ to Get Out” of this picture, but it had the reputation of failure. Leonard Maltin labeled it a bomb and ended his guide review for it with “they shot the picture in 1980 and unfortunately it recovered.”
The film would sit on the shelf for two years and go through many edits before being released into theaters where it suffered critical grilling. The film definitely was not a highlight of Ashby or anyone’s involved career.
However, before the late director shuffled off his mortal coil he donated his print to UCLA in a director’s cut format. Voight, who supposedly had some hand in editing the bomb version, was not aware of this until an Ashby biographer contacted him and informed him of it.
This lead to Voight lobbying for Ashby’s cut to finally be seen. I’ve not seen the original cut, but even Ashby’s cut doesn’t make a very good film. It seems like a germ of an idea that isn’t executed properly. Our main characters aren’t exactly the loveable losers that the film wants them to be. Voight’s Alex always seems to be laughing about a joke the audience never gets to hear and comes off as a bit insane.
Young mumbles through his role and is a more lovable lunkhead than Alex, think Lenny from Mice and Men in a leisure suit. Ann-Margaret is her usual stunning self and character actor Bert Remsen has a good bit as the faded gambler.
It all feels off though and I’m not sure more editing could make a purse out of this sow’s ear. It’s more of a novelty for Jolie’s first onscreen appearance than anything now and certainly falls at the very bottom of Ashby’s filmography.
Lookin’ to Get Out is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 16 minute “The Cast looks back” that has interviews with screenwriter Al Schwartz, Voight, Young, and Ann-Margaret. There’s also the 2 minute theatrical trailer.
Lookin’ to Get Out feels like a missed opportunity. I kept speculating to myself how it could’ve been made to work. It’ might’ve had a chance with some tweaking to the screenplay with more focus on the take down the casino plot, but it’s major problem is that we don’t care about our main players. I’m glad that Ashby’s cut finally got out, but the film just isn’t very good to begin with.
Lookin' to Get Out (Extended Version) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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