8 Heads In A Duffel Bag: [DVD] [1997] by Joe Pesci

Despite the most intriguing and possibly off-putting film title of all time, 8 Heads In a Duffel Bag turns out to be an entertaining black comedy that owes more than a little to Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955). Irascible mob goon Tommy (Joe Pesci) is ordered to escort the decapitated heads of eight scumbags from East to West coast America. That reliable movie chestnut, the switching of bags at an airport, means they wind up in the unwilling hands of Charlie (Andy Comeau) down in Mexico. Once the mistake is discovered, the humour derives from a succession of failed attempts to dispose of the duffel bag. A tug of war with a dog and an encounter with a blind laundry woman are just the tip of the iceberg. Providing slapstick support to Pesci's straight man is Kristy Swanson as Charlie's flighty fiancée, Dyan Cannon as her recovering alcoholic mother and George Hamilton as a father who can't make a move without calling his mother. Further buffoonery occurs when Pesci interrogates and then teams up with Charlie's roommates. If it all sounds highly unlikely and in bad taste, then you've got the idea exactly. References to GoodFellas early on make it clear that no-one is playing this for anything but macabre laughs. On the DVD: An anamorphic 16:9 ratio ensures that none of the heads are cut off at the sides; and the picture is backed by a perfectly adequate three-channel Dolby track. The token extras are the theatrical trailer and a five-minute promo. --Paul Tonks