Rating: 3.5/5
Julius (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Benedict (Danny DeVito) are twins created through a genetic experiment designed to create the perfect child. Julius is above average intelligent and also above average physically. Meanwhile, his brother is more of a mishap who became a petty criminal. The secret experiment also ensured that the two brothers knew nothing of each other’s existence. Years later, when Julius found out about his twin brother, he set off for Los Angeles to look for Benedict.
Good comedies play with clichés that the film world has always produced over and over again. The radiant hero, the nasty, unaesthetic witch, all of that is the crux of this medium that, at best, shows these prejudices, but is always tied to playing with its own clichés. Of course, there are also a number of films that make it their mission to challenge the viewer’s expectations and in doing so perhaps sometimes reveal what is going wrong. A prominent example of this thesis was in recent times Zoommania (2016), which as a fable certainly reaches its limits – like almost all fables – but still skilfully plays with expectations. Now back to the late 1980s. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the star of them. So one of them. We don’t want to hurt any egos here and then the Austrian in question just kept going from box office hit to box office hit. In 1988 he made his first attempt with director Ivan Reitman, who was never able to quite match the success of this work, but certainly has a certain appeal.
Now the premise is perhaps the joke itself. Twins – twins wants to make the viewer believe that Danny DeVito and Mr. Universe are siblings, more than that, they should be twins. That’s of course good for a thigh-thumper right from the start, because you can’t imagine a greater contrast in people. Well, we’ll get to those two in more detail later. The drama that unites them is the mother question. They want to know who their father is and whether she is still alive. Of course, it’s a bit unusual and sometimes goes below the belt when several male producers and an experiment are responsible for Julius and Vincent even existing. One wonders whether the origin of the two could even be deviant porn. Yes, but that can also be funny, sometimes. And then you also notice that Reitman and everyone involved knew what kind of nonsense they were ultimately taking part in. In terms of genre, this film can also be classified into the science fiction comedy category. It already did Ghostbusters – The ghost hunters (1988) and so did later Junior (1994), which also dealt a little with the question of procreation. There are a few strange tendencies towards Oedipus. One has to wonder why this was such an issue for Reitman.
But yes, there is intelligence at work, if you want to call it that Twins – twins clichés are reversed here. In principle, Mr. Universe acts as a fish-out-of-water who, of course, naively comes into a world where violence and sexuality stand in his way. What’s interesting is that this is again the most salient and one might think that there is a common thread running through these two topics, which can sometimes have something in common. But you shouldn’t think too far ahead. Ultimately, Reitman simply wants to serve simple voyeurism here by playing with the fact that “the man” of the 1980s has no understanding of violence and sexuality. Or rather, from his own strength and that’s why it’s handled very sympathetically and intelligently, at least in the segments. The irony of this is that Danny DeVito, who is definitely not considered the ideal of beauty today and probably wasn’t then either, can actually have any woman thanks to his self-confidence and his dominant demeanor. So once again Reitman scratches the surface here and focuses on the character over the superficial.
But if something revises everything, what Twins – twins maybe makes it bad, then it’s just the chemistry between DeVito and Schwarzenegger. The two of them clearly have fun playing these completely unequal brothers. And of course this is skillfully transferred to the viewer. Meanwhile, the film keeps moving back and forth between different genres and goes from comedy, to road movie, to romance, to science fiction, which also speaks for a very strong pacing. Whether the gags go beyond bad slapstick remains to be seen. In fact, everything has a certain charm. The variety is not only noticeable in general, even when the characters get from one dilemma to the next, it becomes clear that there is a lot of creativity here.
It’s endlessly funny Twins – twins not and you might be relying a little too much on his star power here. In the end you’re left with a film that is very digestible and yet equally creative, which is why you can easily forgive its big mistakes. The chemistry of the main actors, on the other hand, is breathtaking.
Twins – Twins Review
2024-02-05 11:10:17
#Twins #Twins #Criticism #Author #ProfessorX