HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN (1991)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Mickey Rourke is Harley, the biker who lives for nothing other than the thrill of the chase, I gather. He is seen cavorting with women in some hotel room, late at night. When he sees thieves attempting to rob a convenience store, Harley tackles them single handedly, reminding us of the cliche line: "You know this is not the first time that a gun was pointed at my head."
Don Johnson is the Marlboro Man, a former rodeo star who duct tapes his worn-out boots. He pines for a female cop named Virginia Slim (I shat you not!), played by Chelsea Field, who can't endure his absence much longer from her lonely bed.
The bare minimum of a plot has Harley and Marlboro Man robbing an armored truck carrying 2.5 million dollars that will help save a friend's biker bar (this bar still has the body of a cargo plane trapped in it). The bar apparently owes to the very bank Harley and Marlboro are robbing. Only problem is that our less than dynamic duo has robbed the wrong truck since all they acquire are bags of a new synthetic drug hitting the streets. This corrupt bank headed by a young Tom Sizemore leads to his minions, dressed in black and bulletproof trenchcoats, to try to whack the smoking duo. Yep, Harley and Marlboro Man smoke a lot in this movie. And everyone's name is a cigarette brand. You can thank screenwriter Don Michael Paul for all the cigarette references.
This is probably a movie that I should despise yet Rourke and Johnson have good chemistry and keep us awake in the midst of cliches you have seen a million times before. A death-defying jump into a pool from a hotel roof that is at least 70 stories high is hard to swallow, especially when they emerge unscathed from the pool. Harley can't shoot straight at all until the plot requires him to shoot straight. You also know Marlboro Man and Virginia Slim will end up together (A sentence I never imagined constructing in my life). It is also sweet to see Daniel Baldwin as a bad guy who seems geared to appear in a "Terminator" sequel (yes, Virginia Slim, he is that robotic). There is also a strange coincidence concerning Chelsea Field's Virginia who has a line that goes something like this: "You weren't around. I was lonely." This is her response to why she is getting married, which Mr. Marlboro ain't happy about. What is odd is that Chelsea Field later appeared in "The Last Boy Scout," released a few months after this movie, where she utters the same exact lines!
"Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" is neither too trashy or exploitative, nor too serious or too unintentionally comical. It is what it is and makes no apologies. Pure junk-food entertainment.
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