With THIS CAST, how in the hell did it totally fly under the radar from EVERY SINGLE award's show, except for a Best Song nomination at the Oscars? This is one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE MOVIES!
I mean ... it's a Ron Howard film too, produced by Bryan Grazer!
Michael Keaton, Robert Duval, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid, Jason Robards, Jason Alexander, Catherine O'Hara, Lynne Thigpen, Roma Maffia, Jill Hennessey, Spalding Gray, etc!
I just recently saw this movie. It's a bit dated in terms of the way it was filmed, but it is an interesting film, and it probably was really good relative to 1994 (that sounds like a backhanded compliment, but it isn't meant to be one; it is simply a compliment).
I enjoyed it, and thought, like you, that the cast added a lot of value to the project. Perhaps what kept it from attaining awards-heights was its unfortunate reliance, in a couple scenes anyway, of over-the-top slapstick. I'm thinking in particular of the gunshot scene with Randy Quaid's Michael McDougal.
I also have one criticism about the arrangement of the film -- I either would have gone with no prologue (if I recall correctly, there was one before the credits with the scene of the murder, wasn't there?) and had the focus entirely on Michael Keaton's Henry Hackett's quest to change the headline, or I would have had the prologue start with the scene with the SWAT unit. That might have tightened the film a bit.
I agree, though...entertaining movie.