MovieChat Forums > 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997) Discussion > A comedic gem

A comedic gem

posted 17 years ago by fearless_flyer
6 replies | jump to latest

Clearly one of the more underrated movies of the 1990's and even moreso here on IMDB.

1. Of course the premise is absurd, but it's a comedy, it can do that.
2. Of course the plot is improbable.
3. Of course the whole thing is laughable.
4. Of course real hitmen never go through anything like this.
5. Of course the organized crime goons in the movie were laughable caricatures.

Then again, I don't know any hitmen or mobsters for that matter, so who am I to say...?

To me, this movie isn't trying to portray anything other than a comedic take on what might happen to a hitman if something like this did happen. Granted, it is a dark comedy but given the subject matter, how could you expect it not to be? This movie, plain and simple, was about entertainment for it's own sake, anyone trying to read into it or believes it to be a bad movie because of the title (which is one of the reasons I chose to rent it), missed the point. It was an exercise in making fun of someone/something/some situation that any sane person would never find funny. That's why it's funny.

I have a different take on how to rate movies on IMDB - I rated this movie a 10, because I think as a comedy, how well it delivered the material and how it made the absurd funny (in a black comedy way), it delivered above and beyond. As a movie, does it stand up to other movies I rated as a 10, say "Schindler's List", "Malcom X", "The Great Escape", etc.? No, it doesn't, but at the same time, it's not the same movie, not the same genre, not the same message, not trying to say or do the same things.

So to me, is this movie better than say "No Country for Old Men"? Yes, because I believe NCFOM is an overrated, overhyped lifetime achievement award for the Cohen brothers (speaking of the Academy Awards it received earlier this year). I rated NCFOM a 5 because the film didn't reach me on almost any level except to annoy me with obvious potholes and on so many other levels that I can't rate it any higher than that. So again, to me, 8HIADB is a better comedy than NCFOM is a drama/violent indee movie/slasher film and in that way is a better film.

My favorite scenes in this movie were as follows <<SPOILERS TO FOLLOW>>:

1. The singing heads dream sequence
2. The "you can't hide in there...the bodies are in there" sequence
3. The "we haven't been here an hour and she's already on the booze" sequence
4. Steve's - "head" commentary in the Jeep
5. The airport security stopping to look at the "gun" and finding something else
6. The "so-so Stu" conversation
7. The Joe Pesci-David Spade telephone conversation early in the film

A good fight is one you win!
James Woods as Eddie Dodd in True Believer

[–] scotbpens 16 years ago

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag is a VERY funny movie, and I agree it's one of the more underrated comedies of the '90s or any decade. Yes, it's clearly absurd and exaggerated, and makes liberal use of artistic/comedic license. In reality, over the time frame of several days in which the story takes place, those heads would be starting to decompose and stinking to high heaven. Pretty hard not to notice. But, it's just a comedy!

And "more so" is TWO WORDS, dammit!

All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?

[–] jac91604 13 years ago

Very funny, saw it when it came out.

Very few people seem to know about this film.

[–] marcusman48 13 years ago

As well they shouldn't. This one's only a footnote in the careers of Joe Pesci, David Spade, and George Hamilton - and as for everyone else, they've barely done much since. (Andy Comeau? I have to assume he stepped into a pool of quicksand or something, because this was both the first and the last time I ever saw him.)

It may sound like I hate this film, but no, there are many things about it I like. My favorite line is "THESE AREN'T BASEBALL CARDS! THESE ARE HUMAN HEADS!" But even funnier is the reaction of Pesci and Spade immediately afterward.

[–] agenericperson 12 years ago

i just thought id add i loved this movie. i thought it was really funny. ive always loved dark comedies. my dad rented this for me as a kid cause he knew that about it. its a shame its so unknown. it really is a gem if you can laugh at darker things.

while i dont fully agree with your movie rating system, i do agree with most your other points. my favorite scene is also the singing head dream sequence. it hits you out of nowhere and it has me in stitches every time i see it.

[–] marcusman48 12 years ago

It IS a dark comedy, though; that simply cannot be denied. HOME ALONE was pretty dark (ironically, I rented this because I had found Joe Pesci funny as one of the burglars in HOME ALONE), and ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE, while not exactly "dark", was fairly disturbing ("Finkle and Einhorn! Einhorn and Finkle!"), but 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG was much worse, leaving me feeling kind of dirty. I thought nearly everyone in the movie was a jerk and deserved to have their heads added to the bag. They were funny, sure, but sweet Jesus they were jerks.

I was still something of a babe in the woods when I watched this on video as a teenager, and in retrospect I probably should have chosen something else from the video store. I guess I assumed that all comedies were supposed to leave you with a happy, peaceful feeling.

(BTW, if you don't know why "Finkle and Einhorn, Einhorn and Finkle" is profoundly disturbing, you need to watch ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE as soon as possible. Or better yet, don't, since it will be a long, long time before you're able to shake that nauseating ending out of your head.)

[–] hansenmv2002 9 years ago

One of my all-time fav movies - that it is sick and twisted is the POINT. Spade playing the straight guy is pretty funny counter-intuitive also.

Mr. Hitman playing right now - I always try to picture how the hell they got all those actors stuffed under that bureau to sing their song.