The Mighty Quinn (1989)

Starring: Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, James Fox, Tyra Ferrell, Mimi Rogers, M. Emmet Walsh, and Art Evans
Grade: C-

Despite this film being about a murder needing to be solved because the victim’s head was cut off with a machete, The Mighty Quinn really made me want to visit an island resort.

Then again, maybe I’m just ready for the summer.

Summary

On some island in the Caribbean, chief of police Xavier Quinn (Washington) oversees Galang’s (Peter Lloyd) wedding going on outside. A woman tries to flirt with him, but he insists he’s married, though the woman heard otherwise. She knows Quinn is separated from his wife Lola (Sheryl Lee Ralph) at the moment, but he doesn’t respond because he’s there for business. He spots uninvited guest Bim (Baldwin Howe), and Bim grabs Galang and takes him to a nearby abandoned building. He pulls a knife on Galang until Quinn enters and takes down Bim. After Quinn tells Galang to go back to the wedding, Bim tries to explain that Galang’s wife is carrying his baby, but Quinn tells him that she can still marry whoever she wants. He lets Brim go after talking with him, and the woman meets Quinn outside the building. She continues to flirt, so he smiles and asks how long the offers lasts. She gives him until sundown. Following this, Quinn gives Bim his knife back on account of “respect”, which seems dangerously idiotic. Just then, he gets a call to go to the Pater hotel because Donald Pater was murdered. On his ride there, he almost crashes with his good friend and known criminal Maubee (Townsend). Maubee was driving a motorbike with a girl in the sidecar up a “going down road”. It’s not the other way around until 4PM which is five hours away, and it’s been like that for 7 days a week, for the last 10 years. Quinn flips out on Maubee until he notices the briefcase that fell on the ground from Maubee’s bike. Quinn wants to know what’s in it, and Maubee promises it’s just women’s clothes. Just as Quinn is about to open it though, he stops Quinn and threatens to get a lawyer. Quinn lets him go since they are friends and he doesn’t have the time. At Pater’s, Quinn takes a look at the body and asks where the girl is who found the body. Thomas Elgin (Fox) interrupts to say he sent her home. He hopes for Quinn to catch Maubee, but Quinn is confused by the accusation. Elgin says they found his notebook, so he gave it to one of Quinn’s men. Dr. Stuhlberg (Bernie McInerney) shows up, as he was a guest at the hotel and was kind enough to take a look at the body. Stuhlberg states he examined the corpse two hours ago, but the man was killed this morning.

By the way, Pater’s head was cut off.

Quinn has Officer Jones (Evans) call the hospital and drain the jacuzzi Pater was found in. Following this, Quinn takes a look at the room and the closet, and there are some female clothes hanging up because Pater had a lot of women around according to Elgin. Even so, Elgin is already bothered because he wants Quinn to do this later, so he can speak with the guests at the hotel to assure them everything is good. In the closet, Quinn finds a briefcase that is identical to the one Maubee had earlier. Jones enters the room with a phone cause Dr. Richardson wants to speak to him, but Elgin butts in and hangs up the phone because the family wants the body to be flown back. Quinn won’t let it happen until cause of death is determined, but Stuhlberg says he made it abundantly clear as to what happened. Quinn reminds Stuhlberg that if a murder were to occur on the mainland that he would expect an autopsy. Stuhlberg says that’s different, and Elgin adds on, as he’s talked to Governer Chalk (Norman Beaton) and he’s taking care of it. Suspicious at the both of them, Quinn still tells Jones to call the ambulance to take the body to the hospital. Outside, Quinn runs into Elgin’s wife Hadley (Rogers). Following some light flirting between the two, Quinn wants a better idea of who Pater was, so she brings up Pater’s offshore corporations, numbered accounts, holding companies, how he was very active in stamping out communism in Latin America, he’s got friends in high places, and that he’s a patriot. When he questions the women that Pater involved himself with, she says they have been native women, it hasn’t happened lately, and he wasn’t discreet about it. Elgin shows up and shuts down the conversation, so Quinn politely leaves. Elgin asks Hadley what she said to Quinn, and she responds, “comfortable answers to uncomfortable questions”. He then accuses her of wanting to fuck Quinn. She slaps him, and he slaps her back. She leaves and walks right past Quinn who saw the whole thing. Quinn tells Elgin he needs a guest list for his seargeant. Elgin gets in his face, but Quinn doesn’t back down to Elgin trying to intimidate him. Even so, Elgin just wants Quinn to bring in Maubee.

Quinn and Jones drive back to police headquarters, and Quinn is told that Governer Chalk has been calling, and he wants to see him.

As Quinn changes out of his clothes near the prison cell, he tosses Maubee’s notebook over to Athens (Fitz Weir) and tells him and Jones to investigate all the women in it. He insists they be good, thoughtful, and to “use your brains” when dealing with them because they might be trying to protect Maubee. He gets in his car to leave, but Athens stops him to say Lola called and wanted him to pick up his son Henry. Elsewhere at some bar, Maubee bets Nick $10,000 he can’t drink this beer that everyone has been using as an ash tray. As he downs it, cops try to pick up Maubee, but he escapes with his briefcase. He also kicks down one main component to the upstairs portion of the poorly constructed building and the entire thing caves in. Quinn meets with Chalk, and Chalk is mad at Quinn for what went down with Elgin because he thinks everything was clear as to what happened. He assumes it’s Maubee too, but Quinn wants a motive. Chalk thinks his long rap sheet is good enough for a motive, and he gets strangely firm with Quinn about how he wants him to do his job. Once he gets in his car, he changes his tune and invites Quinn to dinner on Friday if this whole thing is cleared up by then. Back at the police station, Nick is there for questioning but is extremely sick over the drink. Quinn is told about Maubee’s bet with him. Quinn tells him they’ll get him to a hospital and asks if he got his money from Maubee. When Nick says the cops came before he could collect and that it was supposed to be a singular bill, Quinn has to tell him a $10,000 bill doesn’t exist. It’s now nighttime, and he gets a call that the body of Donald Pater was sent to the airport on direct orders from Chalk. As Quinn and Jones discuss Maubee, if he did it (Jones doesn’t think he did), and the $10,000 bill, Quinn just remembers that he had to pick up Henry and drives off. He picks up Henry who is sitting by the school playing the drums to himself. Surprisingly, he’s not even mad that Quinn is as late as he is. Henry talks about learning in school about the fer-de-lance and how it’s the most poisonous snake in the world. If it bites you, you go blind and die in 15 seconds.

Quinn says that plantation owners imported the snake to discourage the escape of slaves, but the snake started biting white people too because it didn’t know the difference. So, the plantation owners brought in the mongoose to kill the snakes. Since the mongoose are nocturnal, it never came into contact with the snakes. He relates this to how things are on the island. They get home, and Lola is rehearsing with her two friends, as they are some sort of singing trio. After Lola stops to put Henry to bed, one of the women suggests Quinn play some piano with them, but Lola cuts in to say he doesn’t do that anymore. She takes Quinn to a different room to yell at him in private about bringing Henry home at 8PM instead of 5PM. He says he was busy, but she wants him out of the house. In addition, she explains that she couldn’t pick Henry up because she was in the middle of her rehearsal. She calms down a bit once it starts to register that Quinn has been chasing a killer. He thinks Maubee did it because the signs point to it, but Lola doesn’t think so because he’s “a lover, not a killer”. Quinn sarcastically invites her to the station to explain her theory, so she leaves the room without saying anything. With no one at the airport at night, Quinn takes old Asian friend Dr. Raj (Keye Luke) to take a look at Pater’s body. He gets back to the station and finds that woman from the opening of the movie waiting for him. She tells Athens to relay to Quinn that her offer has been extended until dawn. Quinn overhears it, hides until she leaves, and sneaks back into the station to sleep. In the middle of the night, an unseen figure puts a picture of Quinn and Maubee when they were children on the counter, along with handcuffs. The prisoner near Quinn’s hammock Coco (Carl Bradshaw) wakes him up to go see what it is. Quinn examines the picture of him and Maubee. The next day, Quinn is swimming in the ocean near the shore, and Maubee shouts to him that they need to talk. Quinn runs at him, but Maubee runs away. At the station, the cops and Coco argue about how far Quinn will go considering his known friendship to Maubee until Quinn appears and everyone shuts up. Quinn does say Maubee exemplifies everything wrong with this island, and they will catch whoever did it.

After the fat cop makes a snide comment, Quinn dares him to double down, but he doesn’t. The cop did however find a woman that Maubee has been with recently, Isola (Ferrell). She is the niece of the island’s local witch, Ubu Pearl (Esther Rolle). Just then, Quinn is called to meet with Chalk, so he does. Chalk found out about the airport incident the night before, but Quinn passes it off as mandatary procedure in a homicide, especially because it looks like people are trying to prevent something from happening so it must be worth a look. Chalk compares this to an event 10 years ago where a group of black extremists used automatic weapons to kill 12 white men and how things haven’t recovered since, but Quinn doesn’t think they’re comparable. Chalk does think they’re comparable and how such news will affect the island’s economy because people will be afraid to travel to the island. He wants Quinn to get Maubee and threatens his job. Quinn says it won’t stop him from finding Pater’s killer “and anyone else who helped him cover it up”. Miller (Walsh) from Pater Enterprises is brought in, and Chalk says he’s here to tie up loose ends. Quinn is told to take Miller to Pater’s and to fill him in on the way there. As Quinn and Miller walk out together, Miller assumes Quinn doesn’t think Maubee did it. Quinn doesn’t confirm nor deny. He just says it’s up to the courts to decide. Miller accompanies Quinn to Ubu Pearl’s place, with Quinn asking to speak with Isola. She says Isola isn’t there, but Quinn wants to look inside the house anyway. Pearl threatens to fight him, so he dares her because he can arrest her. Once he gets in her face to show her that he isn’t joking, Pearl lets him in the house. Even so, she puts a curse on him. Quinn isn’t scared because he feels like he already has one on him. Miller tries to take a picture of Pearl, but she says it will cost him. Quinn finds Isola’s baby and a chest. Pearl won’t tell him what’s inside and invites him to open it, so he does. On one side, there is a partial statue of a face. On the other side is a wicker basket. Quinn opens it and there are a bunch of snakes inside, so he jumps back.

Pearl laughs as Quinn exits with Miller. Somewhere in town, Quinn is questioning random people about Maubee’s whereabouts, but nobody is snitching. Just when Turtle (Nabbie Natural) is close to saying something, a guy says some white guy with silver sunglasses, and a cowboy hat was looking for him at the Tropic Eagle. At Pater’s Hotel, Quinn jokes with waiter Percy until Elgin has him get back to work. Elgin tries to act tough with Quinn again, and Quinn implies that Elgin is involved in the murder. Elgin tells Quinn he’s finished, but Quinn isn’t scared because he’s going all the way to find the real culprit. Elgin threatens to have Quinn thrown out, but Quinn invites him to call the police. Quinn sneaks into a building on the property to investigate it and sees display weapons on the wall. He senses Hadley behind him, so he tells her she’s missing a court dagger (“18th century, Indonesian ceremonial machete with a pearl handle”). Handley questions if it’s the murder weapon, and he asks her the same thing. She changes the subject to ask how he got in there, and he passes it off as his uniform doing it. They discuss how her and Elgin sleep in different bedrooms, and her recalling Maubee breaking into her home a few weeks ago to steal. She confronted Maubee and let him have the machete because he liked it. She starts to imply they had sex after, but it might be just to throw Quinn off. Anyway, Quinn wonders if Elgin knew what happened to her those few weeks ago, but Hadley says he only looks like a man of action. He’s not actually one. In Pater’s room, Quinn does some more digging and Miller pops in, with Quinn saying someone had a look around already but he doesn’t know who. The two exit, and Miller asks why Maubee has never done time despite having such an extensive rap sheet. Quinn admits the local people protect Maubee because he does things they can’t but probably wish they could.

Later, Quinn is being followed, so he stops his car and pulls the man over at gunpoint. The man driving is the one locals were talking about with the cowboy hat and sunglasses, Jose Patina (Alex Colon). He takes Patina out of the car, and Patina hands over his papers but they are smudged, indicating they are fake. Quinn asks what his nationality is, and Patina responds, “Whatever the visa says”. Quinn pats him down, finds his gun, and a silencer. Jose keeps giving smart-aleck fake answers to his questions, so Quinn arrests him. In the jail cell, Quinn continues to question Jose and how he’s here on “vacation”. Jones counts up $3,100.85 that was on Patina, and Patina tells him he can have it if he can make a phone call. Quinn puts it in his shirt pocket and asks Patina who he’s going to call, but he doesn’t say. Athens interrupts to tell Quinn he has a phone call from Dr. Raj. Quinn continues to question Patina and asks him for any information on the murder, even if its speculation. Naturally, Patina denies knowing what he’s talking about. Quinn wonders why his gun is modified and guesses Patina is an assassin or working for a foreign government. He refuses to say anything, so Quinn fires several shots all around Patina while he sits up against the wall. Patina doesn’t even flinch and asks if he can have his phone call now. Later, Quinn drives by Lola who is riding her bike. Things seem cool at first, but it doesn’t take long for Lola to get agitated with him again. She tries to leave to get ready for her audition and refuses Quinn’s offer to see her after. He follows her on foot. When he tells her she’s changed, she flips it back on him. She brings up how his priorities have been all mixed up, especially with his focus now being on things he never wanted before. He argues that he was trying to make it better for the both of them, but she doesn’t see how things like getting invited to the governor’s lawn parties helps them. She says he never will be them because he’s not one of them, but right now, he’s not even himself. Her question to Quinn becomes, “Who are you?”.

Dr. Raj says the victim died suddenly but not instantaneously due to the combination of searing, profound pain, and “the emotional shock of watching his arm turn deeply cyanotic (purple)”, meaning he died of a snake bite. Sometime after, Quinn is walking with Jones and brings up the fact that despite everything they had on Patina, his phone call got him out of there. Quinn storms into Chalk’s office to demand to know what’s going on, but the calm Chalk says he had a writ, the man sent a lawyer, and there was nothing he could do. Quinn tells him he’s going to arrest him again, but Chalk tries to stop him. He turns and tells Chalk that Pater died from the poison of a snake bite, and he was already dead when he got his head cut off. This means Maubee’s innocent, but now, Chalk says it’s up to the courts to decide. Quinn can’t believe what he’s hearing because he’s not putting an innocent man in jail, but Chalk starts to threaten him with how deep he’s going. Quinn jokingly says he should apply to be a poultry inspector instead and leaves.

Quinn’s hunch was right. There is something fishy going on in his island and a lot of powerful people are in on it. Even so, he’s going to get to the bottom of things no matter how badly he’s threatened.

My Thoughts:

We need more movies set in the islands. There is an overabundance of rich culture and history seemingly undiscovered on film that could make for some unique stories. That is The Mighty Quinn‘s biggest attribute, the rarity of it all. Led by a young Denzel Washington as the titular local police chief, The Mighty Quinn succeeds at giving audiences an intricate murder plot and mystery movie aided with humor, action, a certain level of respect for how different things are handled in this part of the world, and a fruitful village of citizens that brings this fictional island to life. For a non-franchise one-off film, the world-building of this screenplay is done at an expert level. Shortly through the first act, the details are done well enough that the viewer gets a good enough sense of the everyday happenings of the island, how its citizens are, and even how the local government is. Really, it’s like they are in their own world and everybody knows everybody, from Governor Chalk all the way to local citizen Maubee, who is somewhat of a cult figure that all the townsfolk love despite his criminal behavior. The mainland and the rest of the world for that matter don’t know what goes on here, and it makes the events of the film, and its protagonist, seem that much more important because Quinn is the only one standing in the way of corruption at the highest level of the island and potentially a larger conspiracy that could affect everyone if left unchecked. Granted, there is quite an adjustment period to the overly complicated narrative, and I still wasn’t feeling the film as a whole. Nonetheless, its score, playful energy, humor, and colorful characters are all magnified by the magnificent locale of the Caribbean.

It goes without saying how big of fans we are of Denzel Washington, but it was just a little too jarring to hear Denzel attempt an island accent. It’s not bad, but it was just hard to get over as a Denzel fan. The whole time, I just kept thinking to myself how much more at ease he would be, and the viewer would be, had he just played himself within the confines of the island. Though it’s based off the novel Finding Maubee and the screenwriter can’t change too much if they are adapting the book accurately, I would have much rather preferred if Washington’s Xavier Quinn was a regular American sent in from the mainland to solve the case just so the actor could be himself. Sure, it would shoot a hole into the story since a big part of it is how much clout and equity Quinn has on the island as the locally famous police chief with his own theme song, but that’s how big of a fan I am of the actor. This is one of those rare cases where I would’ve sacrificed the integrity of the adaptation purely to see Washington run wild on this picture. On the other hand, you could go in the route of Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and just have everyone ignore the fact that Washington’s Quinn doesn’t have an accent. I would have accepted that too. Seriously, that’s how much of a fan I am of Washington’s persona. He didn’t need the smoke and mirrors of Xavier Quinn. Had he played himself, it would’ve helped the movie’s staying power much more. It could’ve been Out of Time without the moral dilemma the main character faces. Quinn, who spent 3 years in the US Marines and another in Quantico (FBI school), being sent to this island “where the poultry inspector gets to be governor and a guy who smokes ganja and getting laid his whole life gets to be a hero” is enough of a dilemma in itself.

The action of the movie is essential to how things play out, but it is noticeably cheesy. At times, it’s unintentionally funny. The biggest example of this is Quinn’s go-to move being this ridiculous martial arts-style sweep to the leg that he attempts more than a punch. It does not fit Denzel at all. Based off how it’s cut, it looks like a stand-in performs the move anyway, but that’s why it becomes even more comical. It’s too unrealistic. In one of the biggest “What the fuck” moments of the movie, Quinn goes to these ruins by the beach to confront Maubee for answers. Remember, they’re still best friends, Quinn wants to help him even though he knows Maubee is implicated in this thing, and the last time they interacted together, they were drinking and falling asleep in a stolen car while reminiscing. Despite this, Quinn shows up to these ruins that Maubee is hiding in, and Maubee swings down from the ceiling and attacks Quinn. He wants to wrestle for some reason, like they are brothers or best friends in grade school, and he starts recalling how their teacher Thunderstone said Quinn was better than him (“Thunderstone was right”). It’s such a random, inexplicable scene that makes you sit back and question, “Is this really the time?”. They are running against the clock to prove Maubee’s innocence and are being chased by these shady figures who want to kill them, but Maubee wants to wrestle for old times’ sake? Is that not the dumbest fucking thing you could think of in this moment? Despite this scene being a total waste of time, what makes it worse is the actual fight between them because Denzel and Robert Townsend attempt these wildly fake acrobatic moves that they clearly cannot do in real life, with flips and karate kicks, and it looks more like breakdancing than a fight. It’s so outrageous that it completely takes us out of the story. Even when Miller has a gun pointed in Quinn’s face, Quinn’s first instinct is to sweep the leg instead of the normal reaction of trying to move Miller’s hand in a different direction, knocking the gun out of his hand, or punching Miller in the face. Jean-Claude Van Damme wouldn’t even attempt such a move at that distance. It’s not appropriate for a situation like that.

Plus, Quinn isn’t fast enough with the move either, so we can’t even suspend our disbelief enough to think he can do it effectively. On top of all of that, the out of shape and unathletic Miller takes the kick in the shin but doesn’t budge. He only goes down halfway and keeps the gun pointed at Quinn as if to say, “You thought that was going to work?”. Then, Miller inexplicably keeps Quinn alive after his failure to take him down because he wants to go after Maubee. However, his reasoning is so half-hearted, calling Quinn too little and his mission too big, that the viewer can help but sit there in confusion. If Quinn was this little part of the equation, then it would make even more sense to kill him because it wouldn’t matter if he lives. There is legitimately no reason why Miller couldn’t have shot and killed both Quinn and Maubee in that moment. He was the only one with a gun and Maubee was on top of a roof, giving him enough distance to pull it all off in seconds, especially if he’s this professional. For the record, of all the genres that The Mighty Quinn crosses into to make up its fun mystery plot, the action parts are without a doubt the worst.

Much like Trainspotting or Bob Marley: One Love, there are times where the accent of certain characters especially in groups, though accurate, are just flat-out hard to understand to the point where crucial details are missed. If you’re relatively hard at hearing or you tend to put captions on when you view a film, the same might be the case for The Mighty Quinn. As great as it is in showcasing the tropical life and the citizens that inhabit this reckless and fun little island, it’s almost a little too true to life because you will find yourself lost at times if you’re not fully engaged. This is a big part of what brings The Mighty Quinn down. There are so many interweaving layers to the main conspiracy at hand that not only will you be confused at certain details, but it dares and almost succeeds at making the viewer lose interest entirely once another character or wrinkle is inserted into the narrative. When combined with a potential need for subtitles, the movie gets frustrating. Clearly, the novel and the screenwriter take joy in the story unfolding, which is why so many things are thrown in to distance the cop movie from its peers. For the most part, it works in this aspect, and it’s a creative and fun adventure for Quinn to navigate through. Unfortunately, it takes one twist too many around the time when Miller and Jose Patina interact at the hotel. It starts to make you question if some characters were completely necessary to telling the story, or if the movie could have flowed better if certain characters were combined into one to help their depth and development. For instance, James Fox’s Thomas Elgin is treated as this major player in the first act and he’s obviously a suspicious character because of how adamant he is on what went down with Pater, but despite how much screentime he gets early on, he’s effectively thrown to the side to the point where he’s not even mentioned in the third act. Miller being one of the secret villains to watch out for is not the twist they think it is.

By the time he enters the feature to tie up “loose ends”, it doesn’t take much for the viewer to assume ulterior motives, but the climax only involving him against the heroes of the story isn’t nearly as satisfying or final as they make it out to be, helicopter or not.

What about Thomas Elgin? He was a major part of setting all of this up and actively tried to withhold evidence! His wife in Hadley played a part in trying to throw off Quinn and knows a lot more than she admits to him, so that could make her an accessory to the murder, and Dr. Stuhlberg should be disbarred for his involvement too! Isola’s freaky ass needs to be in prison for life as well, but apparently, we’re just supposed to forget about what she did? Even if Quinn is kind of friends with Governor Chalk, he was working adamantly against Quinn because he was trying to convince him to pin the murder on Maubee just to keep everything under wraps for the sake of the island’s economy. That’s about as corrupt a top official can be! None of these storylines that played such a huge part in strengthening the mystery and Quinn’s uphill battle had a finish to it either. One bad guy died, and we’re just to assume that everything’s cool now? I don’t see how that’s the case. It’s like they forgot to make 10 minutes of the movie. Also, as different as each character was, there was still a lot left to be desired in terms of depth. Again, my biggest gripe is with Elgin. He’s overly dramatic for no reason, and the reason he is there in the first place is never fully explained. He just gets in Quinn’s face at the murder scene, and no one questions who the hell he is. All that we know besides his temperament problems is that he’s not as tough as he acts (according to Hadley) and his wife is a whore. Hadley gives just enough information to Quinn for the plot to move forward, but what’s her motive? Is it only because she wants to have sex with him? There’s got to be more to it than that. How is she benefitting from all this? Why leave a trail of clues for Quinn to pick up on other than to waste time? If she wanted to help because she hates her husband, then why play games? Why wouldn’t she just tell him everything? What’s holding her back? I don’t know because there’s no real end to her arc either.

Then, you get weird scenes like Quinn and Lola reconnecting and kissing, and then the camera moving over to show their son Henry watching and smiling. The follow-up is Henry walking into their room the morning after, and they’re both naked, with Lola motioning Henry to leave with a smile. Was anyone else uncomfortable during this part?

Ubu Pearl was an intriguing and unsettling character but other than being this odd presence in the film, her scenes didn’t amount to all that much. Truth be told, aside from Denzel, I wasn’t interested in any other character to really warrant me watching The Mighty Quinn again. Thankfully, one of the movie’s saving graces besides its direction is its wonderful music. From the stays-in-your-head-for-days “Natty Dreadlocks” to the reggae cover version of Bob Dylan’s “The Mighty Quinn”, the tropical score and light-hearted tunes keep the energy at a high, even when we start to get bored with the convoluted avenues the plot tends to go down. Each time, a smile will come to your face, with one of the better scenes in the movie being a down Quinn hitting the club to silence and going straight to the piano to liven the mood of himself and everyone else to play a bluesy ballad. Eventually, everyone joins in, and they all sing in unison “You ain’t seen nothing like the mighty Quinn”, and as he smiles, you feel as if you’re watching the story of a cinematic legend unfold. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t stack up to make this song mean more. Even with some things holding him back, at least Denzel Washington shows us the earliest instances of how cool he is. From his smooth walk where he owns every room he enters and exits to asking for rum when offered a drink (something that you really don’t hear that often in cop films), Washington’s undeniable movie star magnetism is ever present.

In smaller towns, there are indeed local legends that everyone likes and turn a blind eye to when they do something stupid. That is the heart of the Maubee character, and it’s presented well. With that being said, Robert Townsend’s performance was subpar. He’s not funny, he’s nowhere near as charismatic as he needs to be for such a well-defined role like this, and he doesn’t come off as this sexy criminal that can get any woman he wants. The only amusing thing he did was steal Chalk’s car in the middle of the night stating, “What’s he need it for? Him’s sleeping!”. The underwhelming portrayal of Maubee was all on Townsend. They gave him the character on a silver platter, but he’s just not the enigmatic figure that everyone wants to be around, and he certainly doesn’t fool the audience into believing it either. Even Henry asks Quinn what made Maubee special, and he’s like, “I don’t know”. If he can’t come up with a reason, then I know I’m not alone because I didn’t see it whatsoever. Quinn refers to himself as the “Elmer Fudd” to Maubee’s more likable “Bugs Bunny”. It’s an interesting comparison at first but makes less and less sense when you think about it because Quinn is cooler than Maubee. Plus, Elmer Fudd wasn’t a cop. He was a hunter. If he said he was Ranger Smith to Maubee’s Yogi Bear, it would kind of fit more, but Maubee just isn’t that cool to warrant such a comparison. If anything, Quinn is James Bond and Maubee is The Noid from the Domino’s commercials. As the story progresses, you start to question why Quinn goes to bat for him this often because he’s not charismatic enough to deserve it. This is the exact opposite intention of a character who is supposed to be this “cool” person that everyone can’t help but love. In addition, the big reveal of his involvement in the Pater situation didn’t remotely make any sense.

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

After the aforementioned weird playful fight scene between Quinn and Maubee, Maubee explains how Isola’s baby is Pater’s, how Miller only wants the money, and more importantly, that Maubee found out from Ubu Pearl that Isola went to leave the snake in Pater’s place. This is a direct result of Ubu putting a curse on Pater for not paying up for getting Isola pregnant but the curse not working, and Ubu’s magic telling her to leave the snake at his place instead as revenge. By the time Maubee rode in to stop this nonsense, he was too late and saw the suitcase on the bed with the money and Pater on the floor. To throw off the investigation and to make it seem “like something it wasn’t”, Maubee’s FIRST instinct is to cut the dead man’s head off with a machete and put the body in the jacuzzi because it may not make the snake bite look as obvious. WHAT? This INSANE behavior just results in Quinn and Maubee laughing together as if this outlandishly gruesome response doesn’t at least warrant a wide-eyed, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” type of conversation. This was his first reaction? Was that entirely necessary? Also, for someone who has a woman in every neighborhood, why in the hell would he take it upon himself to get that deeply involved with Isola to the point where he’s covering up a murder by cutting off someone’s head? Is he out of his fucking mind? Not once did I think Maubee and Isola were so madly in love to where I could suspend the disbelief that he would go this far for her. She loves Maubee and protects him from Quinn by not revealing his location but so do all those other women from Maubee’s notebook. There’s not one moment in this story that makes me think Maubee’s relationship with Isola goes that deep. Actually, I think very few sane people in general would go that far for someone they aren’t even married to. This was a baffling reveal that just dejects you from the characters further, especially Quinn who just laughs and is calm because despite Maubee’s out-of-left-field reaction to seeing a dead body, it technically proves he didn’t kill anyone.

Even so, his friend is a certified maniac.

Dumbass behavior like jumping onto a moving helicopter only exemplifies this, as it’s yet another totally unnecessary response to what’s happening. What is this dude on, and why is everyone cool with it? On that note, Quinn digs into the history of the $10,000 bill at one point, and he starts to rant to Chalk about how any appearance of it is supposed to be turned over to the Secret Service and tucked in away in a treasury department, mentioning a hypothetical of the White House believing in a revolution against Congress’ wishes and using this unused currency that no one knows exists and getting away with it unless the bagman is killed and the money vanishes. After pointing out how the only solution is to take the money back and plug up the holes, like killing Patina, and Pater brought the money which is why Patina was there to pick it up, I almost lost interest completely in the movie. There were too many questions surrounding this entanglement bonus, not enough people answered for the theory or explained it further as to how it’s all tied together, and the aforementioned lack of people not explaining why they are involved in this government conspiracy turns into pure agitation. The only thing that stopped me from zoning out of this information dump 100% was Chalk’s lazy suggestion of staying out of the way to Quinn’s badass response of, “Governor, I’m in the way”.

Beautifully shot and directed by Carl Schenkel, the off-beat action comedy The Mighty Quinn is a nice ode to the islands and all its peculiarities. Even the most uneventful scenes have flare to it because of how much style is present in the film and how Schenkel handles it. It’s a somewhat entertaining murder mystery for a one-time viewing, it’s a lot more creative than your run-of-the-mill cop movie, it’s highlighted by some unexpected musical interludes, the alluring locations filmed are an incredible sight to see at times, and it’s held together by Denzel Washington as the lead. Unfortunately, the movie still barely reaches the finish line and crumbles under puzzling details, strange decisions, a lack of answers to questions they posed, and an unfinished feel.

Fun Fact: When the movie was almost made in 1971, Sammy Davis Jr. and Louis Gossett Jr. signed on to play the leads, but the production was ultimately shelved.