Gone Fishin' is a 1997 comedy film starring Joe Pesci and Danny Glover as two bumbling fishing enthusiasts. Nick Brimble, Rosanna Arquette, Lynn Whitfield, and Willie Nelson co-star.
Plot
The film begins with Joe Waters (Pesci) and Gus Green (Glover) as two bumbling buddies who love fishing with a passion. In the first scene, we are introduced to Gus and Joe when they are around nine years old. They are sitting down by the water, and Joe pulls out a Cigar he found in his fathers bedroom. After Joe lights it with a Zippo lighter, he begins to cough and hack on the smoke. Gus takes the cigar away from Joe, and tosses it near an old metal pipe. Unfortunately it turns out the old metal pipe opens up as a tunnel that's filled with oil. The cigar sets it ablaze, and a huge ball of fire shoots through the pipe, into the tunnel, and makes its way to the city of Newark that sits behind the water. Joe and Gus look in the distance and see the ball of fire exploded into a telephone line, and the power goes out in the city. Gus stares shocked, while all Joe says is "Holy smokes, eh Gus?" thus setting the tone for the rest of the film. The two bumbling buddies then are transported by way of the cigar explosion THIRTY SIX YEARS into the future, where we see old Gus operating a crane lifting a storage container in a shipping yard. Joe then pulls in driving his Blue Barracuda '68' Plymouth, and honks the horn for Gus to jump in. Gus becomes distracted, pulls the wrong lever on the crane's controls causing it to eject the storage container high in the air, and crash into the shipping yard managers office building. Gus does not realize this, and hops into Joe's car as they drive off laughing together. When they arrive home (they live in a house that's divided into two halves, one for Joe's family and one for the family of Gus) they begin packing for their fishing trip to The Everglades down in Florida. As they pack their boat full of beer and other provisions they may need for the trip, their wives warn them that Thanksgiving is the next coming Thursday, and that if they aren't back by then, they will "kill" them. Joe and Gus set their Clocks for 4:30 AM, and they begin their drive from Newark to Florida. When they arrive in the everglades, they pull in to a diner for some breakfast. Once inside they pick a seat, and ask the waitress to bring them some breakfast. A man sitting in the booth behind them starts to make a friendly conversation with Joe. As they are talking a waitress sees the man steal Joe's car keys, and slip them into his pocket. Before the waitress can stop him, the man goes outside, and speeds off in Joe's car, as their boat un-hinges from the back, and crashes through the diner wall. In the next scene we are introduced to two girls named Rita and Angie, who are coincidentally trying to track down the same guy who stole Joe's car for other personal reasons. When they stop in the same diner for some breakfast, they see the hole in the wall caused by the accident. When Angie asks what happened the waitress informs the two girls about the car robbery. When Rita pulls out a picture of the man, and the waitress tells her that its the same guy, the two girls ask where the guys whose car was stolen went. The waitress tells them that they "shouldn't have any trouble finding them" and walks off laughing to herself. We then cut too Joe and Gus pushing their boat by themselves with great difficulty down a road. Rita and Angie pull up in their car and ask the two men if they need a ride. Joe and Gus see this as a miracle considering they need a ride, and that the two women have great sex appeal. Joe and Gus hitch a ride with the two girls, and give them their license plate number to give to the Collier County Police. Gus ties a figure eight knot to the back of the boat, but he doesn't tie it the right way. As a result, the rope slips off. Then a nearby freight train speeds by, and hooks on to the back of Gus and Joe's boat, and pulls it down the railroad. Gus and Joe are left stranded. They later hitch a ride with two guys named J.P. and Bubba, who pass a gas station with Joe's car in the parking lot. Joe sees the man pumping gasoline is not the man who stole his car.Joe asks the gas station attendant where the guy who parked the car is. The attendant tells him hes in the bathroom. Joe looks through the car , takes out a red cane, and tells Gus "Hes gonna get a little piece of work". Joe goes into the bathroom, planning to kill the thief. However.. the man loads a 38. Special, and plans to kill Joe. But Joe escapes. The gas station attendant continues to pump gas, even after Joe speeds off, and drops his cigar in the gas puddle, causing the man to nearly go up in flames. Joe and Gus find out that their hotel they wanted to stay at, was wiped out in Hurricane Andrew, and they wind up staying in whats left of it-which is just a trailer, and outhouse. while watching "This Countries Criminals" (a T.V. show), they find out the man that stole their car is a murderer that takes women's money. They find out that there is a $100,000 reward to information to the capture of him, they are thrilled when they realize that the knife they found in the glove compartment has blood on it, they believe they are rich and decide to buy a boat the next day. When they arrive at Phil Beeslies boat emporium, they receive a salesmen pitch, they are fooled to purchase a $32,359 dollar boat. In less than an hour they destroy the boat. When they decide to go home, they suffer a flat tire. While looking through the trunk, Gus finds a map to the money that the con artist had hidden. when they celebrate by staying at a luxury hotel, Gus sleepwalks and destroys the hotel with a fire, losing the map While fleeing, the barracuda breaks down and Joe suffers being struck by lightning. He then remembers the map they go and find the stolen money. When they find the case that contains the money an alligator called Mad Maggie attacks them and they flee in terror. They go back to the barracuda the con artist comes behind them with a gun and make them push the car into a swamp. He then ties them up and flees saying he has a plane to catch. Then their fishing hero Billy "Catch" Pooler appears and releases them. Gus and Joe realize that it was a sea plane, they chase the con artist with a fan boat. When they capture the criminal they are rewarded the $100,000, but it is all gone to repair the damage they caused, save for 42 dollars. When home they decide to go swimming and Mad Maggie appears in the water where the two men will presumably meet their doom.
Filming accident
During production of the film, stuntwoman Janet Wilder was killed when a speedboat being made to jump a ramp landed in a crowd of extras. Wilder's husband and father-in-law were also injured.[1]
Reaction
The film was a critical and financial disappointment. In his book famed film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film a "BOMB" rating which is the worst rating a film can get from Maltin. He called it "an annoyingly unfunny gambit" and declared that it was a waste of Pesci and Glover's talent, and "this film really smells". Film critic Chris Hicks of Salt Lake City said after Gone Fishin' and 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag the academy should have asked Pesci to return his oscar. The film also had a pretty low box office income of about $19 million domestically.
Distribution and Release History: "Gone Fishin'" was released by Hollywood Pictures which is one of the brands of the Walt Disney Company that releases more mature-themed films. Although the film could probably pass as family entertainment Disney chose to use their Hollywood brand for distribution considering the fact that the film has all adult characters and many Disney films revolve typically around adults and children. "Gone Fishin'" concluded filming in mid 1996 and was scheduled by Disney to be released around the Holiday Season that year. However Disney felt this was the type of movie that would fare better during the late spring-early summer category so Disney scrapped the original Christmas time release date and move the film's release to the end of May 1997 which more or less was the start of Summer movie season that year. Despite the fact it was released late Spring-early Summer that year it did not help the films chances of getting a very big audience due to the fact some other blockbusters had been released previously and more blockbusters would follow throughout the rest of the summer.
See also
References
External links
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