On Tubi, I watched Romeo is Bleeding, a 1993 noir film directed by Peter Medak (The Changeling) and written by Hilary Henkin (Wag the Dog), where Gary Oldman played a corrupt cop named Jack who is on the take by the mob (he gives tips to them for cash and gets informants killed), and gets entangled with a Russian assassin, Mona (Lena Olin, who is clearly having a lot of fun playing a hot psychopathic killer); cheats on his wife with his mistress, and has this cliched New York City film noir voiceover throughout the whole movie that feels way too heavy handed to me.
On the plus side, I liked watching depictions of pre-gentrification Brooklyn and Queens, of empty, sparse neighborhoods in the Coney Island area and far reaches of Queens under the elevated trains, with a great cast lineup: Oldman, Olin, Juliette Lewis (albeit with a stereotypical Brooklyn accent), Annabella Sciorra, Roy Scheider, Michael Wincott, and cameos from Dennis Farina and Ron Perlman. The movie is fun to watch even as it gets more over the top and ridiculous.
One of the funniest moments in the movie to me was likely unintentional. Natalie (Sciorra), as Jack’s wife, is talking to him about how their marriage is falling apart and suspects he’s cheating on her and involved in questionable activities. She goes, “I don’t know what you’re doing, Jack, but whatever it is, don’t bring it back here.” The next time she sees him is after he gets two of his toes cut off by the mob because he didn’t kill Mona by a certain time, and he bursts into the house, all bloody and dirty, and goes “Honey, I fucked up! Pack your suitcase, we have to leave!” I just lost it laughing at that, picturing her mental reaction after telling him not to bring his corrupt drama and seeing him come in like that.
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