Pass the Cheese Platter...

Blaise Rybeck
Created by William Applegate Jr.

The problem with The Big Fall, a 1996 B-flick that went straight-to-video, is that after a promising if unspectacular start, evoking all the usual hard-boiled P.I. touchstones, it unfortunately morphs into a rather predictable action flick. Director and star C. Thomas Howell's scenery-chomping turn as private doofus BLAISE RYBECK is an unintentional laugh riot, as he trots out a weak line of what we're supposed to take as hard-boiled patter. While wearing a fedora and trenchcoat, no less.

I'm not sure is this one was supposed to be a parody or merely a half-ass detective film, though I must admit -- whether the yucks were intentional or not -- that there were a few halfway-decent wisecracks in it.

Blaise gets roped into looking for the lost brother of British babe, and soon finds himself tangling with a homicidal FBI agent and bungee-jumping mob enforcers.

FILMS

• THE BIG FALL ...Buy this DVD
  (1996, PM Entertainment Group)
  Written by William Applegate Jr.
  Directed by C. Thomas Howell
  Produced by Gaby K. Malouf, Joseph Merhi
  Line producer: Richard Pepin
  Starring C. Thomas Howell as BLAISE RYBECK
  Also starring Sophie Ward, Jeff Kober, Titus Welliver, Sam Seder, Justin Lazard and William Applegate Jr. as "Agent Wilcox"
  

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith, following a lead from television/ film editor Chris Baldemor.