Small Change

 Quick Change (1990) has been described as The Out of Towners meets After Hours. After pulling off a brilliant bank robbery, the robbers can't get out of New York. But I saw it as a great transitional Bill Murray role.

It starts with Murray in full clown regalia, including feet and balloons, going to a Manhattan bank. The guard, Bob Elliott, tries to tell him they are closing, so Murray shows him a gun. He quickly takes the bank hostage and starts negotiating with police chief Jason Robards. He starts releasing hostages, first one, then two. These first hostages sort of melt away - yep, it's Murray, out of costume, and his two helpers, Geena Davis and Randy Quaid.

They head to the airport in their nearby getaway car, but get lost in Brooklyn. The signs for the expressway were taken down due to repairs, and the repair guys aren't from Brooklyn. Then they get robbed, get held at gunpoint, have their car towed and destroyed, and so on. Murray's catch-phrase for this movie is "I hate this town". 

They get a cab driver who doesn't speak enough English to understand "airport" (Tony Shaloub). Quaid jumps from the moving taxi to get another one and is almost killed. They have to hide out in a mafia clubhouse and sort of accidentally rob them. And so it goes.

While this is going on, Geena is questioning her relation with Murray, who seems to care more about the Perfect Heist than about her. Quaid is just a dopey man-baby who loves Murray and Davis about equally. And Murray - well, he's Bill Murray. Clever, deadpan, absurd. I feel like this movie is the staret of the Murray we know and love - not the Saturday Night Live Murray, but the Coffee and Cigarettes one. 

This was a fun movie, a hate-filled love letter to New York. The bank scene is so good, I wish it had gone on longer, like Inside Man. The New York as antagonist stuff was fun, because everyone loves to hate New York. The romance between Murray and Davis didn't really hit for me, but Quaid's love for them both did.