Blue Iguana is a 2018 comedy/thriller about of guys on parole who can’t pass up a good deal with one comes walking in the front door.
They say the best form of flattery is imitation, and as such, I can tell you that there’s a whole lot of flattery going on with Hadi Hajaig‘s latest crime caper Blue Iguana, a film so dedicated to reproducing what’s already been done, it feels like a spliced together edit of deleted scenes from better movies a decade old. That’s not to say there aren’t some solid bits scattered about this homage, but the script is so loose with its goals, the comedy far too glib, and the action so sterile, it’s just sort of limps along to its obvious end.
Eddie (Sam Rockwell) and Paul (Ben Schwartz) are a couple of dead end miscreants whiling away their time as greasy workers in a diner. Things look pretty bleak until in saunters Katherine Rookwood (Phoebe Fox), a young lawyer from England with a surprising offer. Naturally, it all sounds easy. Fly back with her, steal a bluepack from an art gallery and make some solid coin. Joining a few others recruited into the heist, things go off the rails quickly, with an accident that leaves one of the crew dead and Katherine pushed into a corner by a crime boss named Arkady (Peter Polycarpou), who sends his thugs to try and get the plan back on the right track. They don’t. To gain the upper hand, once Katherine learns of Arkady’s plan to make off with a precious diamond named Blue Iguana, she cobbles what’s left of her team and goes after it herself.
Already you’re sensing some familiarity, but whatever, the movie is a bubbling brew of homages and nods, and while there’s certainly nothing wrong with that, it becomes a tad relentless. The film kicks off without any setup, the opening scene thrusting Eddie and Paul into the game, Hajaig more interested in the speed, style, and action than making sure his audience is even able to get onboard. This means abandoning any real attempt at getting a handle on who these people are in favor of propping them up as archetypes we’ve come to know beforehand.
Things going bad in heist movies is almost the entire point of even making a heist movie, and some of the best at this work suspense into the laughs with an eye always on the characters. However, with Blue Iguana, the whole thing feels like it’s checking off a list, making sure to uphold the expectations and then turn each one up a notch. What’s frustrating about it all is the potential, as the cast is all up for the gig, with Schwartz working hard and a delightfully unhinged Peter Ferdinando as the mullet-wearing Deacon Bradshaw chewing up every scene he’s in. Rockwell is of course great fun to watch, earning some good moments with Fox and being the best reason to give this a look.
It’s just let loose too much, the gags and jokes not landing like they should and the gang never really clicking in sync. This keeps the experience bloated with hyper-stylized action, lots of trendy blood-splattering, and missed attempts at whimsy. It might offer a passable distraction for your movie night, but will most likely have you reaching one of the flicks that influenced it instead.