T Bone N Weasel

Stars: Gregory Hines (A Rage in Harlem, White Nights, Eve of Destruction), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future series, The Addams Family, The Dream Team). Superior to many big-budget Hollywood "buddy" pictures, T Bone N Weasel is a cleverly written road film (Jon Klein wrote the script based on his own play) about a pair of shysters who are more often the hustled than the hustlers. T Bone (Gregory Hines), fresh out of the pen, hooks up with former con William "Weasel" Weasler. Armed with an old gun and a stolen car, the bickering duo hit the road. Their first stop is "De Sto," the southernized name for a convenience gas and grocery mart. Unfortunately, the cash register is stuck, and the store owner is actually an old neighbor of Weasel's, making this a less than optimum score for the would-be bandits. The old neighbor is just the first in a string of wild characters the duo meet up with: there's Mrs. Beaufort, a very large Southern racist who employs T Bone and Weasel for work (and other services); Happy Sam (Rip Torn), a used-car dealer who rips off the rip-off artist heroes in spectacular fashion; a policeman who's on the take; and the oily politician Dr. Tatum (Ned Beatty), who vows to end poverty in his county--not because he has a liberal conscience, but because he hates poor people. There's a bit of social commentary thrown in along the way, but this is basically not a film of ideas. This is a film of laughs, and some of them are real belly shakers. If only more TV movies were like this one. Audience: Just about anyone with a funny bone in need of exercise.