Blind Date

Directed by Blake Edwards, Blind Date follows Bruce Willis’ Walter Davis as he agrees to meet up with Kim Basinger’s Nadia Gates sight unseen for a night on the town – with complications ensuing after Nadia has a few drinks and goes completely haywire. It’s a workable premise that’s employed to often shockingly underwhelming effect by Edwards, as the filmmaker, working from Dale Launer’s erratic screenplay, delivers a hit-and-miss comedy that’s increasingly more miss than hit – with the less-than-enthralling atmosphere compounded by Edwards’ distressingly desperate attempts at wringing laughs from eye-rollingly stale situations and scenarios (ie so little of this stuff is actually funny). And while there are a few chuckles to be had here and there – there is, for example, a hilarious recurring gag involving John Larroquette’s scene-stealing David crashing into various buildings – Blind Date‘s lackluster vibe is ultimately reflected in everything from its uneven, episodic structure to its somewhat disastrous third act to its oddly ineffective lead performances. (Willis is decent but bland here, while Basinger strikes all the wrong notes as her “wild” figure.) Edwards’ periodically compelling visuals buoy one’s interest from time to time, admittedly, and yet the picture is, in the final analysis, a fairly colossal misfire that squanders its myriad of promising, positive attributes.

** out of ****