May 11, 2016

Sometimes, there are characters in genre pictures that are so darned righteous and awesome, you can’t stop thinking about them or their amazing feats long after the movie is over. This column is dedicated to those cinematic bad-asses that keep us coming back for more. And after having revisited the two F/X movies this week, featuring the equivalent of everyone’s favorite Uncle Brian Dennehy, I wanted to show my respects for his character of Lt. Leo McCarthy!

Now, I’m sure the whole point of “detectives” in these crime mysteries is to be damn good at solving… well, you know, mysteries. But I love the fact that even though we, the audience are far ahead of the characters in the movie, Brian Dennehy’s Leo catches up almost immediately. Make-up FX legend Rollie Tyler (the great Bryan Brown) is recruited by the police to help stage a fake execution for notorious crime boss Nicholas DeFranco (Jerry Orbach). When it doesn’t go off according to plan and DeFranco may have actually been killed, it becomes immediately apparent that the police that hired Rollie are in on it and trying to kill him!

Col. Mason (Mason Adams) is in charge of the conspiracy and one of Leo’s first scenes in the movie is a brief interview with the good old Colonel. Although it appears that the chat yielded no new details, Leo was able to detect several facts based on body language from that one meeting. They’re trying to find information on a recently discovered body of a former cop, Adams. McCarthy notes that Mason claims to have never have heard of Adams, and yet Adams was a police officer that was fired in a very public newsworthy case, yet… he never heard of him? Also, when they mentioned that Adams was dead, Mason never asks how.

Of course, he figures out that DeFranco is alive and working with these corrupt police long before anyone else and manages to collide with Rollie as he completes his FX laden revenge scheme. With no one left to claim DeFranco’s hidden fortune, Rollie and Leo form a bond over the financial windfall of this “case.” At this point, Leo’s been suspended indefinitely by his superiors, but a ton of unaccounted for mob money should make unemployment tolerable.

For the sequel, Leo has taken up private investigating and springs into action when Rollie once again finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation. Well, OK, Leo takes his time to arrive on the scene, but we call that “building the suspense.” When he does finally reunite with Rollie, his first order of business is to scare the absolute bejesus out of him with his own creature from the first movie. “5 years I’ve waited, but I finally got ya!”

Right off the bat, Leo’s pouring drinks and hard at work. He’s asking very basic questions trying to figure out why Mike, Rollie’s girlfriend’s ex-husband, was killed in the line of duty. Based on Rollie’s description of the way the police were investigating Mike’s apartment, he’s able to pinpoint that this is an internal affairs incident and there’s something in one of Mike’s old inactive case files that someone wanted covered up. I’m telling you, he’s the mac!

And even when we reach the exciting finale, Leo is equally as prepared and ahead of the curve as Rollie is in setting up his own version of adult HOME ALONE for the culprits behind Mike’s murder.

Every once in a while, you meet a captain, police officer or detective in one of these movies that’s so awesome, it makes you feel smarter about yourself just by following their cinematic exploits. Leo McCarthy is one of those characters. And for that, he’s earned this hash tag.

#RESPECT

PS: His mustache in the original is on point.