The proliferation of '80s buddy-cop comedies forced filmmakers to resort to increasingly novel combinations of mismatched crime-fighters. In 1989, Turner & Hooch and K-9 were willing to overlook the human species altogether when searching for partners for Tom Hanks and James Belushi, respectively. Proving that there's a step down even from a film partnering Belushi and a German shepherd, 1990's Loose Cannons features a reckless loner paired with a mentally ill cop with the zaniest case of multiple-personality disorder ever committed to film. Opening in the aftermath of a gay-Nazi-porn sale gone horribly awry, Loose Cannons stars Gene Hackman as an iconoclastic vice-squad detective prone to bullying noisy lotharios for not using condoms. ("Safe sex in the '80s is no joke," he explains.) Assigned to solve the murder of several figures dressed as characters from Alice In Wonderland, Hackman is partnered with Dan Aykroyd, a forensics expert whose psychiatric issues cause him to riff his way through pop-culture-crazed stream-of-consciousness rants. Hackman immediately bristles when dealing with the persnickety Aykroyd, particularly when a fight at an S&M bar causes Aykroyd to impersonate Clint Eastwood, a foppish British man, Snagglepuss, and a Western announcer in rapid succession. As a police tactic and diversionary move, channeling the effete, velvety tones of Snagglepuss seems marginally effective at best—pointless and counterproductive at worst—but that doesn't keep Aykroyd from doing it regularly. Eventually, Aykroyd's sharp non-Snagglepuss-related police work leads the wacky team to pornographer Dom DeLuise, who is involved in the murders and in possession of a film featuring Hitler having sex with a prominent male German politician. After Hackman and Aykroyd interview DeLuise, German goons attempt to retrieve the film. During a car chase, a stressed Aykroyd snaps and offers a half-hearted impersonation of William Shatner and then Leonard Nimoy; only a crash prevents him from impersonating the entire cast of Star Trek. The goons then chase Aykroyd, DeLuise, and Hackman onto a train, where the thugs' guns and training are no match for Aykroyd's patented Roadrunner impersonation. The Hitler film eventually ends up in the responsible hands of Mossad agent Nancy Travis, but only after Aykroyd climactically overloads the head German goon's pop-culture receptors with groan-inducing impressions of Mr. Bill, Pee-wee Herman, and The Church Lady.
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