Quick Change

Plot

Grimm, dressed as a clown, robs a bank in midtown Manhattan. He ingeniously sets up a hostage situation and then slips away with an enormous sum of money ($1 million) and his accomplices: girlfriend Phyllis and best friend Loomis.

The heist itself is comparatively straightforward and easy, but the getaway turns into a nightmare. The relatively simple act of getting to the airport to catch a flight out of the country is complicated by the fact that fate, luck and all of New York City appears to be conspiring against their escape.

For starters, the trio is seeking the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to get the airport, but the signs were taken during construction work, resulting in the three robbers becoming lost in an unfamiliar part of the city. Then, a con-artist/thief robs the trio of everything they have (except the bank money, which they have taped under their clothes).

When changing into new clothes, they are almost gunned down by the stressed incoming tenant of Phyllis' apartment, as members of the fire department respond to a call by pushing their hydrant-blocking car out of the way only to make it roll into a ditch.

When the three crooks eventually manage to flag down a cab, the driver is hopelessly non-fluent in English. This leads Loomis to jumping out of the moving cab to grab another, but he runs into a newsstand and the driver leaves, thinking he's killed Loomis. An anal-retentive bus driver, a run-in with mobsters and Phyllis' increasing desperation to tell Grimm the news that she is pregnant with his child add further complications.

All the while, Rotzinger, a world-weary but relentless chief of the New York City Police Department, is doggedly attempting to nab the fleeing trio. A meeting on board an airliner at the airport occurs between the robbers and the chief, who gets the added prize of having a major crime-boss dropped in his lap with their assistance. Unfortunately the chief only realizes who they were after their plane has taken off.

Cast

Reception

Despite not being a major commercial success, the film was well received critically. In fact, several critics claim it is one of Murray's finest roles: a jaded man who has had too much of The Big Apple. Also praised were the strong performances by the supporting cast, particularly Robards as the police chief Rotzinger, who, while almost as burned out as Murray, is still determined to capture the robbers as a swan song to his long career.

Roger Ebert, in his July 13, 1990 Chicago Sun-Times review, wrote: "'Quick Change' is a funny but not an inspired comedy. It has two directors...and I wonder if that has anything to do with its inability to be more than just efficiently entertaining."

The film currently holds a 80% 'fresh' rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.

Home media

Quick Change has been released on VHS in both NTSC and PAL regions in 1991, on Region 1 (NTSC) DVD in 2003 and on Region 2 (PAL) DVD in 2006.

Warner Bros. did delete one scene from the video. In theaters, it shows Murray in the vault where Davis starts talking rudely to him. Murray took her out to release her to the cops. The next scene shows the two of them in the bank lobby with Murray taping money around Davis' stomach. Then covering it up with her shirt. Murray then ripped her shirt at the top to throw the cops off more. With no make-up on, they then go to the cops. On video, Warner bros. left the scene out with Murray taping money to Davis. They thought that too much was given away in the plot that shown the two working together. It shows Murray taking her from the vault and then she and Murray (with no make-up on) are given to the cops. Davis' shirt is ripped without showing how it happened, or when Murray cleaned his make-up off.