New On Netflix: Mad Dog and Glory

[BoxTitle]Mad Dog and Glory[/BoxTitle] [Netflix] [NetflixWatch id="724807"/] [NetflixAdd id="724807"/]

Mad Dog and Glory is a strange little film with big pleasures, the first of which is the amusing (and rather successful) “casting against type” of its two male leads — and the greatest of which is a hot (and rather unexpected) nude appearance by its leading lady. Robert De Niro plays a meek Chicago crime scene investigator ironically nicknamed “Mad Dog”; after saving the life of a crime boss and would-be stand-up comic (Bill Murray, in a refreshingly non-lazy performance) during a robbery, Mad Dog is rewarded with one-week “access” to the gangster’s moll, a bartender named Glory (Uma Thurman). Soon, this Dog is a new Man and seeks to free his lady-love from her debt to the goodfella, who turns out to be not the nicest guy in the world. It’s fun to watch De Niro play a wimp and Murray play a mobster (who regularly visits a shrink, and keep in mind this is years before The Sopranos), and young Uma is charming and crazy gorgeous as the woman between them. Mad Dog and Glory is no great piece of work — it’s ultimately too laid-back for anything to ever feel truly at stake, even when Murray starts hitting things (and people) — but it’s an entertaining and pleasing oddity that deserves to be more than just a hidden and all but forgotten ’90s gem.