I remember watching Freebie and the Bean as a kid and I even remember the short lived television series and I found the film to be enjoyable. I can recall a climactic scene when one of the cops takes on a kung fu kicking cross-dresser. However in later years I came across some extremely negative reviews and decided to re-watch this film after a few decades.This is a freewheeling film that is a sort of a cross between of MASH and Dirty Harry. James Caan and Alan Arkin play two off beat San Francisco cops trying to take down local crime boss Red Meyer who his also being targeted by a hit-man. In the opening scenes we see them emptying his trash into their car boot to look for evidence.As the story goes on the plot meanders, at one point we have prolonged scenes where Arkin accuses his wife of cheating on him at other times the story is confusing. The film is an early example of the buddy cop film and also has high levels of gun toting violence, police brutality and zany car chases which must have inspired The Blues Brothers.I still enjoy some surreal elements of the film such as the scenes Caan and Arkin have with Alex Rocco in his office and the anarchic style is enjoyable to an extent but too often it descends into silliness at the expense of plot development.However one thing noticeable was the amount of shootings in this film. These two guys make Dirty Harry look like a pacifist. They just brandish their weapons with no regard to the term reasonable force and at times so many ordinary members of the public are put into danger when they are about.The other issue is the casual racism, homophobia and sexism in this film. I understand the film is of its time so certain derogatory terms are expected but did actress Valerie Harper really had to be listed as 'Beans Wife' in the title credits? Harper plays a hispanic character who is made to look rather brown faced. Then again Arkin is as convincing as a Mexican origin cop as Charlton Heston was in Touch of evil. The blame for all this has to be laid at director Richard Rush to be so behind the curve.Still the film is fun, Arkin and Caan make a good team and have some good banter. It is actually Arkin who is unpredictable even though he is more cautious compared to the gung ho Caan.However the similar themed Busting that came out at the same time, which starred Elliot Gould and Robert Blake now looks like to be the better film.

Richard Rush directed this (intentionally?) uneven blend of comic-macho clumsiness and violent police action set in San Francisco. Two cops (well-cast buddy couple, Alan Arkin and James Caan) bust chops and wreck cars in an attempt to nab a numbers-racketeer. Rush is attracted to a messy visual style--cajoling comedy combined with bursts of bloody violence--yet the blood is cartoon-red, a signal to us this is all in good fun. One of the villains is an evil transvestite, another cue for derisive approval (villainous gays quickly became a lamentable cliché, coming right on the heels of murderous hippies). The leads are wired for self-detonation (was Rush trying to get them to emulate Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland from "MASH"?). Supporting cast is solid, with Valerie Harper exceptional in small role as Arkin's wife, and some of the comedy works, but much of the rest is decidedly off-putting. ** from ****

Thoroughly enjoyable to watch, Alan Arkin and James Caan make a great comedy duo. Plus, perhaps the only time you'll ever see a car crash through a third-story window.Here's a spoiler -- and what lifts this movie above most others in the genre: After an hour and a half of silly shenanigans, you suddenly discover that there was a serious plot going on. One is tempted to start the film over from the beginning because you clearly weren't paying enough attention.The one downside of the film, IMHO, is the ending, where one guy that's supposedly seriously hurt is suddenly OK and being silly again. That didn't work for me.

For what it is - a cop buddy movie - FREEBIE AND THE BEAN is the paragon. Violent action, high comedy, low humor, more car wrecks than a weekend with the Lohans, and something rare in any genre: two hours of genuine sympathy between grown men. Plus Alex Rocco. Alan Arkin and James Caan play cops in love, an un-ironic friendship displayed with banter and charisma. Mutual appreciation and respect is palpable in every scene. (This is even more impressive in light of Alan Arkin's public denigration of working with Richard Rush and this particular film-making experience generally.) They are aided by a Laurel & Hardy-meet-Lenny Bruce sensibility in the script and direction, which demands the extent of their abilities at the height of their powers. Gifted comedians both, Arkin and Caan invest the technical stuff - timing, delivery, physicality - with real emotion. It doesn't hurt that Robert Kaufman and Floyd Mutrux have given them wonderful things to say, and wonderful situations in which to say them. Richard Rush uses a lot of carnival music, and this is not his only evidence of carny taste. He likes to titillate, shock and amaze. That's all fine, as far as entertainment goes, but Rush has aspirations. Throughout his career he's made gestures to the absurd and surreal, with mixed results. His movies often seem giddy, his hand showing on purpose, pawing in self-reflexive gesture. This kind of trapeze act doesn't always work. THE STUNTMAN, for all its many virtues, does not pull off 100% of the tricks up its sleeve. Fellini and Fosse had a surer hand for that sort of detail. This movie aims lower and succeeds at just about every level, though careening on two wheels. The whole film feels just on the edge of out-of-control: the plot, the story, the action, all strain credibility. The cops kill people, destroy public and private property, bicker, donnybrook; the robbers preen, prance and pratfall. The jokes and the violence push the limits of good taste. And the guy on that trials bike isn't even trying to look like James Caan. But it's all part of the cuckoo world of Me Generation Hollywood, show biz kids drunk with power and roaring for approval. You can almost catch a buzz off all the cocaine blowing around the post-hippie pre-yuppie San Francisco set.