Bird on a Wire (1990)

In search of an easy watch one night last week, we settled on Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn comedy, Bird on a Wire. Nothing Goldie Hawn has been in could be described as a hard watch could it? Or Mel Gibson for that matter, he wasn't in torture-porn cack The Passion of the Christ after all. Bird was a very 90's film, utterly ludicrous in it's premise, with some unbelievable fight and actions scenes. 

Gibson plays a witness protection participant who is recognised by Hawn, who'd been engaged to him years previously. A call to corrupt FBI man Stephen Tobolowsky and the men Gibson was running from are back on his tail, chasing him and Hawn from a series of Gibson's witness protection placements - a hair salon, a vet's and eventually a zoo - in the final location an extended gunfight plays out in an enclosure that has tigers, lions, piranha, lizards, chimps and myriad other animals that you would never place together in such a way in real life. It makes for an exciting conclusion to a funny but never amazing movie, especially since it never resorts to fake puppets or green screening with the animals. Hawn and Gibson have an easy chemistry that makes them a pleasure to watch, and it's odd how, well, hot Gibson could look (despite the dodgy pony-tail look), whilst Hawn was (and is) stunning.