Sometimes repairing stars of a hit film doesn't necessarily work as seen here with the case of Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda working together two years after making "Klute". Outside of a TV version of "A Doll's House", Fonda didn't make anything worthwhile for 6 years after winning her first Oscar. She has a strange curly dark wig (three years before Streisand did the same for "A Star is Born"), and once again plays a prostitute. Donald Sutherland has just gotten out of prison (harassed in the opening scene by Mel Stewart), and gets Fonda and Peter Boyle involved in a bizarre plot to repair an airplane after several other misadventures.

This is another one of those weird 70's comedy action films that seems to be anti-law and anti-establishment. Fonda and Sutherland work well together, but she seems to be just walking through her assignment and his character is just plain weird. It seems to have been forgotten almost immediately after release, one of those video store VHS dust collectors that even Fonda fans didn't know existed. Basically, it's pretty inconsequential, even with good supporting players like Howard Hesseman and John Savage involved. The best moment comes when Sutherland slaps Fonda and she slaps him right back and walks away.

Given the people involved, it is hard to see why this movie should be so messed up and dull. The writer, David Ward, wrote the amazing caper film "The Sting" two years later, Jane Fonda had just won an Academy Award for Klute, and Donald Sutherland had just done excellent work in films like "Klute," "Start the Revolution Without Me," and "Kelly's Heroes." Plotwise, the movie is a caper tale, with a small gang of bumbling misfits planning a big heist. At the same time the movie wants to be hip satire, a series of comedy sketches of the type that the NBC television show "Saturday Night" would do so well two years later. The bad result is that the plot makes the comedy bits seem awkward and forced and the disconnected comedy bits destroy any kind of suspense that the heist might have. It is quite literally a movie that keeps smashing into itself, just as the cars in the cars in the demolition scenes run into each other.

The only real interest for me was watching Jane Fonda. Her "Iris Caine" is supposed to be a light hearted version of her dramatic Bree Daniels prostitute character in "Klute" Yet, one doesn't believe her for a moment. It is always Jane Fonda pretending to be a prostitute that we are watching. It is as terrible a performance as her performance in "Klute" was terrific. It would be a good lesson for acting teachers to run the two films together to show how the same actress in the same type of role can be great or pathetic. It suggests that actors are only as good as their writers and directors.

Career criminal and demolition derby driver Jesse Veldini (Donald Sutherland) gets released from prison. His DA brother Frank Veldin (Howard Hesseman) just wants to keep him out of trouble. He reconnects with hooker/girlfriend Iris Caine (Jane Fonda) and his old friends. They decide to fix up a rundown PBY Catalina airplane. They do various petty crimes to finance the rebuild.

There is a confusing info dump early in the movie. This is trying to be an irreverent comedy but it's more quirky. It's down and out. I don't really know these characters' logic especially Jesse. He seems to be aimlessly searching for something that he doesn't even know. It's a bit muddled. It has the grim of 70's Oakland. I don't find this that much fun but these actors keep me interested. It's a borderline case.