- published: 16 Jan 2016
- views: 115
Men at Work is a 1990 American action comedy film written and directed by Emilio Estevez, and starring Estevez and his real-life brother Charlie Sheen.
Carl Taylor (Sheen) and James St. James (Estevez) are a pair of troublemaking garbagemen who dream of owning a surf shop. The two uncover an illegal toxic dumping operation in their own city, Las Playas. The movie begins with the pair collecting trash as they usually do, by tossing garbage cans in the street and making noise that disturbs the residents. One of the local cops hassles them frequently, but Carl and James seem to have gotten used to this treatment.
After work, the pair spies on a woman living across the street with a telescope; they discover that she is being mistreated by a man who is with her. Determined to right the wrong, Carl shoots the man in the rear with a pellet gun. He and James both hide and laugh. Shortly afterwards, the man - a local politician named Jack Berger - is strangled and ends up found the next day by Carl and James in a yellow can. They decide that turning in the body would implicate themselves, as they had shot him earlier.
Carl and James are two pleasant but unambitious garbage men. Carl has a telescope with which he observes his neighbors. One evening he sees a man giving a female neighbor a hard time. As she leaves he shoots the man with a pellet gun. Hiding, he and James miss two men strangling the man and leaving with the body. When he appears in a can on their route they are afraid and hide the body, fearing that they may be implicated in the death. Trying to crack the case, they spy on the woman, join up with a slightly to majorly crazed Vietnam vet, kidnap a pizza man and help to protect the ecology.
Keywords: 1990s, apartment, beach, brat-pack, buddy-comedy, california, car-chase, chase, corpse, disguise
[last lines]::Radio Announcer: Well, I think you should definitely dump the dude!
Louis: There are several sacred things in this world that you don't *ever* mess with. One of them happens to be another man's fries. Now, you remember that, and you will live a long and healthy life.
Louis: Aww, lookie here. Looks like somebody threw away a perfectly good white boy! [looks up to a poster of Jack Berger on a street sign] And he sure looks a helluva lot like that dude!::Carl: We're screwed!::James: What do you mean, we? You're the one who pulled the trigger, pal!::Louis: What the hell is goin' on?::James: Uh, Louis, Carl seems to know this guy!::Carl: I don't know him at all!::James: What I'm trying to say is, uh, uh, uh, he shot him!::Carl: With a pellet gun!::James: But he thought he hit him in the butt!::Carl: I did him in the butt! Look Louis, I know that I did not kill this man. Last night, this guy was beatin' on his ol' lady. So I took it upon myself to end the dispute.::Louis: So you shot him?::Carl: With a pellet gun!::Louis: So you said. [Louis stands the body of Berger up out of the barrel] Now you said you hit him from your apartment across the way.::Carl: Yeah.::Louis: So how the hell did he end up here?::Carl: Wha, why don't you *ask* him?::James: This is wrong! We should just have gone to the cops and told them what happened!::Carl: Hey listen! You are just as guilty! You were there, that makes you an accomplice!::James: Screw you!::Carl: You are an asshole!::James: And you are a trigger-happy idiot!::Carl: Well, I'm not going to rot in jail alone!::James: Well you're not gonna screw up my life, you son of a bitch! [James slugs Carl, and both begin to roll on the ground fighting]::Louis: Hey! [Carl rushes over to break up the fight, dropping Berger's body]::James: You and your stupid pellet gun! Ohhh, waaaaahhh!
[Carl and James playing Trivial Pursuit]::Carl: What does a phrenologist feel and interpret?::James: The size of Walt's asshole. A phrenologist feels and interprets the bumps on your head. Skull features.::James: Who was Richard Nixon's chief of staff during the final days of Watergate?::Carl: Oprah Winfrey.
James: What are you doing?::Carl: I hate shitheads who bully their women.::James: So what are you going to do?::Carl: Shoot him.::James: What?::Carl: It's the principle, James.::James: With a pellet gun? What are you going to accomplish using that stupid thing?::Carl: It allows me to seriously aggravate a situation without actually changing the course of history. It also stings like a bitch.
[Carl prepares to go across the street to spy on Susan]::Louis: Are you sure you know what you're doing?::Carl: C'mon, guys. I'm not gonna get in over my head.::James: Yeah, well that depends on which head you're talking about.
James: This is the last year we throw trash.::Carl: You said that last year.::James: Yeah, but this year I mean it.::Carl: You meant it last year.
James: I want to report a murder and a kidnapping.::Dispatcher: Did they take the body?::James: No, no, I have the body.::Dispatcher: Did you kill the victim, sir?::James: No, I didn't kill him.::Dispatcher: Have you been kidnapped?::James: No, I'm not the one who's been kidnapped. Listen, listen, listen, I know this sounds really strange...
James: What an absolutely gorgeous day. Warm Sun, beautiful women...::Carl: And the air is just right for drinking!
James: [offering a slice of pizza to the pizza delivery man] Are you hungry? Would you like some?::Louis: [having a Vietnam flashback] Don't give him any, James.::James: Why not? He might be hungry.::Louis: He's a prisoner; he should be treated accordingly.::James: Have you completely lost your mind? We're not soldiers and he's not the enemy. He's a pizza man.::Louis: Back in Fubai, he would have been killed the second he knocked on that door. I would have snapped his neck like a twig. And he never would have seen it coming, either.::James: Louis, Louis, calm down!::Louis: [pointing the pellet gun at the pizza delivery man] The commie bastard gets no food!