With the arrival of Big Trouble on DVD, we conclude the home video releases of a peculiar trilogy. While the tragic events of September 11 2001 clearly affected many things in the entertainment world, it directly moved back the distribution of at least three prominent films. Trouble, Windtalkers and Collateral Damage all were supposed to show up on screens in the fall of 2001, but studio execs decided they all hit too close to home to release them at that time.

So they got moved back to various times during 2002. Collateral Damage showed up first back in February, where it took in a lackluster $40 million. Windtalkers didn’t arrive until June, and it raked in a similarly weak $40 million. Right in the middle, Big Trouble made it to screens, and it nabbed a pathetic $7 million. Would any of these movies have done better if they appeared during their original release schedules? I don’t know. While the delays didn’t help, none of the flicks seemed terribly good either, so these flicks may simply have bombed because audiences weren’t interested in them.

Of the three 9/11 delays, Trouble offered the most pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect much from the screwball comedy but thought it actually provided a moderately fun and loose affair. It tossed out just enough wacky moments to make it enjoyable.

Attempts to synopsize the plot will be difficult, mainly because Big Trouble includes about a billion characters. Nonetheless, I’ll try. Eliot Arnold (Tim Allen) used to work as a very popular Miami newspaper columnist. However, Eliot goes off on his editor on the same day he discovers his wife’s cheating on him, so he finds different work and opens his own not-so-successful ad agency.

Puggy (Jason Lee) comes to town from Boston to get good Cuban food because he loves corn chips. He encounters ex-cons Snake Dupree (Tom Sizemore) and Eddie Ledbetter (Johnny Knoxville) at a bar. Snake beats up Puggy and takes his money, but the bar’s owners scare him away with a baseball bat, which sets Snake into revenge mode.

Two paid assassins – Henry (Dennis Farina) and Leonard (Jack Kehler) come to town to kill embezzler Arthur Herk (Stanley Tucci); the foot-fetisher sucks the toes of maid Nina (Sofia Vergara). Events converge on the Herk mansion, where we also meet his Martha Stewart-obsessed wife Anna (Rene Russo) and cynical teen daughter Jenny (Zooey Deschanel). Accompanied by buddy Andrew (DJ Qualls), Eliot’s teen son Matt (Ben Foster) comes to the home to “kill” Jenny with his Super Soaker.

Eventually all parties converge on the Herk home. I won’t bother to explain the set-up for this – it’d take too long – but that house acts as the meeting place for all these characters along with cops Monica Ramirez (Janeane Garofalo) and Walter Kramitz (Patrick Warburton) and FBI agents Pat Greer (Dwight “Heavy D” Myers) and Alan Seitz (Omar Epps). Much of the story revolves around a mysterious device that looks like a garbage disposal but apparently possesses more lethal potential.

While I don’t want to give away too much of the story, that device caused the release delay of Big Trouble. One scene depicts our characters as they slip it through airport security without too much trouble. I guess the studio execs thought that would be too troubling in the days right after September 11, and they might have been right, though the scene’s satirical intent seems too clear for it to be anything upsetting.

With all those major characters, Big Trouble could have been a muddled mess, but surprisingly, director Barry Sonnenfeld keeps things loose and fast enough to make it work. He integrates the characters quite well. None of them receive much definition; the movie only runs 85 minutes, which doesn’t leave much time for development, especially given all the plot exposition that needs to appear.

Nonetheless, the amount of delineation given to the participants feels just about right. The movie doesn’t require deep character exploration and probably works better with them treated in a fairly superficial manner. The film places a greater emphasis on situational gags than on character elements, so we learn just enough about the participants to make them work.

It helps that Sonnenfeld amasses a pretty solid cast. Though he probably won’t ever contend for an Oscar, Tim Allen’s shown definite growth as an actor over the years. I watched Trouble the same day I checked out Allen’s biggest live-action hit, 1994’s The Santa Clause. In that flick, he basically played an extension of his stand-up act personality, but he shows more depth in Trouble. Given his limited screen time, that improvement seems pretty impressive.

I don’t know if I’d call Allen the lead character, but he’s probably as close as we’ll get. He’s clearly the voice of original author Dave Barry, and he also acts as narrator for the tale and as its de facto hero. However, I don’t think he receives substantially more screen time than anyone else.

The rest of the cast fill their roles admirably. While I can’t say any of them stood out, I also discerned no significant weaknesses. Actually, perhaps the most impressive supporting performance comes from Deschanel. She makes Jenny seem like the model of teen disillusionment with very little effort.

Not everything about Trouble seems sunny, as the movie occasionally oversteps its aims. At times, the action seems way too busy and forced. Sonnenfeld tosses so many gags at the viewer that inevitably, many of them will fall flat. The movie simply seems a little too eager to please on occasion, and Sonnenfeld doesn’t appear to trust the material well enough to let us get a moment to savor anything.

Nonetheless, enough of the comedy works effectively to make Big Trouble an enjoyable experience. Dark comedies are a tricky genre. For every winner like Ruthless People, you’ll find scads of duds like Drowning Mona. While Trouble doesn’t approach the heights of the former, it avoids the pitfalls of the latter and provides a generally entertaining program.

Big Trouble appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, single-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While generally attractive, the picture of Trouble presented a few too many problems for a brand-new movie.

Sharpness seemed solid. The movie always displayed a nicely distinct and well-defined image. I noticed no signs of softness or fuzziness during this concise and accurate picture. Jagged edges and moiré effects created no concerns, but I noticed some minor edge enhancement at times. As for print flaws, some light grain and artifacting showed up on occasion, and I also saw a few examples of speckles and grit. However, none of these caused excessive problems.

Given the tropical Miami setting of Big Trouble, I expected a vivid palette for the film, and the colors mostly seemed positive. Usually the hues came across as vibrant and lively. However, at times they appeared a little heavy and oversaturated. Black levels were reasonably deep and dense, but shadow detailed seemed slightly thick at times. Most low-light situations displayed appropriate delineation, however, and overall, I felt that Big Trouble mostly presented a satisfying image.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Big Trouble seemed more consistently pleasing, though. While the soundfield maintained an emphasis on the forward channels, it broadened the spectrum nicely and opened up the proceedings well. In the front, music displayed fine stereo imaging, while effects blended cleanly and showed good spatial delineation. Elements appeared appropriately placed and moved convincingly across the domain.

Surround activity didn’t seem heavy, but I felt impressed with the rear support given the genre in which the film fell; most comedies barely use those speakers. Despite its forward emphasis, Big Trouble often made solid use of the surrounds, especially as the movie progressed. The climax offered some excellent audio from fighter jets, and a number of other sequences provided fine reinforcement from the surrounds.

Audio quality appeared strong as well. Dialogue sounded natural and distinct, and I discerned no issues related to intelligibility or edginess. Music seemed bright and bold and showed nice clarity and dynamic range. The score played a heavy role in the movie, and the music popped from the speakers in a positive way. Effects came across as accurate and lively, and they packed a surprising wallop. The film featured an almost shocking amount of deep bass, and those tones sounded deep and tight. Ultimately, the soundfield of Big Trouble seemed just a little too passive to earn more than a “B+”, but it still provided a strong auditory experience.

Although Big Trouble didn’t include many extras, it offered a couple of items. Most significantly, we found an audio commentary from director Barry Sonnenfeld, who provided a running, screen-specific track. The veteran of many similar pieces, Sonnenfeld seemed comfortable with the format and gave us a generally entertaining and informative listen. He fell silent a little too frequently and occasionally simply told us what we saw on screen, but Sonnenfeld detailed a lot of aspects of the production, and he did it with his usual dry humor.

Sonnenfeld gleefully related moments he stole from other movies, and he also detailed changes made between Trouble and Dave Barry’s novel. In addition, Sonnenfeld discussed some of his theories of comedic filmmaking. Overall, this track included a few too many flaws to seem like a great program, but it offered a generally solid and informative discussion. One disappointment: Sonnenfeld never mentioned the way in which September 11 affected the film. He clearly recorded the track after its theatrical release, so this omission seemed odd.

In an unusual touch, Trouble tossed in something called the Five-Minute Movie. In truth, it lasted seven minutes and 50 seconds, but essentially this edited out about 77 minutes of the film into this quick synopsis. Although a clever and quirky addition, it seemed pretty pointless.

Finally, the DVD offered some ads in the Sneak Peeks domain. This provided trailers for Out Cold and Corky Romano. Oddly, the package failed to include Trouble’s trailer itself.

No one will mistake Big Trouble for a comedy classic, but I think the film got unfairly ignored during its theatrical release. It comes at you in fits and starts, but it generally offers an amusing and brisk piece. The DVD provides decent but moderately flawed picture along with surprisingly solid sound and a minor roster of extras. I didn’t like Big Trouble enough to merit a purchase recommendation, but the movie would make for a nice rental choice.