The film starts out in New Jersey when Joe and Gus are around ages 10 - 12 years fishing on the shore. They are talking about life, their plans for the future. Joe is smoking a cigar. Gus warns him it is not healthy. Joe flicks the cigar back, it lands in a long pipe, which starts a fire that leads to some factory. In the background, the lights of a nearby city go out one after the other. In the next scene, Joe's photo makes front page news, he is credited with having caused a "blackout" in at least 1/3 of the city.
Next scene, Joe and Gus are adults, still best friends ... they live next door to each other, in almost identical houses. They have a family and are planning a "fishing trip of a lifetime" in the Florida Everglades. They drive down to Florida with their fishing boat behind them. They make a stop at a Florida cracker style restaurant and discuss their plans. A sophisticated British man, who it turns out is a con artist, overhears them. He plays them for suckers, while asking questions about fishing lures and flatters them for their knowledge and skills. After saying good-bye, he lifts the keys to their car and drives off. Joe and Gus look out the window and comment ... about someone having the same kind of car and fishing boat ... when it dawns on them what happened.
The hilarity continues ... somehow they manage to save their fishing boat and rationalize they are lucky, things could always be worse, at least they have their boat. The guys meet a wealthy fisherman who mentions a yacht club in Florida where he plans to go fishing, he invites them to visit. They are picked up by two young women, whom they believe are impressed with their looks and male attributes ... but who quiz them about the con artist. The conman had duped the mother of one young lady, married her and took off with her savings - they are out for revenge. Joe and Gus manage to make it to a run-down fishing camp, which had been damaged by one of the hurricanes. They show the manager a "discount" coupon, which entitles them to live in a trailer. While watching "America's Most Wanted" they discover that the con artist, is notoriously famous, and there is a huge reward out for his capture ... their goal is to catch him. The guys manage to lose their boat ... they meet up with a yacht and boating salesman who talks them into a trial run on a sophisticated yacht - for easy monthly payments that will last ... nearly a lifetime. The guys go out in the water and ruin a yacht race and run the yacht literally into the ground. They drop off the keys to the salesman declining to buy it.
Everywhere they go - whatever they touch - ends up literally smoking and burning. Things get very testy after they discover a map of where the con man left his stash. He knows they have the map and is hunting them. They do not realize the booty is guarded by Mad Maggie. This film is a hoot and worth watching if you love crazy antics. It is the unpredicatability of the twists in the plot which captivate the viewer. There is a song about fishing in the Everglades by Willie Nelson played as background music which adds extra spice to the wild and funny episodes. The ending is surprisingly good when Willie Nelson rescues the guys. In the final scene after catching the con artist, Joe and Gus are inteviewed on TV. They are heros and collect the reward money. Initially, the film seems absurd but once the viewer gets into the spirit of it, it is quite funny and truly worth viewing.
Erika Borsos (erikab93)
