The Main Event (1979) I do realize I'm weeks late in posting an obituary salute to the late Ryan 'O Neal, so I thought it best to catch up by re-watching one of his biggest box office hits.
A true 1970's movie superstar, O'Neal dominated the pre-multiplex era of crappy twin-theaters with thin walls between the two auditoriums. Amid the emerging new breed of 'ordinary guys' like Pacino, DeNiro, Hoffman and Elliot Gould, O'Neal was an old fashioned blonde Adonis hunk, a throwback to Hollywood's long gone days of dashing leading men with gleaming teeth.
But like those golden age stars, there was a likable ease about him and he could easily slide into multiple genres....comedy ("What's Up Doc", cornball drama ("Love Story") action ("The Driver") and even anchor Kubrick's cold hearted costume epic "Barry Lyndon"
And just like Cary Grant in classic comedies like "Bringing Up Baby", O'Neal possessed perfect comedic timing and was unafraid to make a fool of himself to get laughs.
"The Main Event" re-united him with his "What's Up Doc" co-star Barbra Streisand and adhered to the same screwball rom-com formula of the previous film......pitting a befuddled O'Neal up against the aggressively motor-mouthed Streisand.
This time he's a young washed-up prizefighter, whose contract was purchased as a secret accounting scam by the now fugitive business manager of Streisand's perfume company. Faced with bankruptcy and the loss of her company, Streisand's one remaining asset is 'O Neal's 'Kid Natural' boxer.....if only she can coax him back into the ring again to win some prize money.
The rest of the film, I hardly need to describe, .Romantic sparks fly in every direction and as already proven in "What's Up Doc", O'Neal and Streisand most definitely possessed that elusive 'chemistry factor' that all successful rom-coms require. Audiences loved watching O'Neal hilariously hold his own while Streisand' ran rings around him with her machine-gunning, gag-laden delivery.
And at least one of their many rapid fire exchanges took me by surprise by its prescient relevancy to our world today.....(O'Neal: "You treat me like an object! It makes me feel like a girl!")
I'll not bother with the ups and downs of O'Neal's personal life and career, which were exhaustively well documented even while he was alive. Despite lousy films, dissolved marriages, estranged children and bad health, he never stopped working and made it to the age of 82 before leaving us.
He still managed to leave behind a sizable collection of memorable movies and as a light comedian, he truly excelled......if he'd been around in that Hollywood 'golden age', Jack Warner or Louis B. Mayer would've put him in dozens of crowd pleasers like "What's Up Doc" and "The Main Event".....and since BQ's feeling all sentimental and nostalgic, we laughed constantly through the latter.....3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2)
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