This Is a classic 70's 'Buddy Buddy comedy/Actioneer, that certainly paved the way for '48hr's 'Leathal Weapon' and many more cop flick's 'Freebie And The Bean' star's James Caan, as the macho tough guy 'freebie' Alan Arkin, is the short fused and neurotic 'Bean'

Freebie And The Bean have one goal together and that's to bring down the Obnoxious 'Red Myer's who is the local mafia kingpin, but whilst waiting for the Warrant to Arrest their man,They have to wait until Monday for the Important Warrant to arrive,The pair have to fight off various hit men,

It's down to Freebie And The Bean, to catch the assassins's And try and get their man with hilarious and riotous result's which have some of the finest car stunt's committed to celluloid!,

Freebie And The Bean Also star's Lorreta Swit, Alex(Godfather Rocco) And Valerie Harper AsArkin's wife,There is a mildly amusing subplot which has Arkin Convinced his Ethnic wife is cheating on him with equally hilarious result's!

The film also excel's in the verbal Chit Chat between Arkin And Caan, The film has numerous funny moment's including the scene where Arkin/Caan, whilst in pursuit of the Assasain's Accidentally Skid off the highway and crash in to two old people's apartment wall! That scene has got to be seen to be believed!

The stunt men and women must have got paid a lot for this film, and it show's incidentally the director Richard Rush, later Directed another cult favorite 'The Stunt Man,

Hopefully warner brother's will finally release this although the film like a lot of 70's classic's is overtly not PC(politically Correct) It'll be great to view it in It's 2:35 -1 Aspect Ratio, a commentary track by Arkin And Caan, would make a load of fan's happy,

I remember watching Freebie and the Bean as a kid and I even remember the short lived television series and I found the film to be enjoyable. I can recall a climactic scene when one of the cops takes on a kung fu kicking cross-dresser. However in later years I came across some extremely negative reviews and decided to re-watch this film after a few decades.

This is a freewheeling film that is a sort of a cross between of MASH and Dirty Harry. James Caan and Alan Arkin play two off beat San Francisco cops trying to take down local crime boss Red Meyer who his also being targeted by a hit-man. In the opening scenes we see them emptying his trash into their car boot to look for evidence.

As the story goes on the plot meanders, at one point we have prolonged scenes where Arkin accuses his wife of cheating on him at other times the story is confusing. The film is an early example of the buddy cop film and also has high levels of gun toting violence, police brutality and zany car chases which must have inspired The Blues Brothers.

I still enjoy some surreal elements of the film such as the scenes Caan and Arkin have with Alex Rocco in his office and the anarchic style is enjoyable to an extent but too often it descends into silliness at the expense of plot development.

However one thing noticeable was the amount of shootings in this film. These two guys make Dirty Harry look like a pacifist. They just brandish their weapons with no regard to the term reasonable force and at times so many ordinary members of the public are put into danger when they are about.

The other issue is the casual racism, homophobia and sexism in this film. I understand the film is of its time so certain derogatory terms are expected but did actress Valerie Harper really had to be listed as 'Beans Wife' in the title credits? Harper plays a hispanic character who is made to look rather brown faced. Then again Arkin is as convincing as a Mexican origin cop as Charlton Heston was in Touch of evil. The blame for all this has to be laid at director Richard Rush to be so behind the curve.

Still the film is fun, Arkin and Caan make a good team and have some good banter. It is actually Arkin who is unpredictable even though he is more cautious compared to the gung ho Caan.

However the similar themed Busting that came out at the same time, which starred Elliot Gould and Robert Blake now looks like to be the better film.

Richard Rush died recently, so I decided to watch one of his movies. "Freebie and the Bean" is a wacky, funny comedy to the core. Unfortunately, the casual usage of racial and ethnic slurs - plus the negative depiction of a transgender character - drag the movie down. If not for those, I would've given the movie a higher score.

If you can ignore that, you can take pleasure in the full-scale absurdity, as the protagonists spend half the movie speeding around wrecking half the city (between this movie, "Bullitt" and "The Rock", San Francisco makes for some great car chases). One scene in particular looks especially improbable - it involves an apartment - but does anyone watch action comedies expecting realism?

Generally an enjoyable movie.