Action, Fox, Thursdays

By James Poniewozik Monday, Sep. 20, 1999

Thank God for the decline of public decency! Snaky movie producer Peter Dragon (Jay Mohr) sees his much anticipated Christmas blockbuster tank but picks up an invaluable, street-smart confidant in Wendy Ward (Illeana Douglas), a child star turned hooker. ("She's my prostitute," Dragon tells a flabbergasted underling. "You're my whore.") Fast and aggressive as a Porsche on an L.A. freeway, Action is a little in love with its own transgressiveness, but when it passes up broad, vulgar humor for smart, vulgar humor, it's the best excuse you'll find this fall for kicking the kids out of the living room.

--By James Poniewozik

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SERGEANT JIM HOLCOMB, a Los Angeles Airport Police Officer, commenting on the former boxer Mike Tyson's arrest after an alleged assault with a celebrity photographer at Los Angeles International Airport
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