Undercover Blues

When fun-loving American agents Dennis Quaid and Kathleen Turner are called back from maternity leave for a special assignment in New Orleans, the spy parents decide to skip the sitter and give their bouncing baby girl the adventure of a lifetime. There's nothing to the dumb story about a deadly arms dealer (Fiona Shaw) in the Louisiana Bayou, but you'd be hard put to find a friskier pair of doting parents. Quaid is all dimpled grins and cocky cool and Turner is the most maternal martial arts mom you've ever seen, but Stanley Tucci almost steals the film as the hot-blooded threat thug Morty ("Thats Muerte!"). His macho mission of vengeance becomes pure slapstick silliness punctuated by girlish squeals of alarm. Dumb? Sure, but the deft comic direction of Herbert Ross and bubbly chemistry of Quaid and Turner make Undercover Blues far more fun that it should be. --Sean Axmaker



A wise-cracking husband and wife team of ex-Spies arrive in New Orleans on maternity leave with their baby girl. There they are hassled by muggers, the police and their FBI boss, who wants them to do just-one-more job. Written by Mark Logan {marklo@west.sun.com}