Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag

Novice director Tom Schulman won an Oscar for writing Dead Poets Society. He won’t have to practice any acceptance speeches for this one. Joe Pesci (looking like he’s getting bored playing gangsters) loses the title package at the San Diego airport when a yuppie vacationer (Andy Comeau) mistakenly assumes Pesci’s bag contains his luggage. While there are some inspired gags (you won’t think of the song "Mr. Sandman" in quite the same way again), most of the attempted humor is obvious and strained. It’s disheartening to hear the cast members lament how something is going to cost them "an arm and a leg" in a movie about severed body parts. With a little more subtlety and a lot more wit, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag could have been much more than gory tedium. ( R ). Rating: 3.