Kevin Bacon Led A Star-Studded ’90s Comedy That’s Rarely Talked About

“Queens Logic” must’ve been dynamite on the page. Written by Tony Spiridakis, it’s one of those ensemble films about friends in the thirties who are beset with all manner of personal and professional tsuris. These movies have been popular since John Sayles’ “Return of the Secaucus 7” (which spawned Lawrence Kasdan’s Baby Boomer blockbuster “The Big Chill”), and they tend to attract good-to-great actors because the character work can be rich while the time commitment can be minimal.

Nevertheless, I’m hard-pressed to think of a film from this genre that boasts a more impressive and strange array of talent. Kevin Bacon gets top billing because he was the biggest star when the movie was released in 1991 (thanks to “Footloose”), but it’s not his picture. The standout characters, at least early on, are played by Joe Mantegna, Ken Olin, and Chloe Webb, but big-name actors keep turning up as the movie shambles through a loose connection of scenes. Along the way, we’re introduced to Queens residents played by John Malkovich, Linda Fiorentino, Jamie Lee Curtis, Terry Kinney, Ed Marinaro, Jenny Wright, and Tom freakin’ Waits. And while they’re all good in the movie, it’s so wildly cliched and aimless that it’s hard to figure out why any of them bothered.

The secret to the film’s numerous casting coups, I think, is producer Stuart Oken. Oken came out of the Chicago theater scene, and thus had access to Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Organic Theater members like Malkovich, Mantegna and Kinney. Olin, a major television star at the time thanks to “thirtysomething,” is also a Chicago native. I have no idea if favors were being cashed in, but that’s why a movie about Queens has a pronounced Windy City vibe. If nothing else, these actors do make the film watchable.

“Queens Logic” was directed by journeyman filmmaker Steve Rash, whose career got off to a hot start in 1978 with “The Buddy Holly Story” (which earned three Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Gary Busey). It’s a damn good movie, but he followed it up with the bomb “Under the Rainbow,” which is when the for-hire work started.

I note this because “Queens Logic” captures the borough’s cultural vibrancy. I lived in Astoria, Queens (Spiridakis’ home base) for a year, and Rash (as well as his location scout) did their due diligence. This has the most personality of any film he’s directed to date aside from “The Buddy Holly Story.” And the actors inhabit their milieu with tremendous integrity. The problem is the script just isn’t funny or textured enough. Mantegna works overtime to sell his lothario character, but his laugh lines fall flat. Olin and Webb are the heart of the movie, but they’re so good that you’re bummed when the focus shifts. Meanwhile, Bacon’s woulda-coulda pro-musician crisis was better handled by Timothy Hutton in Ted Demme’s “Beautiful Girls.”

“Queens Logic” is a comfortable watch, but it evaporates within minutes of the end credits rolling. I’m sure it meant something to Spiridakis, but it strains to connect with Queens outsiders. Meanwhile, Bacon fans will always have the perfection of “Tremors.”