Kuffs (1992): The Best Movie You Never Saw

Kuffs was Hollywood’s big attempt to turn Christian Slater into the next big action star. At the time, he was riding high, with Heathers, Pump Up the Volume and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves establishing him as one of the biggest teen idols of the era. Kuffs would give him a Beverly Hills Cop-style action role, with him playing a wisecracking guy named George Kuffs, who winds up in control of a unit of San Francisco’s Civilian Police Force (a real organization called the San Francisco Patrol Special Police) after his brother is murdered.

Bent on avenging his brother and proving to his pregnant girlfriend (a young Milla Jovovich) that he has what it takes to be a dad, he tries to solve his brother’s murder with the help of a cop played by Tony Goldwyn. The result is a fun, fresh action movie that bombed at the box office but holds up as perhaps the last gasp of mid-level eighties action, which was becoming extinct in the early nineties as budgets (and stars) got bigger. It’s this week’s Best Movie You Never Saw!

In addition to Slater’s fun, easy-going performance, Kuffs also benefits from a funky score by action mainstay Harold Faltermeyer and a surprisingly witty script. One of the best moments had Slater and his partner in carnage, Goldwyn, inquiring about the refund policy at a gun store before the climactic siege. They also find a few clever ways to get around the PG-13 rating they were shackled with in order to appeal to Slater’s fan base.

This episode of The Best Movie You Never Saw is written and narrated by Chris Bumbray, edited by Edward Clark, and produced by Adam Walton. Watch previous episodes here, and let us know if you remember Kuffs in the comments!