Definition of a 'mixed bag.'
I just watched THE BIG FIX recently, having not seen it since its initial release in 1978. While there are some terrific individual moments, particularly Dreyfuss' weeping over the footage of his sixties glory days, it never quite meets its mark.
It's a shame the filmmakers didn't just film Roger Simon's award-winning novel as it was written. Simon, who also penned the screenplay, wrote a tough, uncompromising thriller, with no comedic elements whatsoever. Moses Wine was not a wisecracking, cuddly Jewish gumshoe, but what they used to call a "tough Jew," and an ex-SDS radical, to boot, who could still kick ass with the best of them--a sort of Semetic Philip Marlowe, if you will.
I think Dreyfuss could have pulled it off--he was, and is, that good an actor. It would have been a "hard R," as opposed to a very safe "PG" rated film, but it also would have been the first motion picture to deal with post-Vietnam ennui amongst the Baby Boom generation and could have been a classic that led to a terrific franchise (as Simon wrote other Moses Wine books over the years).
As it is, the film is still worth a look, if nothing else, for the fact that it does capture the goofiness of the late '70s and all the fads (EST among them) that the Boomers were trying to "find themselves" with. Plus, Dreyfuss is always a pleasure to watch, and the supporting cast is terrific (F.Murray Abraham, Bonnie Bedillia, Mandy Patinkin, John Lithgow all appear in early roles).