Starring
Tom Hanks, Lori Singer, Carrie Fisher, Jim Belushi
Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, David Ogden Stiers, Edward Herrmann, James Belushi, Irving Metzman, Tom Noonan, Gerrit Graham, David L. Lander, Ritch Brinkley, Frank Hamilton (II), Dortha Duckworth, Julius Carry, Stephen Bradley, Art LaFleur, Richard McGonagle, George Martin (II) Update Cast
Review
The CIA are in disarray. Director, Ross, is involved in a powerplay with the ambitious Cooper, whose desire for the top job leads him to set up Ross before a Senate comittee, when a staged drugs smuggling operation is exposed.
Ross gets a 48-hour stay of execution and determines to use this time to turn the tables on Cooper and his 'black ops' team. But to do this, they need a stooge - someone that can draw Cooper's fangs and expose his treachery and the man they select at random is Richard Drew.
Richard is a nobody, picked from a crowd at the airport simply because he was wearing different colored sneakers. He's a violinist and would-be composer, with few interpersonal skills, a best friend who always plays practical jokes with him and a best friend's wife who loves playing Jane to his Tarzan, complete with leopard-print underwear... Then he unwittingly (and for a long time unknowingly) becomes the focus of a CIA operation, led by Cooper and co-ordinated by the lovely Maddy.
When time begins to run out, Cooper suggests that they try making Richard fall for Maddy. What he didn't count on was Maddy falling for Richard and all the time, Ross' men keep a close eye on everyone, whilst the clock ticks down....
Verdict
During the mid 80s, Tom Hanks made a hell of a lot of movies. From Splash in 1984 to Joe Versus The Volcano in 1990, there was a kind of comfortable, familiar feel to just about every role he played. And although this effort is an early one, it fits neatly into the mould. His portrayal of Richard Drew is one he became very accomplished in, as the innocent, happy-go-lucky 'kid in a grown-up suit' drifting through the plot whilst everything else happened around him.
His friends Morris and Paula (Jim Belushi and Carrie Fisher) appear to be there to lend some depth to his life, giving him someone to play baseball with and someone to play around with afterwards. Dabney Coleman and Charles Durning are OK as the CIA chiefs and Lori Singer is quite good as the very attractive and very professional honey-trap, Maddy. But in truth the real 'stars' of the movie are the supporting cast - the many CIA agents that spend their days in ambulances, up telephone poles, on roofs, down sewers, all monitoring Richard's life with varying degrees of slapstick ineptitude.
I enjoyed the movie. But then, I enjoy movies of almost all types - this one because it had some funny moments, it didn't challenge me at all for 90 minutes and in the end, every one was happy (apart from the bad guys, of course)...
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The Movie Data
Key Crew
Director: Stan Dragoti
Writer: Francis Veber, Yves Robert, Robert Klane
Producers: Victor Drai, Xavier Gélin, Jack Frost Sanders, Bill Wilson
Locations Manager: Binnie Ruben, Michael Wallace
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Data
Release Date: 19 Jul 1985
MPAA Rating: PG
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Production: 20th Century Fox
Genre: Comedy
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