ARMED AND DANGEROUS (1986)
Tagline: Undercover. Overdressed. And keeping you safe from the scum of the earth
(Action, Comedy, Corruption) [PG-13]
So make sure to keep the weapon pointing away from you. Now that's about it. You are now armed... guards. God help us all.
In this one, Frank Dooley is fired for corruption as a cop and ends up getting a canine security job. There he befriends defense lawyer Norman Kane who is terrible at his job. Both end up getting set up for a robbery at the place they were supposed to be guarding and end up on the run while trying to investigate who set them up. It doesn’t take long before pretty much everyone but Maggie Cavanaugh who also works for the security company will listen to what really happened.
Overall on the surface, I guess this plot is fine. It’s hard to go wrong having John Candy as a lead in any movie and he plays Frank Dooley in this one. I think the script was crap though. I think at least in WHO’S HARRY CRUMB?, Crumb is at least somewhat likable even if he’s not perfect. Frank Dooley isn’t even likable and that leaves a lot of the heavy lifting in regards to finding someone to care about on the shoulders of Norman Kane played by Eugene Levy.
While John Candy is famous for everything from SPACEBALLS to THE GREAT OUTDOORS, Eugene Levy actually does a great job in this movie. His character Norman is likable. Born in Hamilton, Ontario Levy has managed to carve out quite the career for himself getting involved in over 105 different acting and voice work projects. I probably know him best for his voice work in HEAVY METAL. This movie also stars Meg Ryan as Maggie Cavanaugh. She seems to have wrapped up her acting career back in 2018 but is best known for movies like YOU’VE GOT MAIL and TOP GUN. I am not going to say she was good in this movie though. I feel like a lot of actresses could have done this role. I do think Meg Ryan is good in other films. We also get Robert Loggia who plays Michael Carlino and ends up with a pretty significant part in the movie. Loggia is always really good as a bad guy and this is not an exception. He is known for tons of movies, but INDEPENDENCE DAY was probably his most well-known outside of SCARFACE.
Humor wise this thing is hit and miss. While I did think we got several funny lines in the first half of the movie, as it moves along Frank just becomes a character you want to see get punched and the scenes start getting more on the raunchy less comedic side. Harold Ramis of GHOSTBUSTERS fame was the executive producer and didn’t even want his name associated with this movie in any way. They ended up leaving him as the listed producer, but he hated the final cut of the movie.
When I think about the rating for this thing I just honestly can’t recommend it. I thought the cast was great but the location of some of the exploits of the characters goes off the rails in a few ways that I just didn’t like. It’s hard for me to rip on a John Candy movie because he is usually a comedy master, but I couldn’t come around on this one. It’s kind of like driving to a scenic view over a valley with the sun setting and everything just starts out amazing for about 35 minutes, and then a giant BIC lighter from space appears out of nowhere and ignites the entire valley on fire and everyone watching this happen, just starts playing banjos. That is kind of how this thing goes down enjoyment-wise. I have to give this one a 2 out of 7.
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