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Best Defense

Best Defense

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: At times Funny but Fans of Moore and Muprhy will love this.
Review: A Inpet Inventor (Dudley Moore) of a Malfunctioning Piece of Defense Equipment and a Man (Eddie Murphy). who has to deal with the Invention, who is actually in war in another Country.

Directed by Williard Huyck (Howard the Duck) made a clever but uneven entertaining comedy. This could have been better if Moore and Murphy had at least One Scene together or More, could make this film more enjoyable. Still enjoyable film. Grade:B.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: another lame attempt to satirize defense industry
Review: First the good news - this movie is actually two movies in one. Now the bad news - one of them isn't that good, and you barely get enough of the other to make it all worthwhile.

First, we meet Eddie Murphy as a US Army lieutenant sent to some middle eastern desert kingdom to help demonstrate and sell a new high-tech tank. This being a 1980's movie, it's no surprise that the tank doesn't work, and nearly everything seems to fall off or otherwise refuse to cooperate. (20 million moving parts, all built by the lowest bidder in Reagonomics-era dollars.) Trying to get the thing moving, Murphy's character turns a sheik's Mercedes into an oversized skateboard and, before he can get the tank to go where he wants it, finds he's stuck in a major desert war in which his tank is conspicuously the largest moving target ("I'm not in this war", he shouts vainly at jets making runs on his cranky-tank, "I'm from Cleveland!"). Remember when I said that this flick had two movies - the Murphy half is the better half.

We then cut a few years earlier to LA where Dudley Moore is one of the head engineers of a teetering defense contractor struggling to perfect the main gyroscope slated to go into Murphy's tank. Wiley's (Moore's character) fate is tied to gyro, but his life is already a mess - not even the toys he makes for his son works, and his frigid wife (Kate Capshaw, and yes, she does hum the "Raiders" theme in one scene that got more laughs than most of the movie) isn't about to stick with a man whose future is so cloudy. After a disastrous test which essentially dooms the project (and the company), Wiley runs into some guy at a bar who (in a twist that's a bit much even for a convoluted movie like this) is at work for another defense contractor on a competing version of the Dip-gyro. The guy seems bothered by something, and then he disappears...but not before he palms on Wiley a diskette containing the plans for his own company's version of the gyro, one apparently identical to Wiley'' with the exception that it appears to work. Dragooned at work into taking credit for his "improved" design, Wiley finds he's got more trouble than he bargained for - the new gyro and whoever seems to possess it are targets for a psychotic killer who freelances for the Russians (David Rasche of "Sledgehammer" fame); feds promise to protect Wiley as long as they can use him as bait for Rasche's character, and they know that the gyro isn't his; saving the company attracts the attentions of one of his company's execs (Helen Shaver) in a romance which can't last; and the new gyro only appears to be bug-free. As Moore's story progresses, we cut to Murphy's story, one in which he must suffer the consequences of being equipped with a tank built entirely of components as buggy as Wiley's gyro. Wiley in the meantime is heading to a point in which he must disclose the new gyro's flaws - which will also require that he honestly explain his own role in developing it (or lack thereof).

This was a disappointing film. It's not heavy handed like "Deal of the Century" (Another satire of defense contractors; Moore and Murphy are more spirited than Chevy Chase and Sigourney Weaver were in that movie). Moore is actually quite good, but the script seems resigned to fall on Murphy for the laughs. Unfortunately, there's barely enough Murphy in the movie (spots that ran for the movie focused only on his part of the story). In the end, this flick and "Deal" may just be proof that it's impossible to parody the military-industrial complex any better than defense contractors, congressmen and the military does in real life.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: another lame attempt to satirize defense industry
Review: First the good news - this movie is actually two movies in one. Now the bad news - one of them isn't that good, and you barely get enough of the other to make it all worthwhile.

First, we meet Eddie Murphy as a US Army lieutenant sent to some middle eastern desert kingdom to help demonstrate and sell a new high-tech tank. This being a 1980's movie, it's no surprise that the tank doesn't work, and nearly everything seems to fall off or otherwise refuse to cooperate. (20 million moving parts, all built by the lowest bidder in Reagonomics-era dollars.) Trying to get the thing moving, Murphy's character turns a sheik's Mercedes into an oversized skateboard and, before he can get the tank to go where he wants it, finds he's stuck in a major desert war in which his tank is conspicuously the largest moving target ("I'm not in this war", he shouts vainly at jets making runs on his cranky-tank, "I'm from Cleveland!"). Remember when I said that this flick had two movies - the Murphy half is the better half.

We then cut a few years earlier to LA where Dudley Moore is one of the head engineers of a teetering defense contractor struggling to perfect the main gyroscope slated to go into Murphy's tank. Wiley's (Moore's character) fate is tied to gyro, but his life is already a mess - not even the toys he makes for his son works, and his frigid wife (Kate Capshaw, and yes, she does hum the "Raiders" theme in one scene that got more laughs than most of the movie) isn't about to stick with a man whose future is so cloudy. After a disastrous test which essentially dooms the project (and the company), Wiley runs into some guy at a bar who (in a twist that's a bit much even for a convoluted movie like this) is at work for another defense contractor on a competing version of the Dip-gyro. The guy seems bothered by something, and then he disappears...but not before he palms on Wiley a diskette containing the plans for his own company's version of the gyro, one apparently identical to Wiley'' with the exception that it appears to work. Dragooned at work into taking credit for his "improved" design, Wiley finds he's got more trouble than he bargained for - the new gyro and whoever seems to possess it are targets for a psychotic killer who freelances for the Russians (David Rasche of "Sledgehammer" fame); feds promise to protect Wiley as long as they can use him as bait for Rasche's character, and they know that the gyro isn't his; saving the company attracts the attentions of one of his company's execs (Helen Shaver) in a romance which can't last; and the new gyro only appears to be bug-free. As Moore's story progresses, we cut to Murphy's story, one in which he must suffer the consequences of being equipped with a tank built entirely of components as buggy as Wiley's gyro. Wiley in the meantime is heading to a point in which he must disclose the new gyro's flaws - which will also require that he honestly explain his own role in developing it (or lack thereof).

This was a disappointing film. It's not heavy handed like "Deal of the Century" (Another satire of defense contractors; Moore and Murphy are more spirited than Chevy Chase and Sigourney Weaver were in that movie). Moore is actually quite good, but the script seems resigned to fall on Murphy for the laughs. Unfortunately, there's barely enough Murphy in the movie (spots that ran for the movie focused only on his part of the story). In the end, this flick and "Deal" may just be proof that it's impossible to parody the military-industrial complex any better than defense contractors, congressmen and the military does in real life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Um, people... it's DAVID RASCHE!
Review: Great comedy? Um, no. But some damn funny moments and a chance to hear David Rasche do an 'R' rated version of Sledge Hammer??? YEAH!!!

Regardless of what's been said, this film DOES have its moments and can be watched quite easily when you're just in a silly mood (have a few shots first - well maybe more than a few). If you can get into some of the stupid crap that Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd released, you can surely get into this. Hey... it has SLEDGE HAMMER! in it!!! Come on, PEOPLE!!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Almost surreally godawful
Review: I saw this movie at a sneak preview a few months before it was released (though "dumped on the unsuspecting moviegoer" is sorta more like it) with a group of friends and we all agreed that it should be buried. Or perhaps every copy rounded up and launched into the sun.

Well, as you know, it was in theaters soon enough, getting both awful reviews by critics AND filmgoers. It also pretty much flopped as I recall.

The only watchable scenes at all were Eddie Murphy's which were filmed as an afterthought (and a totally seperate plot from the main one). The trailers and commercials wanted you to think that this was an Eddie Murphy film, when in fact, he has little more than an extended cameo (cut into the movie at the last minute so there would be SOME reason for people to want to see the wretched thing).

I can't even imagine how ghastly this movie would have been before they put in the Murphy stuff.

Sort of like the recent "View from the Top" which was promoted as a Mike Myers comedy, when it was actually neither.

The stink on this thing is solely the blame of talentless filmaking couple (and Lucas cronies) Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz whose other "masterpieces" include the equally wretched Howard the Duck, Radioland Murders, and screenplay for Indy 2.

Somebody, make them stop already!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Who needs rambo!
Review: Murphy at his best, is offering us, everyone who enjoys a good laugh, a comedy that is a true masterpiece, when one considers all the different areas it is dealing with. Murphy and the rest of the crue manage to show the true vanity of war, and the subliminal message that we all get killed and fooled in the name of glory and freedom. The obvious truth and goal behind every conflict in the world are the financial interests, lets not full ourselves. Anyway an excellent effort making many sharks feel quite embarassed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Who needs rambo!
Review: Murphy at his best, is offering us, everyone who enjoys a good laugh, a comedy that is a true masterpiece, when one considers all the different areas it is dealing with. Murphy and the rest of the crue manage to show the true vanity of war, and the subliminal message that we all get killed and fooled in the name of glory and freedom. The obvious truth and goal behind every conflict in the world are the financial interests, lets not full ourselves. Anyway an excellent effort making many sharks feel quite embarassed.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: BEST DEFENSE MORE LIKE WORST DEFENCE
Review: NO SERVERE AMOUNTS OF ALCOHOL CAN RENDER THIS FILM BARIBLE OR ENJOYABLE ABOUT A DEFENSE INDUSTRY DESIGNER WHO INADVERTANLY AQUIRE BLUEPRINTS FROM THE KGB. EDDIE MURPHY WAS AN ABSOLUTE MISCAST IN THIS FILM AND ITS PROBALEY THE WORST FILM OF HIS CARRER. AT LEAST `THE GOLDEN CHILD` DIDN`T PUT ME TO SLEEP LIKE THIS FILM DID. BESIDES I DIDN`T SEE MUCH CHEMEISTY BETWEEN MOORE AND MURPHY ANYWAY, THEIR ACTING WASN`T UP TO PAR IN THIS MEDIOCRE FILM, A WASTE OF MURPHY`S TALENT.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great entertainment for defense workers
Review: Perhaps not for the masses, but anyone who has been involved with ther defense industry in the 70's and 80's will appreciate this "only slightly exagerated" depiction of life in a defense company. I watched this movie about 6 times, one for each round of lay-offs at my previous employer, and laughed harder each time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Do not miss
Review: This is an incredibly funny movie with Murphy and Moore at their best. Can be watched many many times.


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