This is beyond a doubt my favorite Chevy Chase movie. I know some people out there don't really care for Chevy's work, but this movie is not Chevy Chase acting like Clark Griswald. In this movie, Chevy plays a newspaper reporter who is investigating some pretty big crimes. What really makes the film good is that Chevy is funny, but smart at the same time.
The film starts off with Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher (Chevy Chase) investigating drug trafficking on the beach in LA. He is picked up by a yuppie called Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson). Stanwyk tells Fletch, who Stanwyk thinks is a junkie named Ted Nugent, that he has bone cancer and wants Fletch to kill him so his wife can collect an insurance policy. Through the rest of the movie, Fletch has to find out whether Stanwyk is serious and why the chief of police (Joe Don Baker) wants him to stop his investigation on the drug trafficking.
The reason I like this movie so much is that it is one of the 1980s movies where an actor who was previously only known for comedy is now playing a more serious character. To a large extent, Fletch is to Chevy Chase what Axel Foley is to Eddie Murphy. Like Axel Foley, Fletch is a really funny character, but also shows intelligence and resourcefulness in difficult situations.
Through the movie, Fletch uses a string of aliases and disguises that provide comic relief to a film that could have been a pretty gripping drama. My favorites are Gordon Liddy the airplane mechanic, Mr. Poon from the SEC, and John Cocktoston the tennis player attempting to woo Mrs. Stanwyk (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) while charging expensive lunches to Mr. and Mrs. Underhill at the exclusive club. Also look out for Gilette (George Wyner), the attorney for the former Mrs. Fletcher who provides the straight man for some pretty funny jokes. Oh, and some unknown actress named Geena Davis playing Larry, one of Fletch's allies against his boss Frank (Richard Libertini) at the newspaper. I would go into more, but there's too much in this movie to shake a stick at.
If you want to see a funny movie with a serious plot, watch Fletch.
The film starts off with Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher (Chevy Chase) investigating drug trafficking on the beach in LA. He is picked up by a yuppie called Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson). Stanwyk tells Fletch, who Stanwyk thinks is a junkie named Ted Nugent, that he has bone cancer and wants Fletch to kill him so his wife can collect an insurance policy. Through the rest of the movie, Fletch has to find out whether Stanwyk is serious and why the chief of police (Joe Don Baker) wants him to stop his investigation on the drug trafficking.
The reason I like this movie so much is that it is one of the 1980s movies where an actor who was previously only known for comedy is now playing a more serious character. To a large extent, Fletch is to Chevy Chase what Axel Foley is to Eddie Murphy. Like Axel Foley, Fletch is a really funny character, but also shows intelligence and resourcefulness in difficult situations.
Through the movie, Fletch uses a string of aliases and disguises that provide comic relief to a film that could have been a pretty gripping drama. My favorites are Gordon Liddy the airplane mechanic, Mr. Poon from the SEC, and John Cocktoston the tennis player attempting to woo Mrs. Stanwyk (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) while charging expensive lunches to Mr. and Mrs. Underhill at the exclusive club. Also look out for Gilette (George Wyner), the attorney for the former Mrs. Fletcher who provides the straight man for some pretty funny jokes. Oh, and some unknown actress named Geena Davis playing Larry, one of Fletch's allies against his boss Frank (Richard Libertini) at the newspaper. I would go into more, but there's too much in this movie to shake a stick at.
If you want to see a funny movie with a serious plot, watch Fletch.