Armed and Dangerous

This movie bombed at the box office but seems to have picked up a small cult through video and frequent showings on cable. Admittedly it's not a classic and Candy HAS done better films, but this one has its share of funny moments. Candy and Levy work well together. The film is somewhat reminiscent of "Police Academy" (the first one) and is certainly funnier than any of the increasingly kiddie-oriented sequels that followed that movie. All in all, a good deal of undemanding fun if you check your brain at the door.

What a delightful treat. I wanted to check out some vintage John Candy flicks and came across this hidden gem. It was funny, smart, and had some action too.

John Candy plays Officer Frank Dooley. He loses his job as a cop after he is unfairly convicted of boosting televisions. He takes a job as a security guard but his nose for sniffing out crimes hasn't diminished.

Norman Kane (Eugene Levy) is a defunct lawyer and also works for the same security agency. The two of them partner up to investigate their security company and the security guard union. It's all kinds of hilarity as they close in on the truth of what's going on between the union, the security company, and a couple of corrupt cops.

This comedy at times was just your average mediocre comedy that presented nothing really new. Still at other times it really got a person laughing good as Candy and Levy were a pretty good comedy tandem. This one has Candy as a former police officer framed and kicked off the force and Levy as a very bad defense attorney. In fact, the scene where his ineptness is displayed is one of the best scenes in the movie as he must defend what looks like a Charles Manson type of criminal, a guy so bad the police found things in the place he lived made of human hair. Both men end up trying to find work as security guards in a company with a very fair and good union, well not really but this too makes for one of the funnier scenes in the movie. Well they end up sort of messing up on their first night on the job and get some really bad assignments after that as they have to guard a trash dump and a toxic waste dump, two places not really known as being places people wish to break into. Well they figure something is up and they start to unravel a conspiracy, which still makes for an okay film, but I almost wish they just continued to have misadventures as security guards. As I have said though there are a couple of good scenes even during the unfolding of the diabolical plot as a scene in a sex store as Candy keeps needing quarters to think is good and the whole thing with him and the trucker is rather good too. So all in all this is a good comedy featuring a rather good duo, to bad the only other movie I know they were in together was the bizarre Cannonball run sequel "Speed Zone".

John Candy plays a security guard who is truly "armed and dangerous." I don't remember much about the first four-fifths of the movie. Something about John Candy dressing in drag in a porn shop. I think he caught a big fish, too. Anyway, bumbling John Candy is stuck in a traffic jam, and he needs to be at a certain place at a certain time, and people's lives are at stake, and he asks a trucker to take him there. What should the driver do: finish his run, or cause thousands of dollars of damage to possibly save lives? It's a classic moral dilemma. Well, wheels are turnin'. He even manages to upshift. They couldn't have cast a better truck for the part than the Ford CL9000, the cab bobbing up and down. This movie leaves you with the question: "If a tankerload of rocket propellant exploded, would the force go straight up?"

This is stupid comedy at its best. John Candy and Eugene Levy are in top form in this movie. Directed by Mark L. Lester (Class of 1984 and 1999, Commando) shows a great fun of Comedy and Action. Candy and Levy are great together, the supporting cast are: Robert Loggia, Kenneth McMillian, Meg Ryan, Jonathan Banks, Brion James and Steve Ralisback (In a Cameo). John Candy and Eugene Levy have a great chemistry in this film. The addition of the sweet, innocent character played by Meg Ryan a great plus. Even though the story and filming is not the greatest, their characters in this film play off each other very well to provide for some hilarious, outlandish situations and a whole slew of laughs.

This movie is a classic 80's comedy if you ask me, with a nice bit of action in it too and a good story. This movie has loads of memorable scenes such as this with easily likable characters, well defined good and bad guys and an easy to follow plot. It's not easy to create good character gags over a short space of time, but this film manages to do it and avoids a lot of the traps that other 80's comedies did by relying on visual and verbal gags alone.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.