Armed and Dangerous

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.

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 was a nice surprise. I figured it would be stupid and not all that funny. Wrong. It WAS funny. Yes, it's a harmless "no-brainer" type of movie but it was fun and had likable lead characters, people you could easily root for to make good. In this, it was a pair of security guards: "Frank Dooley" (John Candy) and "Norman Kane" (Eugene Levy).

Every comedy has its stupid moments, this included, but the good outweighs the stupid. What also makes this above-average is that it is not just a comedy. There is action and suspense in here and the combination works. Believe me, this film is not all laughs.

I watch this and makes me sad that Candy is no longer with us. He was a great entertainer.

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.

Frank (John Candy) is a good policeman but he is framed for theft when he catches other officers pilfering electronics. He is kicked off the force in short order. Meanwhile, Norman (Eugene Levy) is an inept lawyer who messes up big time when he assigned to defend a Charles Manson type offender. The judge in the case orders Norman to find alternative work. With few options, Frank and Norman both enroll in a security guard officers training school, where they become fast friends and partners. This is, in part, because so many of their classmates are complete idiots, like the man who wonders if he should put his own name on the application line that says "name"! Frank and Norman's first assignment is to stand watch inside a factory but they soon realize that their company, Guard Dog Security, may have some criminals on the staff, ones that are stealing from the companies they are supposed to be guarding. Can Frank and Norman, with the help of the firm-owner's daughter, Maggie (Meg Ryan), expose the bad elements in the company, without getting fired or killed? This is a very funny film with abundant laughs. Yes, it may be considered a more "low-brow" vehicle, but it is still very mirthful and will cause any viewer to laugh themselves silly. Just watching the less-than-intelligent guards on the staff of the security firm makes for a fun, fun evening. Candy, Levy, and Ryan are terrific but, then, so are the relative unknowns who round out the rest of the cast. Sets, costumes, and production values are great, too. If you want to see a classic Candy film, this is a great choice, for it displays his marvelous and abundant talent, no doubt. But, anyone truly wishing to transport themselves to a world of laughter will find this one a very good choice.