For Better or for Worse

Yeah..lol..this film was just showing on the Hallmark channel...I found it really disappointing :( but Kim Cattrall is so bootyful you can forgive the film its minor faults like being more boring than watching paint dry :)

This is an enjoyable family film with the 'retired spy' plot line. Much like true lies in reverse the husband finds out he has married a 'retired' spy. Shockingly, to her and her husband, she is on another case when she intended to be honeymooning. Fun for the whole family, a timeless piece.

Sean (Robert Hays) falls for Chris (Kim Cattrall) and they immediately get married. He thinks that she's a travel agent. In reality, she's a secret American agent doing dirty jobs for the State Department. They are off to a honeymoon in Spain. Her boss has a different idea.

This is an one-joke concept for the first half of the movie. He keeps missing her doing espionage things over and over again. This is also known as 'For Better or for Worse'. Honeymoon Academy is trying to sound like Police Academy. Only, this troubled production is nowhere near as successful. Original lead Paul Reiser had to be replaced after an injury and most of the movie had to be reshot in a rush. At least, we get to see a bit of Spain and taste a bit of the flavor. The second half has the couple doing some screwball capers. It's a reversed Romancing the Stone. It all feels like the lesser version of better movies.

My review was written in May 1990 after a screening in Chelsea in Manhattan.

Dumped unceremoniously into the marketplace by Sony's Triumph label, "Honeymoon Academy" is an old-fashioned comedy that wastes the talents of Kim Cattrall in her first top billed role.

Depressing box office prospects are reflected in zero paying customers showing up for a 9:30 p.m. Opening night performance at the Manhattan thetare where it was reviewed, following no press screenings.

Pic's inappropriate title is an afterthought based on the success of executive producer Paul Maslansky's "Police Academy" films. Lensed in spring 1988 as "For Better or for Worse", pic ha no school for newlyweds.

Cattrall, styled as a thin blonde, is a State Department secret agent thrown together with Robert Hays in a library. It's love at first sight, and they marry and go off to Madrid for a honeymoon, a gift from her boss Leigh Taylor-Young.

Taylor-Young sends agent Charles Rocket to force Cattrall to work during the holiday as a courier of payoff money for counterfeiter Christopher Lee. Endless slapstick and an unsuccessful detour into "Romancing the Stone" territory pad out pointless footage.

Cattrall projects the appeal of Laraine Day but deserves better pics. Hays is a capable physical comedian, playing straight in the manner of his "Airplane" persona in a role originally cast for Paul Reiser. Supporting cast, notably Rocket, is hammy. Lee brightens up the film very briefly.

Technical credits are acceptable, except for poorly synched dialog set in a forest with waterfalls interfering with direct sound recording.

"Honeymoon Academy" has a plot that could have worked and should have been much better. But pedestrian writing and acting sink this one and make it no better than a second-rate time passer.

Sean (Robert Hayes) and Christ (Kim Cattrall) meet in a way that obviously seems to indicate she's either a criminal or spy. Oddly, instead of asking her about her actions and the large guy with VERY suspicious looking glasses, he marries Chris.

As for Chris, she is a spy and supposedly has retired. But when some master counterfeiter (Christopher Lee) manages to produce perfact copies of American dollars, she's forced to return to duty...even though it's her honeymoon. As for Sean, he knows SOMETHING is up...but what? After all, total strangers start coming up to him as they think he, too, is a spy.

How could this have missed so badly?! It had all the makings of a cute little comedy...but the film instead often is a bit dumb instead of being funny or thrilling. Overall, you could find a much better movie without even looking very hard or for very long.