classic 80s film - eminently quotable and hilarious

HelenMary

Dragnet is one of those films from the 80s that you just love. It's laugh out loud funny, and the jokes - mainly the deadpan stuff - never get old. So many of the lines are incredibly familiar, and like films like Top Gun, Princess Bride, Dirty Dancing many people can quote you large chunks of the script. Dan Aykroyd is brilliant as the policing by numbers monologue play by the books guy; similar role to his character in Gross Pointe Blank and there's a little of the Blues Brothers in there too. His comedic genius is playing everything so straight against Tom Hanks' enjoyable over the top, very physical slapstick sort of comedy. Together they are comedy genius both against the foil of Christopher Plummer playing a rather similar bad-guy-but-charming character to a lot of his films - Pink Panther (whichever one it was), Dreamscape etc. Some of the best lines come from Harry Morgan (famed for M*A*S*H) as their Captain.

Saddled together as an unlikely pair of partners in the Police Hanks and Aykroyd stumble upon a LA-wide conspiracy involving a prominent man of the church and the Police Commissioner and a group calling themselves PAGANs - people against goodness and normalcy - and there's Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul) the hapless virgin who will be sacrificed in on of the PAGAN's rituals... and Friday and Streebeck (Aykroyd and Hanks) have to get to the bottom of it. Hilarious police procedural, witty one liners, unforgettable scenes, great stunts and car chases and great performances make up this 80s remake and homage to the original 60s series. It's not aged that well and is a little clichéd in terms of 80s films but that is the charm. Love this film - it always really makes me smile.

score 7/10

HelenMary 21 July 2013

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2836057/