(Delirious, Dragnet, TV: Hart to Hart, Tales from the Crypt)
Producer:
David Permut and Robert K. Weiss
Screenplay:
Dan Aykroyd, Alan Zweibel and Tom Mankiewicz
Music:
Ira Newborn
Cast:
Friday: Dan Aykroyd
Streebek: Tom Hanks
Whirley: Christopher Plummer
Gannon: Harry Morgan
Connie Swail: Alexandra Paul
Emul Muzz: Jack O'Halloran
Jane: Elizabeth Ashley
Jerry Caesar: Dabney Coleman
Based on the TV series I never watched, Dragnet
partners mismatched detectives Friday (Dan Aykroyd) and Streebek
(Tom Hanks) in a comedy in which the Saturday Night Live pair
spark off one another and which I'm sure did relatively successful and
am surprised no sequels came about.
The threadbare plot finds the pair going after a gang which have torched a
warehouse full of "Bait" soft-core porn magazines, the owner of which is played
by Dabney Coleman doing a take on Playboy's Hugh Hefner, as well
as stealing animals from a local zoo. The gang, P.A.G.A.N., led by
Whirley (Christopher Plummer) set up weird sexual rituals which are
infiltrated by the stiff-upper-lipped Friday and his laidback parter, Streebek,
but you know how it'll end and when the bad guy is captured, it all happens
rather too quickly.
The cast also features M*A*S*H's Harry Morgan as Captain Gannon
and Baywatch's Alexandra Paul as "the virgin" Connie Swail.
The print is reasonable most of the time and is presented in the original
1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio, but you get the expected print flecks
from time to time and there's some geometry problems as people occasionally
look like their face is being stretched, depending on where they're standing.
The average bitrate 5.60Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
The sound is in Dolby Pro Logic throughout, in English, German, Polish
and two other languages I can't read the names of. The comedy doesn't have
any major stand-out moments but the score and Art of Noise-reworked
theme tune come across well.
The extras are the standard for a back-catalogue title from Universal released
through Columbia TriStar: a trailer (4:3, 90 seconds),
a few pages of Production Notes and Filmographies for the main
cast and crew members.
There are only 16 chapters, menus are static and silent and the subtitles
come in 3 languages: English, Dutch and Swedish.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
