Review of Dragnet (1987) by David L — 18 Oct 2010

'Dragnet' is the movie Dan Aykroyd must have lived his whole life (up till then) to make. It is truly a moment of cosmic destiny that sees him donning the guise of Sgt. Joe Friday, nephew of the original, and it fits him like a glove, Aykroyd himself has never been better.

The machine-gun verbal delivery he honed to perfection on 'Saturday Night Live' is given its best showcase here, and even though Tom Hanks is on board as well and is very likable and funny, make no mistake- this is Dan Aykroyd's show all the way.

The best moments of 'Dragnet' come when he spews his rapid-fire dialogue at anyone and everyone; quoting regulations, lecturing bad guys and co-workers alike on everything from sex to zoo animals, declaring his love for Los Angeles and its police department, and generally being so straight a straight-arrow, you wonder if he's ever told a lie in his life.

Conviction is one thing that Aykroyd's Joe Friday is definitely not lacking. And that is really the fun of 'Dragnet;' it takes you inside Friday's world, a place without too much in common with modern-day reality, but a place he believes so firmly in that you can't help but be sucked inside.

Hanks' Pep Streebeck is there as a sort of reminder of real life, and under other circumstances, the combination wouldn't work, but here it does. The plot involves a porn magazine publisher (Dabney Coleman) who is secretly in cahoots with a right-wing preacher (Christopher Plummer, of all people, doing a letter-perfect take-off of Pat Robertson).

Aykroyd's Friday even has a love interest, the Virgin Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul) who is as off-the-wall in her own way as Friday is his, so they make an ideal couple. The film was only a modest hit, and it certainly wasn't Dan Aykroyd's most successful movie in terms of box-office but its in my eyes a classic comedy and worth checking out.