Review of Fletch (1985) by Tim G — 22 Jan 2012

The best part of this film--Chevy Chase's ability to integrate people without them becoming none the wiser about his intentions--is also the weakest part. While the parade of wacky costumes and names is amusing, after a while, we realize that Chase is in no real danger at any point, and not just because he's playing the title character. This is especially obvious in the sequence where he is able to fool a couple of airplane mechanics into thinking he's also a mechanic, despite knowing nothing about planes. Granted, the two mechanics aren't the sharpest tacks in the box, but still, it should be screamingly obvious to anyone that he was completely clueless.

The film does have a number of clever lines, and the central mystery (or I should say mysteries, though it's pretty obvious right from the get-go that the two will share a common solution) is involving, but the film falls into a pattern of Chase fooling some hapless person, then him returning to his newspaper office to be screamed at by his editor, scenes that seem to exist primarily to remind viewers that Fletch is an investigative reporter and not a private detective. It's not a bad film, but it's certainly not a classic, and only moderately better than the much-maligned sequel.