Review of Fletch (1985) by Johnny T — 15 May 2011

Fast-paced and witty, this is Chase's best solo venture to date, and will hold almost anyone's attention for its well-edited 98 minutes. What truly holds Fletch together isn't the somewhat off-putting Chase--whose screen presence was always defined by a love-it-or-hate it smugness--but his time-tested collaborators: screenwriter Bergman...and director Michael Ritchie. Mr. Bergman's screenplay is a good deal more than serviceable. It provides Mr. Chase with the opportunity to assume all sorts of unlikely identities - as a doctor who passes out during an autopsy, as a black basketball player, as a Government investigator and as an insurance salesman. Mr. Chase is a very soothing comic actor, whether attempting to explain how Hopalong Cassidy committed suicide with a bow-and-arrow, or romancing Stanwyk's beautiful, unusually good-humored wife, Gail (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson).

VERDICT: "Matinée" - (Mixed reaction). These kinds of movies are usually movies that had some good things, but some bad things kept it from being amazing. This rating says to pay matinée prices to see at a theatre, buy an ex rental or a cheap price of the DVD to own.