Review of Fletch (1985) by Cal ( — 09 Jan 2008

Fletch is nothing more than a bit of entertainment with a few laughs, and it was never meant to be anything more. Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher (Chase) is a Los Angeles journalist who writes articles that are controversial and revealing.

His latest assignment is to disguise himself as a bum and live at the beach to research drugs and drug dealing. But one day he is approached by businessman Alan Stanwyk (Matheson) who puts forward a proposal: Stanwyk will pay Fletch $50,000 if Fletch kills him.

Stanwyk explains he is dying of bone cancer and wants to be murdered for his family to benefit from his life insurance policy. Fletch agrees, but what seems like a simple straight-forward payday becomes more complicated when he researches Stanwyk with startling results.

Chevy Chase was never one of the best actors alive, but his performance is half decent here and he supplies many of the good laughs. Many of the other cast members are good, but not great. It's not the comedy masterpiece I had heard it was, but rather strictly a fluffy entertainment piece.

But the laughs aren't as frequent as I was expecting, albeit there are a few worthy gags...but nothing really memorable. Fletch is a good bit of fun for 90 minutes of your time, but you will forget it shortly afterwards.