Review of Gotcha! (1985) by Mereie D — 19 Nov 2009

Peculiar hybrid between worst possible teenager sex comedy and what appears to be a not-too-bad spy movie. The first 45 minutes are torture of the worst kind, with silly jokes, stupid schoolkidsâ?? behaviour and awful music â?? the only thing that lifts it up is the picturesque images of Paris and Berlin, although even these episodes are full of clichés that are not really funny.

Great improvement seems to be lurking in the distance when Jonathan (Anthony Edwards) meets Sasha (Linda Fiorentino) and they go to East-Berlin for obvious spy activities. It is only later that one realizes that this part of the movie may be a cut above the rest of it, but is still a disappointment: the events are kinda thrilling, but far too simple to be really interesting.

And during this better middle part of â??Gotchaâ??, the director just canâ??t help himself and keeps larding it with the same silly jokes and dialogues he started out with. The ending of the movie is really silly with cheap romantic touches (as if we havenâ??t suffered enough already).

I was not impressed, and the title should have been a warning.