Review of The North Avenue Irregulars (1979) by Edith N — 16 Sep 2007

Edward Herrmann has one of the weirdest careers in the history of film, I swear. The two movies I, personally, know him best in are this, in which he plays a minister, and [i]Lost Boys[/i], in which he (spoiler) plays the head vampire. Also, he's on [i]Gilmore Girls[/i], he narrates about half the stuff on the History Channel, and he does car commercials by the, well, truckload. I could go on, but you get the idea.

In this, he's Reverend Mike Hill, pastor of the North Avenue Presbyterian Church. Through a brief series of misadventures, $1206 of his church's money ends up in the hands of the mob. When he loses his cool and complains about it on the local television station's Sunday night prayer message, the Treasury Department comes looking for him to help them battle the mob. Which he does with the help of six ladies (and the husband of one, in drag) from the church.

It's Disney. Live action Disney from 1979. What do you expect, quality?

Actually, I saw this movie a lot as a kid. It was one of the ones that they played on the Disney Channel all the time. Thus, unlike practically every other kid of my generation, this is how I think of him first. Riding a motorcycle through the streets of New Camden with no pants on. (This is one of those moments that works in the film but takes a [i]long[/i] time to explain if you haven't seen it.) It's not very good, even as live action Disney movies from the '70s go, but it's one of my favourites.

The moral of the film is simple--organized crime [i]bad[/i]!--but the hijinks are entertaining, and it'll certainly keep kids occupied for an hour and a half. Heck, it'll keep me occupied for an hour and a half, too.