Fletch (1985)

In what may have been the high point of Chevy Chase's career, he plays Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher, a reporter who writes a column under the name Jane Doe. When a man hires Fletch to kill him, Fletch decides to investigate the man. As you might imagine, in the process, he gets more than he bargained for. And there's several gags throughout the movie.

Of course, since this is a Chevy Chase movie, you don't even really need to pay attention to the plot. It's overall just an excuse for the star to goof off. Maybe not as much as he did on "Saturday Night Live" or in "National Lampoon's Vacation", but he's still funny as ever. He must have had fun making this movie.

Fmovies: This is beyond a doubt my favorite Chevy Chase movie. I know some people out there don't really care for Chevy's work, but this movie is not Chevy Chase acting like Clark Griswald. In this movie, Chevy plays a newspaper reporter who is investigating some pretty big crimes. What really makes the film good is that Chevy is funny, but smart at the same time.

The film starts off with Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher (Chevy Chase) investigating drug trafficking on the beach in LA. He is picked up by a yuppie called Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson). Stanwyk tells Fletch, who Stanwyk thinks is a junkie named Ted Nugent, that he has bone cancer and wants Fletch to kill him so his wife can collect an insurance policy. Through the rest of the movie, Fletch has to find out whether Stanwyk is serious and why the chief of police (Joe Don Baker) wants him to stop his investigation on the drug trafficking.

The reason I like this movie so much is that it is one of the 1980s movies where an actor who was previously only known for comedy is now playing a more serious character. To a large extent, Fletch is to Chevy Chase what Axel Foley is to Eddie Murphy. Like Axel Foley, Fletch is a really funny character, but also shows intelligence and resourcefulness in difficult situations.

Through the movie, Fletch uses a string of aliases and disguises that provide comic relief to a film that could have been a pretty gripping drama. My favorites are Gordon Liddy the airplane mechanic, Mr. Poon from the SEC, and John Cocktoston the tennis player attempting to woo Mrs. Stanwyk (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) while charging expensive lunches to Mr. and Mrs. Underhill at the exclusive club. Also look out for Gilette (George Wyner), the attorney for the former Mrs. Fletcher who provides the straight man for some pretty funny jokes. Oh, and some unknown actress named Geena Davis playing Larry, one of Fletch's allies against his boss Frank (Richard Libertini) at the newspaper. I would go into more, but there's too much in this movie to shake a stick at.

If you want to see a funny movie with a serious plot, watch Fletch.

"Fletch" (circa 1985), the original "Fletch" flick, features Chevy Chase at his prime who, in his own inimitable way, plays a straight-faced, bemused, fast-double-talking investigative reporter who solves a major drug smuggling operation. "Fletch" is currently on the cable merry-go-round and makes for a fun and entertaining watch for Chase fans or Chase fans to be.

Fletch fmovies. I sat and larfed my butt off when I saw this in Beeville TX summer '85. And it still holds up today, though the score is kinda crappy, still...you gotta love the get ups, the one liners, and the mystery, too, kinda works. Check out the scene where joe Don Baker threatens Chevy with the gun...Baker wasn't kidding. He was gonna do in Fletch right then and there. They had just enough oomph in the mystery/police corruption angle to let you know that this wasn't just Slapstick Chevy. It works.

I enjoyed seeing Jim Bob from the Waltons play a bit as a car thief, who gets stuck in a car chase with Chevy, the Kareem cameo, hmmmm, and the pretty generic blonde who Chevy gets at the end. She is quite nice, doesn't seem to have had much of a career...(Dana Wheeler-Nicholson?)

Overall, enjoyable, they coulda made 3-4 of these.

*** outta ****

Class! just pure class, nothing long winded just short and sweet, made at a time when chase was top of his class with others like steve martin, as for the film its a good story with many many jokes most of which you will have to see the film again to catch as some as they are very fast such as name changes he comes up with, it still stands up well today even if some jokes are lost on people to young to remember certain peoples names, its a shame people like chase don't get the films that made them so big in the 80s but times and tastes change, i myself am a chase fan and this film is him doing what he does best.

SEE IT

Chevy Chase's finest comedy. It's the part that he really sunk his teeth into. It's a perfect blend of humor, mystery and drama. Although Chase gets more mileage out of it because of the laughs, it's an intriguing character in all respects.

Michael Ritchie directs nicely and the supporting cast works well, particularly Libertini as Fletch's noisy and brassy editor in chief. This is a film that is filled with more classic one liners than any film in the 1980's. It's one that makes us miss the old Chase and wonder why he's planning to make yet another "Vacation" movie.

We miss you, Chevy!