Best Defense (1984)

User Rating:

3.1/10   

Director:

Willard Huyck

Writers:

Robert Grossbach (novel)
Gloria Katz (writer) ...

Release Date:

20 July 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | War

Tagline:

Unfortunately, they're both on our side.

Plot:

Wylie is a lazy engineer. Landry is a Sergeant specialising in Armour. They have never met but their...

Plot Keywords:

Engineer | Tank | Marriage | Industrial Espionage | Helicopter

Cast

Dudley Moore	...	Wylie Cooper
Eddie Murphy	...	Lieutenant T.M. Landry
Kate Capshaw	...	Laura Cooper
George Dzundza	...	Steve Loparino
Helen Shaver	...	Clair Lewis
Mark Arnott	...	Harvey Brank
Peter Michael Goetz	...	Frank Joyner
Tom Noonan	...	Frank Holtzman
David Rasche	...	Jeff the 'KBG' Agent
Paul Comi	...	Chief Agent
Darryl Henriques	...	Col. Zayas, San Salvador
Joel Polis	...	First Agent
John A. Zee	...	Col. McGuinn
Matthew Laurance	...	Ali, Landry's Tank Crew
Christopher Maher	...	Sayyid, Landry's Tank Crew

Also Known As:

Best Defence (UK) (poster title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | UK:15 (DVD rating) | Australia:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Finland:K-12 | Singapore:M18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Cinema Group Ventures

Trivia:

When Kate Capshaw is waiting in a pick-up truck, she is humming the theme song from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), a movie (also released in 1984) that she appeared in.

Quotes:

Chief Padilla, Guatemala: Boom. Dead. Communista.

Movie Connections:

References Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Soundtrack:

CLOSE TO YOU

Fairly amusing but the cross cutting between scenes occasionally gets tedious

Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy are two entirely different looking actors who have two things in common. They were both hugely popular box office comedy stars throughout the 1980's and they were both part of the cast of this 1984 Paramount release. If these two comedy titans had any scenes together, that could've made the film really great but despite that setback, the film is not a total waste. Two stories are told in the film. One has to do with technology programmer Wylie Cooper's (Moore) chance encounter with a man who's on the run from some shady corporate criminals and how Cooper's life changes for the better and for the worse after the encounter. The other is set two years later and has to do with American soldier Landry (Murphy) test driving a faulty experimental tank that Cooper had invented and accidentally driving it into the middle of a battlefield. That tank (Cooper building it and Landry using it) is what the two stories have in common. The most major complaint about this film is its constantly shifting from one story to the other thus confusing some viewers. I managed to follow along though and if anybody who's thinking of seeing this one can too, you may find both leading actors in fine form. Just don't expect the comedy sparks of their far more successful individually starring vehicles including "Arthur" and "Beverly Hills Cop."