{"id":12215,"date":"2025-06-25T19:42:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12215"},"modified":"2025-06-25T19:42:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:42:38","slug":"blind-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/06\/25\/blind-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Blind Date"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Blind Date<\/strong> (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, sexual references, brief rear nudity, comic violence including gunplay, drunkenness)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Blake Edwards\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dale Launer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Mancini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Harry Stradling Jr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 27, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bruce Willis, Kim Basinger, John Larroquette, William Daniels, George Coe, Mark Blum, Sab Shimono, Phil Hartman, Stephanie Faracy, Alice Hirson, Graham Stark, Joyce Van Patten, Barry Sobel, Armin Shimerman, Brian George, Stanley Jordan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $39.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll grant that the comedy Blind Date<\/strong> is a step down for Blake Edwards, the director behind comedy classics like The Pink Panther (1963), 10 (1979), S.O.B. (1981) and Victor\/Victoria (1982). It is, however, an improvement over Micki & Maude (1984), A Fine Mess (1986) and the last few Pink Panther films (i.e. Trail, Curse and Son). It\u2019s a mostly funny rom-com about a blind date that goes from good to catastrophic with just a few sips of alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bruce Willis (Moonlighting), in his first starring role in a feature film, plays Walter, a yuppie whose life revolves around his job as an asset manager (in training). He works for a company that doesn\u2019t appreciate all his hard work and the long hours he puts in. They\u2019re trying to land a big client from Japan (Shimono, Gung Ho) and he\u2019s expected to bring a date to a dinner party they\u2019re holding in his honor. When his date bails on him, he accepts his brother\u2019s (Hartman, SNL) offer to set him up with his wife\u2019s friend Nadia (Basinger, 9 \u00bd Weeks). He \u201cwarns\u201d Walter beforehand not to let her drink because she loses control. The way he puts it, it sounds like a good thing. It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Walter is instantly smitten with Nadia. She\u2019s beautiful, smart and charming. It seems like they make a connection. He decides to ignore his brother\u2019s advice and gives her champagne. That\u2019s when things quickly spiral out of control. Nadia doesn\u2019t just lose all inhibitions; she becomes a complete maniac. It doesn\u2019t help matters any that her psycho ex-boyfriend David (Larroquette, Night Court) keeps popping up hoping to win her back. Before the end of the night, Walter will lose his job, most of his car and all of his sanity. Basically, Nadia ruins his life. Or has she made it better?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Would it surprise you to know that Walter ultimately realizes he\u2019s in love with this girl? I thought not. After everything she puts him through, he still wants to be with her. That\u2019s going to be a problem. After the date ends with Walter being arrested, Nadia makes a deal with David, a lawyer. If he agrees to defend him in court and get all charges dropped, she\u2019ll marry him. Walter can\u2019t let that happen so he comes up with a plan to derail the wedding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I saw Blind Date<\/strong> when it first came out. I saw it again when it came out on video in the fall. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen it since. That was 38 years ago. I wasn\u2019t sure if I\u2019d still like it. It turns out I do. It\u2019s definitely dated, but the same could be said of most movies from the 80s. Not all of the jokes land, but that\u2019s the nature of comedy. I still laughed plenty when I watched it this past weekend. I\u2019m not going to rehash my feelings about the sorry state of today\u2019s movie comedies. I will say I\u2019m glad I have movies like Blind Date<\/strong> to fall back on when I need a good, unforced laugh.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Edwards took a real chance tapping Willis for the lead. It pays off mostly. He\u2019s a funny guy when he wants to be. I\u2019m just wondering if he\u2019s the right guy for the role. Willis has a real wise ass quality to him. Listen to how he delivers some of his lines in Die Hard (1988) and The Last Boy Scout (1991). Here, he\u2019s supposed to be a passive sort who takes whatever s*** life throws at him. He doesn\u2019t smirk or make wise cracks. He\u2019s fine in Blind Date<\/strong>, but the character\u2019s personality doesn\u2019t suit the actor\u2019s style.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Basinger, on the other hand, is a natural comedienne. That\u2019s in addition to being gorgeous; something Edwards doesn\u2019t take full advantage of here. She looks kind of dowdy with the mousy brown hair that usually hangs in her eyes. Don\u2019t get me wrong, she\u2019s still attractive. I just think she should have been allowed to look like she usually does. That being said, she has decent chemistry with Willis.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The show stealer in Blind Date<\/strong> is Larroquette. He delivers a nutso performance as the delusional ex who won\u2019t let go. He tries everything in his power to sabotage the date (not that he needs to do much to make a bad situation worse) only for it to backfire. How many store windows does he crash through? In any event, his David is a stalker who\u2019d be dangerous if he wasn\u2019t such an idiot. William Daniels (St. Elsewhere) has some good scenes as David\u2019s disapproving dad. He can\u2019t stand his son and it\u2019s easy to see why. The late Hartman is funny as Walter\u2019s brother, a used car salesman who\u2019s always trying to sell something. Mark Blum (Crocodile Dundee) is memorable as a sex-crazed colleague of Walter\u2019s who gets his just desserts from Nadia after hitting on her at the dinner party.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are some funny comic set-pieces in Blind Date<\/strong>. The best is the scene in David\u2019s family\u2019s mansion involving hallways, locked bedroom doors, a balcony and people ducking out of sight. It recalls the hotel sequence from Victor\/Victoria. It\u2019s not as hilarious, but it still works.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It comes down to this. Is Blind Date<\/strong> funny? Yes, it is, mostly. Like all comedies, it\u2019s hit or miss. Luckily, this one hits more than it misses.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blind Date (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, sexual references, brief rear nudity, comic violence including gunplay, drunkenness)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Blake Edwards\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dale Launer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Mancini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Harry Stradling Jr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 27, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bruce Willis, Kim Basinger, John Larroquette, William Daniels, George Coe, Mark Blum, Sab Shimono, Phil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Blind-Date-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12267,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions\/12267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}