{"id":8903,"date":"2024-11-25T15:07:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T20:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8903"},"modified":"2024-11-25T15:07:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T20:07:06","slug":"the-wrong-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/25\/the-wrong-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wrong Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Wrong Guys<\/strong> (1988)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence including gunplay, some sexual humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Danny Bilson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Joseph Conlan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank Byers\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Release date: May 13, 1988 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Louie Anderson, Richard Lewis, Richard Belzer, Franklin Ajaye, Tim Thomerson, Brion James, Biff Manard, John Goodman, Ernie Hudson, Timothy Van Patten, Bunny Summers, Carol Ita White, Garth Winsom, Dion Zamora, Joshua Horowitz, Josh Saviano, Garland Spencer, Jonathan Brandis, Danny Thomason, Parker Jacobs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1.1M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0File the Cub Scout comedy The Wrong Guys<\/strong> under U for Unfairly Overlooked. It wasn\u2019t widely released. Critics didn\u2019t go wild for it. Audiences ignored it. Given my affinity for stupid comedies, I would have seen it if it opened in Philadelphia which it didn\u2019t. I saw it when it came out on video. As you can probably guess, I liked it. It made me laugh for the right reasons. You can\u2019t ask for more than that from a dopey little comedy about a Cub Scout reunion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Wrong Guys <\/strong>stars Louie Anderson (Coming to America) as Louie, an overgrown child who used to be the leader of Cub Scout Den 7 in the early 60s. They were the happiest days of his life. Longing to relive better times, he decides to bring the pack together again for a reunion. They\u2019ve all gone their separate ways, but they drop everything and heed the call of their old leader. They haven\u2019t changed all that much in 27 years. Dentist Richard (Lewis, Robin Hood: Men in Tights) is still neurotic. Belz (Belzer, Law & Order: SVU), a fashion accessory designer, still plays the ladies man. Smooth-talking Frank (Ajaye, Car Wash), a radio talk show host, still dispenses advice. Tim (Thomerson, Trancers), now a surf teacher, is still the hot dog of the bunch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The five pals gather at Louie\u2019s mother\u2019s house where he surprises them by announcing they will be camping out at Mount Whitehead, the site of their greatest failure. Back in the day, they got lost and had to call their mothers to save them. As a result, they failed to earn the Arrow of Light badge, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a Cub Scout. The others aren\u2019t as enthused as Louie, but they go along with his idea. How could any of them possibly know that dangerous escaped convict Duke Earle (Goodman, Revenge of the Nerds) and his gang are hiding out in a cabin near their campsite? What\u2019s more, they\u2019re convinced Louie and his pals are FBI agents.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In addition, the troops\u2019 old nemeses the Grunsky brothers, Glen (James, Blade Runner) and Mark (Manard, Trancers), spot them at a local store and decide to follow them to play a prank on them. They still hold a grudge against the guys for kicking them out of the den when they were kids. In Den 7\u2019s favor, the Grunskys aren\u2019t too bright.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Danny Bilson (Zone Troopers), The Wrong Guys<\/strong> is funny precisely because it’s so stupid. It’s amusing to watch grown men trying to survive a night in the great outdoors with only hazy memories of their old Cub Scout training. Richard constantly worries about everything, especially One-Armed Pete, a fabled axe murderer who supposedly lives in the woods. Belz and Tim sneak off to visit a woman’s health spa, formerly the site of the Girl Scout camp. They barely escape with their lives after encountering the Grunskys’ wives. When Louie and Richard find then missing from the campsite, they think that One-Armed Pete got them. Meanwhile, Franklin sleeps through everything, including a machine gun attack on their campsite by Duke, thanks to a sleeping pill he copped from Richard.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bilson assembled a decent cast for The Wrong Guys<\/strong> and did something that I’ve never seen before. The five main characters\u2019 names are the same as the actors portraying them. Their personalities even match the type of characters they are known for. Lewis does his neurotic bit. Anderson is the enthusiastic man-child. Belzer is a wise ass. Ajaye is the cool guy. Thomerson is laid-back. The quintet of stand-up comedians has good chemistry. James and Manard are a riot as the pea-brained overgrown bullies constantly outsmarted by a squirrel who keeps stealing their food. Goodman, in one of his early roles, makes a great bad guy. His character\u2019s temperament in The Wrong Guys<\/strong> reminds me of the character he\u2019d play in The Big Lebowski a decade later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Wrong Guys <\/strong>is one of those movies ideal for times when you want to watch something light, silly and mindless. I’ve seen it a few times and still laugh. I especially like Louie’s dog, a mutt who takes a special liking to Richard (if you know what I mean). There\u2019s some good slapstick and comic interplay. Be sure to watch until the end of the closing credits for a funny bonus scene. Although it will never qualify as a comedy classic, The Wrong Guys<\/strong> is entertaining if you’re in the right state of mind.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wrong Guys (1988)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence including gunplay, some sexual humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Danny Bilson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Joseph Conlan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank Byers\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Release date: May 13, 1988 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Louie Anderson, Richard Lewis, Richard Belzer, Franklin Ajaye, Tim Thomerson, Brion James, Biff Manard, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9138,"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-8903","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\/2024\/11\/The-Wrong-Guys-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\/8903","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=8903"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9140,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903\/revisions\/9140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}