{"id":8939,"date":"2024-11-27T12:51:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T17:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8939"},"modified":"2024-11-27T12:51:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T17:51:42","slug":"armed-and-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/27\/armed-and-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed and Dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Armed and Dangerous <\/strong>(1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence including gunplay, sexual content, brief rear nudity, wild driving)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mark L. Lester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Harold Ramis and Peter Torokvei\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Bill Meyers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fred Schuler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 15, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Robert Loggia, Kenneth McMillan, Meg Ryan, Brion James, Jonathan Banks, James Tolkan, Don Stroud, Larry Hankin, Steve Railsback, Robert Burgos, Tony Burton, Robert Gray, Larry Flash Jenkins, Stacy Keach Sr., Bruce Kirby, Saveliy Kramarov, Judy Landers, Tommy “Tiny” Lister, K.C. Winkler, Glenn Withrow, David Wohl, Melanie Gaffin.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $15.9M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0It wasn\u2019t the star power of SCTV colleagues John Candy and Eugene Levy that drew me to the action-comedy Armed and Dangerous<\/strong>. It was director Mark L. Lester who directed two of my favorite 80s actioners (Class of 1984 and Commando) as well as 70s guilty pleasure Roller Boogie. I was curious to see how he\u2019d fare with comedy. I planned to see it at the movies, but it was gone before I got the chance. It was the story of my life that summer; I also missed American Anthem, Out of Bounds and A Fine Mess. Some might say I didn\u2019t miss anything, but that\u2019s a topic of discussion for another time.<\/p>\n

ANYWAY, I finally saw Armed and Dangerous<\/strong> when it came out on video the following winter. I didn\u2019t expect much of it, especially with Candy\u2019s recent track record of lackluster comedies like Brewster\u2019s Millions, Summer Rental and Volunteers. As such, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn\u2019t all that bad. In fact, it\u2019s pretty funny in a silly, dopey kind of way. Okay, so it’s not a masterpiece of comedy or cinema. Some of the jokes just don\u2019t land. The plot has been done to death. It\u2019s entirely predictable. HOWEVER, Candy and Levy do make a winning team. It has a good supporting cast. Plus, it has a cool finale. I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m always up for some vehicular mayhem.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Dismissed from the police force after being framed for theft, ex-cop Frank Dooley (Candy) takes a job as an armed security guard for an outfit called Guard Dog Security. He\u2019s partnered with Norman Kane (Levy), a nervous ex-attorney who doesn\u2019t like taking risks. After a single afternoon of training, they\u2019re sent into the field where they immediately make a name for themselves by failing to prevent a robbery at the warehouse they\u2019re guarding. They make an enemy of corrupt union boss Michael Carlino (Loggia, Scarface) when Kane questions the $15\/week union dues at a big meeting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite their subsequent crappy assignments (e.g. a toxic waste dump), Dooley and Kane manage to uncover a burglary ring involving union officials and corrupt cops. It turns out to be a cover for an even bigger crime involving the theft of millions of dollars in union pension funds. It\u2019s up to our two heroes to prevent the crime and bring the guilty parties to justice. Actually, the guys don\u2019t go about it on their own. They get a fair amount of help from the only one who believes their claim, cute supervisor Maggie (Ryan, When Harry Met Sally), the daughter of the big boss (McMillan, Dune). It doesn\u2019t hurt that she has the hots for Kane.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Early on, I expected Armed and Dangerous<\/strong> to be along the lines of Police Academy with the introduction of the misfit types training alongside Dooley and Kane. Let me tell you, there are some mighty strange people interested in the private security business, but none stranger than the whacked-out dude played by Larry Hankin (Billy Madison). He\u2019s kind of like Christopher Lloyd\u2019s Reverend Jim from the sitcom Taxi. ANYWAY, Lester barely uses them save for a handful of scenes. If anything, Armed and Dangerous is more like Beverly Hills Cop and Fletch in that it belongs entirely to its leads Candy and Levy. They have chemistry that\u2019s likely the result of honing their act together for years on SCTV. Look at the scene where they dodge pursuers in a sex shop by donning kinky disguises. That\u2019s on top of funny individual scenes of Candy getting stuck in a tree trying to rescue a little girl\u2019s cat and Levy contending with a psycho cult leader (Withrow, The Outsiders) in court. They\u2019re aided by a capable supporting cast that also includes Jonathan Banks (Beverly Hills Cop) and Brion James (48 Hrs.) as a couple of union goons, James Tolkan (Back to the Future) as the union treasurer and Steve Railsback (The Stunt Man) as a helpful oil truck driver identified in the credits as \u201cThe Cowboy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The action scenes in Armed and Dangerous <\/strong>are well done, especially the sequence where The Cowboy crashes and smashes his way through a traffic jam after Dooley\u2019s ancient motorcycle breaks down on his way to help in the capture of the bad guys. The synthesized score by Bill Meyers is pretty good even if it\u2019s typical 80s action-comedy stuff. It\u2019s just one of the many genre clich\u00e9s you\u2019ll find here. But even in all of its unoriginality, Armed and Dangerous<\/strong> is still a lot of fun if you approach it with low expectations. Candy\u2019s done better (Planes, Trains and Automobiles), but he\u2019s also done a lot worse (Wagons East). To his credit, he was an immensely likable comic actor. It\u2019s sad to think he\u2019s no longer with us. Levy makes a great foil with his worrisome character.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is I like Armed and Dangerous<\/strong>. It\u2019s not great, but it isn\u2019t a total waste either. It\u2019s an entertaining choice for a slow weeknight at home.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armed and Dangerous (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence including gunplay, sexual content, brief rear nudity, wild driving)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mark L. Lester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Harold Ramis and Peter Torokvei\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Bill Meyers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fred Schuler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 15, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Robert Loggia, Kenneth McMillan, Meg Ryan, Brion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9267,"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-8939","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\/Armed-and-Dangerous-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\/8939","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=8939"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9269,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8939\/revisions\/9269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}