The Man with One Red Shoe (1985)

(Flash Review)Hanks has made a slew of high quality films and this being his third leading roll has to be one his worst. The director, writer and producer should all be ashamed with this as a result especially with the rather big names in the cast. The brittle plot is about some political mischief within the CIA and trying to get someone fired so one side tries to mislead the other by using a regular person as a pawn. Hanks is spotted because he is wearing...yep, you guessed it...one red shoe and he is unknowingly selected as the pawn. The other side views him as important and tracks him to discover what he knows. Que clumsy and stupid plot gags about Hanks tricking them all by accident as he goes about his regular routines. Will Hanks learn what he's in the middle of? With both CIA groups get what they want and outsmart each other? In addition to the strained comedy is a preposterous romantic sub-plot. Unless you are working through Hanks entire film catalog there is absolutely no need to watch this! And mercifully, Hanks has fewer underpants scenes than he had in Turner and Hooch. ZING.

If you're looking for a comedy that's going to have you rolling on the floor with laughter? Well, "The Man With One Red Shoe" isn't it. It's a mediocre film. It builds up a little bit of steam as it moves along, and it has a few humorous scenes, but there was little in it that struck me as truly "funny." It's notable as a very early example of Tom Hanks movie career. To this point he had starred in "Splash" (which I enjoyed) and in "Bachelor Party" (which I haven't seen.) Hanks is fine in this. He plays his part fairly straight - which is the only way this would have worked.The basic story is about mistaken identity. There are two factions vying for control of the CIA. One, led by Ross (Charles Durning) deliberately turns Drew (Hanks) into an object of suspicion to be pursued by the other faction led by Cooper (Dabney Coleman). Drew has no connection with either side or with the CIA. He's a violinist and not a spy, but so desperate is the Cooper faction to believe that he's a spy, that everything they find in his every day life is filtered through that lens, making him more and more suspicious to him. I suppose there's a bit of a warning there. If someone wants to be suspicious of you, no matter how innocent you are, they'll find reasons.Drew ends up in a variety of mildly amusing situations as this unfolds, and pretty good use is made of the actors with whom he interacts most regularly - Maddy (Lori Singer), who works for Cooper and is trying to trap him, but ends up falling for him; Morris (James Belushi), his best friend who sees so many strange things happening around Drew that he starts to think he's going crazy; and Paula (Carrie Fisher), Morris' wife who desperately wants to have an affair with Drew. It's the scenes with Fisher and Belushi that are responsible for most of the humour, and some of the scenes with Singer are amusing, and Singer is quite beautiful, especially in the "backless" (and somewhat more) dress scene.Overall, though, this is a mediocre film of no great note, except that it is early Hanks in the days before he was a huge star. (4/10)

Based on the French film "Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire," this American version stars Tom Hanks, Lori Singer, Dabney Coleman, Carrie Fisher, John Belushi, Charles Durning, and Edward Hermann.Hanks plays Richard Harlan Drew, a violinist, who is chosen at random as a "spy" by Ross, the head of a CIA-like agency, Cooper (Durning) when he knows that his second in command (Coleman) is out to destroy him and take his place. As expected, Cooper, having bugged Ross' home, is all over Drew and enlists the aide of another spy (Singer) to get close to him and get information.It's an amusing plot - a kind of Everyman whose every move, every piece of music played, every friend, is misinterpreted as something to do with espionage.The problem is, the film is amusing when I think it was intended to be hilarious. The best performance for my money comes from Dabney Coleman, who has the best line in the movie: "Honey, will you please - what are the odds of the Russians attacking on a Thursday night?" The big chase scene at the end, with Drew on his bicycle, is for my money the best scene in the movie.Doesn't make much of an impact, but everybody in it is very good.

If there is a lesson to be learned by Hollywood is not to try to remake whatever was already made, and better. Which seems to be a lesson American movie people seem to forget. The criteria might be that the original film didn't reach a wide American audience, thus the reason for the remake, but frankly, neither Stan Dragoti, the director, or Robert Klane, its adapter, put a dent in what Francis Vever and Yves Robert achieved with the original.Then again, if one hasn't seen the French film of the same name, this comedy will appear to be the real thing. In fact, there are hardly any laughs in the film. The best sequence involves the Richard and Maddy in the seduction scene where some of her hair is caught in a zipper.In a way, this was Tom Hanks' third film as a lead man. One can't blame him because he is bogged down by a screen play that could have been better. Tom Hanks pales in comparison with the original Pierre Richard, who was a better comedian.The cast shows several familiar faces, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Edward Herrmann, John Belushi, but ultimately the ones that fare better in the film are Lori Singer and Carrie Fisher in smaller roles, but ones that afford these two actress good opportunities in which to shine.Stick with the original version if you can find it in DVD format.