Best Defense (1984)

Seeking out bad movies that I missed in my youth is not a regular practice of mine but I did want to see the movie Alan Spencer mentioned in the audio commentaries on the Sledge Hammer DVD boxed sets. Spencer mentioned David Rasche's performance in Best Defense as one of (maybe the only, can't remember) reason he wanted Rasche to play the lead in his police satire sitcom, Sledge Hammer. It is extremely easy to see the connection in the performances. Rasche plays, Jeff. It's not clear whether or not Jeff is a KGB agent or an industrial spy who buys and sells information to whoever wants to buy it. The movie feels like it comes to an abrupt halt when he's off the screen and everything that happens after that aspect of the story feels painfully anti-climatic. It could be because there's no real action in the third act that makes any sense. The history of this movie is that it didn't test well at all and in order to try and salvage the project, Eddie Murphy was hired to film separate scenes to sort of jack it up in a comedy sense. The patch in doesn't work. Because Dudley Moore's character is involved with designing a component for tanks, Eddie Murphy plays an Army Lieutenant who is testing (it has to be later right?) the tank, presumably with the component in use. Much of the third act features a back and forth. From flashback to Moore trying to fix the component to flashforward, to Murphy in a situation where said component needs to work. Back and forth, back and forth and in the end, it just stops going back and forth. I guess mentioning this means this review has spoilers.The movie has a fine cast. They really don't have much to work with which is fairly obvious. Dudley Moore's main comedic contributions is sex jokes and a kind of understated buffoonery throughout. Eddie Murphy in his own scenes come across as improvised jokes in army fatigues and in a tank. This is Murphy in his prime and he's entertaining but if all of his scenes were together in their own short film and not spliced in, it would be more enjoyable though Murphy has been better and done better. If I want to see old Eddie Murphy footage, I wouldn't watch this, I'd watch SNL reruns, Beverly Hills Cop, and 48 hrs. When looking for a laugh, aside from Moore and Murphy, there's just Rasche whose Jeff character is an excitable psychotic. He commands the scenes he's in which isn't difficult since most of them feature Dudley Moore who is like the straight man in a comedy routine. The movie really is only worth seeing for Rasche's performance and that's especially true for Sledge Hammer fans. I like most things the Second City alumnis were involved in. Raschi was a member in the 70's and Murphy was briefly in the 80's. Moore was great in Pete and Dud/Derek and Clive. They could've all been better served with a better script but there doesn't look like there's much for them to work with outside what they themselves could bring to their roles.

Best Defence. Is the worst film ever made. I went and paid good money to see this film when first released. It is the only film that has made me leave a cinema, after paying money to see a film. In fact it was so bad I tried to reclaim the money I spent. I pretended that I had accidentally gone to the wrong screening, but this did not work. A simply awful, woeful film! Dudley Moore and very sadly Eddie Murphy do absolutely nothing to help the film. Seriously flawed material. The film has NO funny lines, no real storyline that makes any sense and if possible avoid watching the film. It does serious damage to the industry.

I felt this was an interesting concept for a movie.Two characters separated by time and place, but connected by one piece of equipment, on a tank.It of course had its moments of cheese, but most comedies do.Moore's performance was good,as was Murphy's.The only really bad performances were the two female leads,Kate Capshaw, and Helen Shaver. Capshaw chews the scenery, but she pretty much does that in all of her movies, and certainly was no worse in this movie than in Space Camp.Helen Shaver's performance wasn't horrible, but she tended to whine a bit too much.Tom Noonan as the Soviet spy/surfer dude, was a scream,and the FBI surveillance scene made my sides hurt. My overall rating on this movie, is a solid 6,above average, but not terrific.I did feel the concept was very innovative, flashing back and forth from 1982 Southern California, to 1984 Kuwait.So, if you can find this movie in the bargain basement rack,for say 2 dollars or less, it might be worth it to have a look, otherwise, wait to see it on cable.

An ironic aspect of this otherwise indigestible flop is that the final concept, although created as a desperate, expos facto attempt to inject life into the film, might have actually worked, had it been in the plan from the beginning.Although the future plot line (or present, according to how you wish to perceive it) involving Murphy was filmed later, the concept of one plot line's actions having a direct result on another in the future could have been interesting. All it needed was a script, production values, creative foresight and inspired performances by the actors. This film, unfortunately, had none of the above.Moore is convinced that a device slated to be installed on a tank is defective in its design, and must try to fix it before it's built and put into use. Two years in the future, sure enough, Murphy is driving a tank which uses this very device. Will Moore improve the design in time to save Murphy's life? Well, it's little confusing to flash back and forth between these plot lines, but they do manage to culminate into a semi-climactic moment, but much too late to save the viewer from mindless boredom.