Outrageous Fortune (1987)

For years there was a video store I would go into and this movie was placed there in some way so that I kept seeing it every time, yet for some reason, it never spoke to me. Maybe it was the cover art (and it didn't help that the VHS case had seen better days, with just the wrong amount of dirty scratches in the wrong places, or that the insert looked faded), or maybe it was that this was before I started watching reruns of CHEERS, or maybe it was a lukewarm Rogert-Ebert-quality review I saw somewhere, or whatever, but I never rented it. However, here today, practically 30 years later, I finally took the opportunity to watch an original uncut copy of the movie I ran across on-line, and I was not disappointed.Here, Shelly Long reprises her role as Diane Chambers, except that her name is Lauren, and she is not an aspiring writer in Boston, but an aspiring actress in New York City (and parts West), and she can say f---, f------g, assh*le, and also do a fair Marisa Tomei from MY COUSIN VINNIE (even if only sporadically). Bette Midler (as others have noted) is just Bette Midler, meaning the 1980's answer to Mae West (or maybe Renee Zellweger), complete with earrings of hand grenade proportions. The two of them become unlikely allies in a quest to find their common boyfriend, who has gone mysteriously missing following an apparent misadventure. This movie also includes a rare semi-cameo appearance by George Carlin as a cross between Sherlock Holmes, Yosemite Sam, and just George Carlin, Stand-Up Man Extraordinaire, in the guise of just the sort of hippy-dippy character he essayed so well on the comedy stage. The villain is played by actor Peter Coyote, who fully lives up to his name as an example of desert vermin writ large.Some have said this is "screwball" comedy (a 1930's/40's genre) but really it reminds me more of a "madcap" comedy of the early 1960's, with that genre's looser plots and virtually obligatory scene involving the launching of virtually countless thousands of dollars in cash into a crowd (and not just once, but twice in the same movie!) The climactic sequence devolves into a kind of chase sequence, and as others on IMDb have noted, here the movie slips a little as that sequence is not as artfully crafted as the more famous ones in the history of the movies. It seems as though something was missing as far as building the tension necessary for an ideal chase scene (probably, as much as anything else, a heightened sense of Menace). Still, its basic premise is as well-conceived as probably anything ("Reckoning At Four Fingers Rocks!"), and it still pays off even though it is not as executed perhaps as well it might have been. The epilogue at the end also seemed a somewhat jarring non sequitur that is somewhat anti-climactic as well. Still, this movie is a perfectly decent comedy well-worth seeing if you are in video hell some evening or rainy Saturday afternoon looking for something to watch.

It's a most funny adventure comedy that I have seen lately. I never not laugh so loud as in watching this awesome film. Fantastic Bette Midler and pretty Shelley Long made up an incredibly and charismatic duet. Their characters and images are absolutely diverse, but they are a terrific and laughable team, without a doubt. Great director and veteran of cinema Arthur Hiller was able to make really timeless film, that will be make laugh else many generations for a long years. If you like such old kind movies as "Midnight Run", "Overboard", "See No Evil, Hear No Evil", that you will be delighted from "Outrageous Fortune". Such films wants re-watching infinitely, you always find something fresh.

Two completely different dames fall for the same guy. Bette Midler and Shelly Long make a wonderful dynamic duo.The problem with the film is that once the total plot is revealed, the movie goes downhill in quality and becomes one with full chase scenes.The quality here is that these totally different women could possibly bond together. Of course, given the situation that confronts them, bonding would be a way of survival.Robert Prosky was quite funny as the acting teacher, who is really a KGB agent. Peter Coyote has his moments as the false elementary schoolteacher up to his neck in espionage as a double agent.Fun, but then it becomes increasingly inane.

Bette Midler and Shelley Long play two total opposites who hate each other. When they discover they both have the same boyfriend, they set out to find him, with just about everyone in pursuit of them. Basic comedy starts off good, but gets silly and uninteresting as the movie progresses. Midler and Long have decent chemistry, but it is not enough to make this film a real success.2 out of 5