Wonderful character development!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Casey (Anthony Michael Hall) is an up and coming police detective. But, he's very green. Nevertheless, his boss, Stan (Jerry Orbach) respects his intelligence, as does his partner, Samantha (Claudia Christian). Then, too, there may be an undeclared "something" brewing between Casey and Sam. Yet, on a stakeout at a nearby park, Casey bumbles the job and lets the perp get away. Or, so he believes, until he meets up with a witness to the event. But, what a pair of eyes, for they belong to a GNOME from the underworld, a gnome named Gnorm. Naturally, Casey has a difficult time adapting to a new "pal" who prefers the wrapper over the sandwich! Still, Casey knows he needs Gnorm's help to catch the wrongdoer and Gnormie needs Casey to help him find something hidden to bring back to his below-the-ground habitat. In fact, Gnorm is in Casey's world because his whole venture's goal is to please a lady-gnome from home. It gets tricky, for the perp wants to eliminate them both. Will this new dynamic duo succeed? Gno doubt! This pleasant little movie is gno masterpiece but is still quite entertaining. Hall, Christian, and Orbach do nice work while the little gnome is an odd creature who grows on the audience. The special effects aren't dazzling, nor is the costuming, script, direction or photography. Even so, the overall final product will be a nice little diversion for most viewers.

This film is one of those that makes very clear an adage, which is pretty important in any line of work, and especially in film IMO -- "Know what you know, and know what you don't know." Stan Winston very clearly knew Makeup Special Effects, and he was a master in that field. He clearly did not know film directing ( nor shot coverage nor overseeing editing nor,... well, several other knowledge gaps in his tool chest pop out when one views this movie).The puppetry and facial animatronics in this movie are very good, but it falls flat in almost every other department (although I think there MAY have been a decent script initially).Hitchcock didn't sing in films, he knew better. The Coens don't act in films, they know better. Daniel Day-Lewis does not write screenplays, he brings the characters off of the page as a master actor. Stan Winston knew Makeup SFX at a master level, but did not know film directing.

With a title like that, I expected a very dumb movie, but it wasn't bad.....actually decent. It's a harmless cop-fantasy film with police drama mixed in with some humor and special effects. I found a lot more drama than humor, which surprised me, although there were a few funny lines by the "gnome," a special- effects creation of Stan Winston. Despite a film filled with angry characters - cops and crooks - the language was pretty tame and the film moves well and zips by since it's only 84 minutes. Yes, the story is ludicrous and some of the dialog is B-movie, but it was pretty enjoyable.

This movie did not really engage either my heart or my head. I would say that it is more appropriate for children, except some of the humour is a little too adult for a young audience. Nevertheless, a wonderful performance from Mark Harelik as the odious Kaminsky kept me watching to the end.