Must See Movie...

It is a performances centric movie

Don't Believe the Hype

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Dragnet is a good movie with a well written storyline and a great comedic cast.Its certainly not an outstanding comedy that made me laugh so frequently that I want to see it again,but it was fun while it lasted and it certainly had some good moments.It was weird seeing Dan Aykroyd in the serious role and Tom Hanks as a comic relief,because back then Hanks was not an A-list actor,but it really seemed strange to me that there was a time when Dan Aykroyd was bigger than Tom Hanks.Despiite feeling like these roles would have made sense the other way around,they both did great jobs,some of Aykroyds intellectual dialogue seemed very tricky,but he delivered it in pure confidence,Hanks character was very funny and there was great chemistry between both actors.Its nothing outstanding but still an enjoyable hour and forty minutes,I would recommend Dragnet as a good comedy to watch if you ever see it on television. A straight laced LAPD cop and his easy going new partner try to bust a criminal conspiracy.Best Performance: Tom Hanks Worst Performance: Bruce Gray

Dragnet is directed by Tom Mankiewicz and he also co-writes the screenplay with Dan Aykroyd and Alan Zweibel. It stars Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, Christopher Plummer, Harry Morgan and Alexandra Paul. Music is by Ira Newborn and cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti.A parody and homage to the much loved TV show of the same name from the 60s, Dragnet works hard to bring 1980s chic to the formula but ultimately has to rely on the two stars to keep its head above water. Plot pitches Aykroyd and Hanks together as mismatched cops trying to decipher the nefarious workings of cult outfit PAGAN (People Against Goodness And Normalcy).Aykroyd's Sgt. Joe Friday is a by the book copper with a stick up his backside, Hanks' Det. Pep Streebeck is the unconventional sloth who doesn't mind fracturing laws to get a result. Naturally Friday will have to loosen up for the plot machinations to work, so enter Connie Swail (Paul) as the love interest who smooths Friday's rough edges. Plummer is scraping the bottom of the barrel but seems to be having fun doing so, and Morgan just looks bemused.Thankfully the script is ripe with dialogue tailor made for Aykroyd, ensuring his fans get good value out of the picture. The pairing of Hanks and Aykroyd is a good one, their polar opposite dynamics spicy, and many lines become ever quotable. The action sequences aren't up to much, the direction equally so, while the soundtrack is just plane bad. So for enjoyment purpose it's best just to buy into Aykroyd's deadpan take on the Joe Friday character and kinda ignore the rest. It has moments, but the material isn't worthy of being stretched to over an hour and forty minutes of film. 6/10

Dragnet is one of those films from the 80s that you just love. It's laugh out loud funny, and the jokes - mainly the deadpan stuff - never get old. So many of the lines are incredibly familiar, and like films like Top Gun, Princess Bride, Dirty Dancing many people can quote you large chunks of the script. Dan Aykroyd is brilliant as the policing by numbers monologue play by the books guy; similar role to his character in Gross Pointe Blank and there's a little of the Blues Brothers in there too. His comedic genius is playing everything so straight against Tom Hanks' enjoyable over the top, very physical slapstick sort of comedy. Together they are comedy genius both against the foil of Christopher Plummer playing a rather similar bad-guy-but-charming character to a lot of his films - Pink Panther (whichever one it was), Dreamscape etc. Some of the best lines come from Harry Morgan (famed for M*A*S*H) as their Captain.Saddled together as an unlikely pair of partners in the Police Hanks and Aykroyd stumble upon a LA-wide conspiracy involving a prominent man of the church and the Police Commissioner and a group calling themselves PAGANs - people against goodness and normalcy - and there's Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul) the hapless virgin who will be sacrificed in on of the PAGAN's rituals... and Friday and Streebeck (Aykroyd and Hanks) have to get to the bottom of it. Hilarious police procedural, witty one liners, unforgettable scenes, great stunts and car chases and great performances make up this 80s remake and homage to the original 60s series. It's not aged that well and is a little clichéd in terms of 80s films but that is the charm. Love this film - it always really makes me smile.

As soon as I heard the theme music in the opening I recognised it was a parody of a popular American TV show, I was drawn in more however by the two leads. Basically a bunch of strange robberies are taking place in Los Angeles with every single one with a card saying "PAGAN" left behind, and the nephew of the late character from the TV show, Sgt. Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd) and his new partner Pep Streebeck (Tom Hanks) are assigned to investigate. These robberies have included a bat, a 30 feet long snake and a lion's mane from a zoo, some chemicals to create a deadly gas, and all new copies of Bait magazine for their owners, porn king Jerry Caesar (Dabney Coleman). As the two cops follow all the clues in a number of different modes of transport, because of the recent car stealing frenzy, they find out that PAGAN is a big cult organisation. The key suspect for the cult is the suspicious Reverend Jonathan Whirley (Christopher Plummer), but they can't prove anything when Captain Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) hates them for making so many mistakes. In the end, after some chases and a bit of gun play, P.A.G.A.N. (People Against Goodness And Normalcy) is stopped, Whirley is caught red handed, Friday settles with love interest Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul), and he and Streeback are still partners. Also starring Jack O'Halloran as Emil Muzz, Elizabeth Ashley as Commissioner Jane Kirkpatrick, Kathleen Freeman as Enid Borden and Bruce Gray as Mayor Parvin. Aykroyd with his deadpan and to the book crime fighting and Hanks with his chilled and sarcastic attitude are a good duo, there are some reasonably funny moments and one-liners, but it is a little boring at times, but not a bad attempt at a spoof police drama. Okay!