Touches You

Let's be realistic.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

In this remake of the French comedy "The Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe", Tom Hanks plays a violinist who randomly gets selected as a spy, leading the government to turn his life upside down. There are certainly some really funny scenes here - namely anything involving plumbing - but it's really undesirable when Hollywood remakes a foreign movie. "The Man with One Red Shoe" is pretty characteristic of Tom Hanks's career before he got into serious roles: innocuously silly.So, I recommend the original, but this one isn't bad. Just don't expect any kind of religious experience. Also starring Lori Singer, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Edward Herrmann, Carrie Fisher, James Belushi and David Ogden Stiers.

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.

I am a huge Tom Hanks fan. Being the fan that I am I do admit some of his earlier stuff was just so-so. This was one of those projects. I mean it had its moments but it just seemed like it was thrown together. Hanks and Belushi do an excellent job and they should have worked together more often when they both made it bigger maybe they will who knows. I think Tom Hanks has wondered to far away from comedy which he does really well. Splash, Bachelor Party, Big all great films in the 80's of his so if you want to see some of his older but good stuff those would be better. If you are just looking to pass the time this movie would be fine but if your looking for Tom Hanks at his very best this movie is not for you. 5 out of ten stars

Two rival CIA factions try to out-do and discredit each other; innocent bystander Hanks gets caught in the middle. Hilarity ensues. While this movie has it's share of problems (mostly having to do with continuity and sound editing), it is still one of my favorites. The humor is pretty understated most of the time, which is probably why a lot of other commentators on this site didn't get it. I agree with another poster who opined that these are the same folks who think that a guy screwing a pie or a girl rubbing semen in her hair are the epitome of comedy (I'm surprised, though, that they didn't find the flushing ambulance funny). Either that, or a false sense of culture makes them think the French original is better ("Look at me; I'm cultured; I like a French movie," they sniff).Some favorite moments (not in order):*Richard Drew (Hanks) gets darted in the arse as he tries to come on to Maddy (Singer), whom he discovered in his apartment. He gets lost while talking about fate as the drug take effect and then rambles on about it before passing out with the line, "No ma, I'm not watchin' tv; I'm practicin'!" then mimes playing the violin. The camera work here is a big part of the humor as it begins to wobble around in a drugged fashion; it then wobbles over to the spot on the floor where he is going to land when he passes out, which he then does. The sound gets a bit woozy during this part as well, which adds to the effect.*Drew goes to the dentist because his best friend (Belushi) gave him a pack of fake peanuts. Burt Cooper's (Coleman) team figures he's got some microfilm hidden in his teeth and send one of their dentists to retrieve it. (Cooper: "Take one of our dentists, and get that tooth for me." Carson: "How do I know which tooth?" Cooper: "Yeah. Well; better, uh, better just yank 'em all."). The "dentist" gets there early and knocks everyone in the office out with an aerosol spray, then lays in wait for Drew. Ross's (Durning) underling Brown (Herrmann) sends one of his own operatives to intercept and protect Drew. Drew shows up at the dentist's office to find no one around, the phone ringing incessantly, and moaning coming from one of the back rooms which stops as Cooper's dentist re-gasses a patient who started to wake up. He says, "huh-uh," and leaves. As he is getting into the elevator, Ross's man (Noonan) gets off the other elevator. Cooper's dentist mistakes him for Drew, knocks him out, and takes all his teeth. When Cooper finds out that Drew left, he is still under the impression that Drew is some kind of super-operative whose finely-honed instincts smelled the trap (never once considering that it was his own agent's incompetence that tipped him off).*A string of mishaps cause Morris (Belushi) to think he is hallucinating dead bodies. He goes to the bathroom and, as he is standing there urinating, the door creaks open to reveal yet another dead operative hanging on the back of the door. He turns slowly around (unmindful of the fact that he is still peeing), sees the guy hanging there, turns to the camera and cries, "Aw, come on!"*When Drew decides that perhaps the dentist is not the best idea and leaves, he catches Maddy's sweep team off guard; they still have his apartment mostly disassembled. In their rush to get things back together, they put things back together wrong (shampoo in the toothpaste tube, plumbing re-arranged) and the effects are seen throughout the rest of the movie.*The car/bicycle chase where you think the car is going to go up a ramp and jump a truck.I could go on and on. This movie is simply hilarious. Yes, there are problems; as when Maddy (Singer) delivers the line; "GBLX?!? But that's in charge of our entire missile defense system!" I had to groan at that one. Cooper's on-again/off-again glasses in the final foot chase scene. Some lines of dialog that were obviously dubbed in later (I guess some of the physical humor was *too* subtle for test audiences). But these are minor issues.You may need to watch more than once to get it. And I almost forgot to mention the soundtrack, which is outstanding! I became an instant Thomas Newman fan (Road to Perdition, The Green Mile, American Beauty, Finding Nemo among many others) with this movie and was very disappointed that there was no soundtrack album available. In fact, I originally bought the VHS primarily so I could hear the soundtrack in stereo but fell in love with the movie itself upon repeated viewings. He is my favorite among the musical Newmans which include brother David (Ice Age, Daddy Day Care), cousin Joey (TV series Providence, Once and Again), 9-time Oscar-winner father Alfred (Seven-Year Itch, 20th Century Fox Logo theme), and uncles Lionel and Emil; all are well-known composers, not to mention cousin Randy.Highly recommended.