Fletch (1985)

Directed by Michael Ritchie. Starring Chevy Chase, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Richard Libertini, Joe Don Baker, Tim Matheson, Larry Jenkins, George Wendt, Geena Davis, M. Emmet Walsh, Kenneth Mars. [PG]

One of Chase’s better vehicles casts him as Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher, the eponymous undercover reporter from Gregory Mcdonald’s novels. He’s posing as a junkie when terminally-ill businessman Matheson hires Fletch to put him out of his misery in exchange for $50,000; Fletch smells something fishy about the setup and gets to investigating, hitting on the guy’s wife (Wheeler-Nicholson), frustrating his demanding editor (Libertini), swearing by the importance of ball bearings, etc. Pretty good comic-mystery, with Chase’s flippant detachment providing consistent contempt for corrupted authority figures, though the script is overly convoluted for such a simple (and easy to anticipate) explanation. Steady stream of deadpan wisecracks throughout, some of them quite funny. Harold Faltermeyer, best known for his “Alex F” composition for Beverly Hills Cop, churns out another similar synth-pop instrumental that couldn’t sound more of the 80s if it was wearing a Members Only jacket. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar cameos as himself in a silly dream sequence. Followed by Fletch Lives.

69/100