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Thanks for the memories!

Great Film overall

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

In 1982 Wylie is working for a company located in a former bowling alley which is about to go under. In 1984 Lt. Landry is demonstrating a tank in Kuwait that causes chaos. This is confusing, but the events are related.Wiley meets a man in a bar who is designing technology for a tank and is about to meet with KGB spy Jeff. Fearing what may happen (and he is right), he sneaks his design into Wylie's briefcase.Wylie finds the technology, and given that he will save his company by doing so, he reluctantly goes along with a co-worker's scheme to pass the work off as his own. The technology doesn't work perfectly but it can be improved. Wylie secretly asks a co-worker to investigate the plan further and discovers even worse problems.During all this Wylie also cheats on his wife with boss Clair and runs for his life from Jeff and other goons. And let's not forget Landry, who has troubles of his own. With plenty of silliness from the natives. In the end, we have to wonder if Wylie can fix the problems before Landry gets blown up by a tank that has already performed poorly.This is no masterpiece, but it's pretty good and offers lots of laughs and excitement. The ending is especially satisfying.Dudley Moore does a pretty good job. I'm aware he has received acclaim for some of his roles. This isn't one of them.I know David Rasche best as a reckless cop supposedly based on Dirty Harry. He's nearly as talented here. Eddie Murphy dies what he does best: laugh and cry. However, I've seen better from him.Don't expect too much, and I don't believe this film will disappoint.

The Dudley Moore / Eddie Murphy debacle. The premise has enough promise, but it never really takes off. The shenanigans in the factory are plain dull. Moore gets to be sarcastic, but not funny, and gets into woman trouble (Helen Shaver and Kate Capshaw are most easy on the eye), but is soon interrupted by a bumbling group of agents who need his help to catch the Rasche character, which leads to some okay consternation in a parking lot. Then there is the whole situation in the Middle-East with Eddie Murphy; I didn't find a single good joke in there. The supposed-to-be-suspenseful (right?) inter-cutting with the other half of the film doesn't work one bit, either.Moore, Murphy, Rasche and other assorted actors may have given it a good go, but without funny jokes and / or an entertaining story, it don't WAMmo, no sir.2 out of 10.

An ironic aspect of this otherwise indigestible flop is that the final concept, although created as a desperate, expos facto attempt to inject life into the film, might have actually worked, had it been in the plan from the beginning.Although the future plot line (or present, according to how you wish to perceive it) involving Murphy was filmed later, the concept of one plot line's actions having a direct result on another in the future could have been interesting. All it needed was a script, production values, creative foresight and inspired performances by the actors. This film, unfortunately, had none of the above.Moore is convinced that a device slated to be installed on a tank is defective in its design, and must try to fix it before it's built and put into use. Two years in the future, sure enough, Murphy is driving a tank which uses this very device. Will Moore improve the design in time to save Murphy's life? Well, it's little confusing to flash back and forth between these plot lines, but they do manage to culminate into a semi-climactic moment, but much too late to save the viewer from mindless boredom.

Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy are two entirely different looking actors who have two things in common. They were both hugely popular box office comedy stars throughout the 1980's and they were both part of the cast of this 1984 Paramount release. If these two comedy titans had any scenes together, that could've made the film really great but despite that setback, the film is not a total waste. Two stories are told in the film. One has to do with technology programmer Wylie Cooper's (Moore) chance encounter with a man who's on the run from some shady corporate criminals and how Cooper's life changes for the better and for the worse after the encounter. The other is set two years later and has to do with American soldier Landry (Murphy) test driving a faulty experimental tank that Cooper had invented and accidentally driving it into the middle of a battlefield. That tank (Cooper building it and Landry using it) is what the two stories have in common. The most major complaint about this film is its constantly shifting from one story to the other thus confusing some viewers. I managed to follow along though and if anybody who's thinking of seeing this one can too, you may find both leading actors in fine form. Just don't expect the comedy sparks of their far more successful individually starring vehicles including "Arthur" and "Beverly Hills Cop."