This late 1980s flick is another one of those forgotten B movie flicks from the 80s which didn't carry on to still be a well known movie into the 21st century. Those types of B movies weren't in the same category as 80s movies that did remain well known much later, such as "Ferris Bueller's day off", "The breakfast club", and "Back to the future", the latter movie with James Tolkan as Mr. Strictland, has a role here in "Opportunity knocks" as ruthless mob boss Sal who is after Dana Carvey's star character for who he thinks stole $60,000 from him. In reality, he stole his car and dumped it on a curb (where hooligans tore pieces off the car and stole the money in one of those fast forward sequences).
Dana, as Eddie Farrel, is a small time conman with his partner Lou (Todd Graff, who played a role that same year as Tom Selleck's prison inmate in An innocent man who met a firey violent end for ripping off the wrong inmates). Eddie and Lou spend their time ripping people off for cash by jumping in front of cars and threatening to sue, posing as gas repair men (a mildly amusing scene where they try to con the house owner by saying that there are "dangerous clouds of gas pockets" in his home, make him hold a button on his furnace while they try to steal his TV, and then get attacked by his sons who return from karate lesson), and doing other small time cons. Then they break into a home where the house owner is in India and the house sitter calls and leaves a message on the answering machine while they're there saying that he can't house sit due to a big money executive job offer in Seattle. This movie, which I previously thought began on the streets of New York with Eddie and Lou's jumping in front of a car scam, and then took the house sitting scam to the nice upper middle class house somewhere along the coast in the Hamptons. But I realized later that the movie was in Chicago, and the house was along Lake Michigan. My mistake on that came from how the movie just seemed more East coast, from the bar mitzvah, Robert Loggia normally being a New Yorker in movies, Eddie's retired con man uncle Max's (Milo O'Shea) East coast accent, and East coast accents with numerous other characters.
Anyway, when Eddie poses as the backed out house sitter Johnathan Albertson, house owner David's parents show up and Eddie pretends to be Johnathan. Eddie does a fairly convincing job at pulling the scam, but I personally feel that David's parents were a little naive for immediately believing that Eddie was Johnathan and for like falling in love with him. Johnathan was supposed to be David's best friend of many years, yet his parents never met him before, never saw any photos of the real Johnathan, etc. This scam by Eddie would never be pulled off today, with Facebook and so many other ways that the parents could find out the truth.
There are amusing scenes such as Eddie with the parents at a fine dining resteraunt (some amusing lines between Eddie and the waiter), Eddie and David's father (Robert Loggia) at his blow dryer business, and the funniest scene being Eddie pretending to be George Bush at the Cubs stadium bathroom. Him immitating Bush was hilarious with lines like "..not gonna do it.. wouldn't be prudent...at this..juncture...of my career", "blow dryers..good. Towels..bad", and "I'm going to send my entire cabinet one of these blow dryers, put 'em up all over the White House, and even send one as a gift set to Gorbie". I still find those lines pretty funny.
Now for the stupid parts of the movie; one of the mob guys that worked for Sal, Pinky, was an annoying character, I didn't like him. And the worst scene of all was Eddie at a night club singing Born to be wild, known there as "Wild man". The way he sang, danced, and the audience's reactions to him were embarrassing to watch. And I also saw how dated everyone's clothes (such as the waitress's) there were. Something about 80s dress and style sometimes seems more dated than 1960s and 1970s clothes and style.
As Eddie started learning the blow dryer business pretty well, and began a romantic relationship with Loggia's daughter Annie (Julie Campbell), he began seriously considering reforming himself and really becoming a legitimate businessman at the blow dryer company and marrying Annie. Lou opposed to that and urged Eddie to keep scamming, and for a minute watching that, I sure hoped that Eddie wasn't going to listen to him. However, Lou then brought up one very valid point, David sent a postcard of the Taj Mahal saying that he was about to return home from India. And of course, Eddie could then no longer remain a respected member of the family no matter how clean he tried to live now, since David's return would automatically uncover how he's lied about who he is and expose him as a fraud. So Eddie instead comes clean to David's parents and Annie in a scene which obviously turns unpleasant, with his new fiance and family all understandably turning against him. Of course, because it's a movie, the turn against was only temporary. Loggia, who initially got angry with Eddie upon finding out his scam, was a few scenes later looking at the autographed baseball that he gave Eddie earlier and then forming an "I guess he was alright, and I miss him now" smile. Annie also suddenly, without convincing reason, suddenly turned 180° back the other way at the end of the movie and fell back in love with Eddie. Both things would be unrealistic in real life. In real life, the family would've likely called the police for what he did, and very unlikely would've ever forgiven him. But like I said, it's a movie.
The big scam near the end of movie with Sal and the commissioner's office was actually pulled off quite well, and was kind of amusing, and got mobster Sal with a bad ending for him. And uncle Max came out of retirement to help with that one. So anyway, good movie in some parts, but with others, I can see why this became a forgotten 80s B movie. I've always thought that this movie took place in and around NYC, and the house was in Long Island. But I realized later that it was in and around Chicago and the house was along Lake Michigan.
Dana, as Eddie Farrel, is a small time conman with his partner Lou (Todd Graff, who played a role that same year as Tom Selleck's prison inmate in An innocent man who met a firey violent end for ripping off the wrong inmates). Eddie and Lou spend their time ripping people off for cash by jumping in front of cars and threatening to sue, posing as gas repair men (a mildly amusing scene where they try to con the house owner by saying that there are "dangerous clouds of gas pockets" in his home, make him hold a button on his furnace while they try to steal his TV, and then get attacked by his sons who return from karate lesson), and doing other small time cons. Then they break into a home where the house owner is in India and the house sitter calls and leaves a message on the answering machine while they're there saying that he can't house sit due to a big money executive job offer in Seattle. This movie, which I previously thought began on the streets of New York with Eddie and Lou's jumping in front of a car scam, and then took the house sitting scam to the nice upper middle class house somewhere along the coast in the Hamptons. But I realized later that the movie was in Chicago, and the house was along Lake Michigan. My mistake on that came from how the movie just seemed more East coast, from the bar mitzvah, Robert Loggia normally being a New Yorker in movies, Eddie's retired con man uncle Max's (Milo O'Shea) East coast accent, and East coast accents with numerous other characters.
Anyway, when Eddie poses as the backed out house sitter Johnathan Albertson, house owner David's parents show up and Eddie pretends to be Johnathan. Eddie does a fairly convincing job at pulling the scam, but I personally feel that David's parents were a little naive for immediately believing that Eddie was Johnathan and for like falling in love with him. Johnathan was supposed to be David's best friend of many years, yet his parents never met him before, never saw any photos of the real Johnathan, etc. This scam by Eddie would never be pulled off today, with Facebook and so many other ways that the parents could find out the truth.
There are amusing scenes such as Eddie with the parents at a fine dining resteraunt (some amusing lines between Eddie and the waiter), Eddie and David's father (Robert Loggia) at his blow dryer business, and the funniest scene being Eddie pretending to be George Bush at the Cubs stadium bathroom. Him immitating Bush was hilarious with lines like "..not gonna do it.. wouldn't be prudent...at this..juncture...of my career", "blow dryers..good. Towels..bad", and "I'm going to send my entire cabinet one of these blow dryers, put 'em up all over the White House, and even send one as a gift set to Gorbie". I still find those lines pretty funny.
Now for the stupid parts of the movie; one of the mob guys that worked for Sal, Pinky, was an annoying character, I didn't like him. And the worst scene of all was Eddie at a night club singing Born to be wild, known there as "Wild man". The way he sang, danced, and the audience's reactions to him were embarrassing to watch. And I also saw how dated everyone's clothes (such as the waitress's) there were. Something about 80s dress and style sometimes seems more dated than 1960s and 1970s clothes and style.
As Eddie started learning the blow dryer business pretty well, and began a romantic relationship with Loggia's daughter Annie (Julie Campbell), he began seriously considering reforming himself and really becoming a legitimate businessman at the blow dryer company and marrying Annie. Lou opposed to that and urged Eddie to keep scamming, and for a minute watching that, I sure hoped that Eddie wasn't going to listen to him. However, Lou then brought up one very valid point, David sent a postcard of the Taj Mahal saying that he was about to return home from India. And of course, Eddie could then no longer remain a respected member of the family no matter how clean he tried to live now, since David's return would automatically uncover how he's lied about who he is and expose him as a fraud. So Eddie instead comes clean to David's parents and Annie in a scene which obviously turns unpleasant, with his new fiance and family all understandably turning against him. Of course, because it's a movie, the turn against was only temporary. Loggia, who initially got angry with Eddie upon finding out his scam, was a few scenes later looking at the autographed baseball that he gave Eddie earlier and then forming an "I guess he was alright, and I miss him now" smile. Annie also suddenly, without convincing reason, suddenly turned 180° back the other way at the end of the movie and fell back in love with Eddie. Both things would be unrealistic in real life. In real life, the family would've likely called the police for what he did, and very unlikely would've ever forgiven him. But like I said, it's a movie.
The big scam near the end of movie with Sal and the commissioner's office was actually pulled off quite well, and was kind of amusing, and got mobster Sal with a bad ending for him. And uncle Max came out of retirement to help with that one. So anyway, good movie in some parts, but with others, I can see why this became a forgotten 80s B movie. I've always thought that this movie took place in and around NYC, and the house was in Long Island. But I realized later that it was in and around Chicago and the house was along Lake Michigan.