"Find the Lady" is a John Candy film that was made before he gained worldwide fame. Up until this time, he'd appeared in a few movies and TV shows but was certainly unknown outside Canada...and even within Canada he was a struggling young comic. "Find the Lady" debuted the same year Candy's breakout role on "SCTV" occurred...and because he was young and eager, I guess you cannot blame him entirely for appearing in this very bad film....a film, which, is actually a sequel of sorts to an earlier bad movie he made "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" (incidentally...it wasn't!). In both films, he plays Kopek...the world's most inept and untalented cop. But in the first film, he was a minor character in a bad film and here he's the star of a bad film.
Sergeant Broom and Detective Kopek (Candy) are on an undercover mission to keep tabs on a couple mobsters (one of which is played by Mickey Rooney). The mobsters are idiots...Kopek is almost infinitely stupider. They also investigate a kidnapping. Along the way, Kopek keeps destroying police cars and the department keeps giving him more. Somehow through all this, he avoids being fired...though a tomato would have made a better policeman.
Kopek is more than a klutz. I don't mean he's just clumsy but instead he is a walking disaster area. To top it off, he's also apparently quite stupid and you have no idea HOW he got to be a policeman in the first place...or how he stays on the force being this inept. Now the idea of a dopey or clumsy cop could work...but here, he's so dopey and clumsy that it's not funny and is just annoying. The problem is that the story is filled with slapstick...CONSTANT slapstick. Rarely is there a moment when he isn't stupid and annoying. Now, this MIGHT have worked around 1920 with the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle or Buster Keaton playing a dopey cop...but here it's just a chore to watch...mostly due to bad writing and the fact that it wasn't 1920 but 1976 when it was made!
By the way, "Find the Lady" is a film of its times and some of the language and plot are far from politically correct. If you care about this, it's yet another reason not to watch the movie.
Sergeant Broom and Detective Kopek (Candy) are on an undercover mission to keep tabs on a couple mobsters (one of which is played by Mickey Rooney). The mobsters are idiots...Kopek is almost infinitely stupider. They also investigate a kidnapping. Along the way, Kopek keeps destroying police cars and the department keeps giving him more. Somehow through all this, he avoids being fired...though a tomato would have made a better policeman.
Kopek is more than a klutz. I don't mean he's just clumsy but instead he is a walking disaster area. To top it off, he's also apparently quite stupid and you have no idea HOW he got to be a policeman in the first place...or how he stays on the force being this inept. Now the idea of a dopey or clumsy cop could work...but here, he's so dopey and clumsy that it's not funny and is just annoying. The problem is that the story is filled with slapstick...CONSTANT slapstick. Rarely is there a moment when he isn't stupid and annoying. Now, this MIGHT have worked around 1920 with the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle or Buster Keaton playing a dopey cop...but here it's just a chore to watch...mostly due to bad writing and the fact that it wasn't 1920 but 1976 when it was made!
By the way, "Find the Lady" is a film of its times and some of the language and plot are far from politically correct. If you care about this, it's yet another reason not to watch the movie.