BLURAY: DRAGNET

BLURAY: DRAGNET
Shock Entertainment, July 2018
Written by Dan Aykroyd, Alan Zweibel & Tom Mankiewicz
Directed by Tom Mankiewicz
Starring Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, Christopher Plummer, Harry Morgan, Dabney Coleman, Alexandra Paul
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
68%

Dan Aykroyd co-wrote this reboot of the classic ‘50s television series created by and starring Jack Webb. In it, Aykroyd plays the deadpan nephew of Webb’s Joe Friday, who has grown up to be an L.A. cop like his uncle, and is paired up in fine ‘odd couple’ style with Tom Hanks’ unruly Streebeck.

Dragnet is no classic, but rewatching it now I have to admit it is nowhere near as bad as I remembered it from back in the day. Sure, everything from the ‘80s (1987 in this case) is dated, and yeah, Aykroyd overdoes Friday’s impassiveness to the point of annoying parody rather than hard-nosed business-focussed cop, but scenes such as the duo infiltrating the bad guy’s pagan cult provide more laughs than I recall from watching on the film’s home video release.

Christopher Plummer, Harry Morgan and Dabney Coleman seem to be having a hoot in their supporting roles, and all provide laughs and a pinch of substance to an otherwise just fun script, and Alexandra Paul does as much as she can as The Virgin Connie Swail, in what was obviously written as a token female character, adding a bit of spice to proceedings.

http://www.shock.com.au/product-details/blu_ray/dragnet-blu/2/34306

 

Category: Movie & Theatre Reviews