IMDb > Best Defense (1984)
Best Defense
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Best Defense (1984) More at IMDbPro »


IMDb Holiday Movie Guide

Overview

User Rating:
3.1/10   2,705 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 6% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Robert Grossbach (novel)
Gloria Katz (writer) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Best Defense on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
20 July 1984 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
Unfortunately, they're both on our side. more
Plot:
Wylie is a lazy engineer. Landry is a Sergeant specialising in Armour. They have never met but their... more | add synopsis
User Comments:
what a sorry strip of celluloid more (25 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Dudley Moore ... Wylie Cooper

Eddie Murphy ... Lieutenant T.M. Landry

Kate Capshaw ... Laura Cooper
George Dzundza ... Steve Loparino

Helen Shaver ... Clair Lewis

Mark Arnott ... Harvey Brank

Peter Michael Goetz ... Frank Joyner
Tom Noonan ... Frank Holtzman

David Rasche ... Jeff the 'KBG' Agent
Paul Comi ... Chief Agent
Darryl Henriques ... Col. Zayas, San Salvador

Joel Polis ... First Agent
John A. Zee ... Col. McGuinn
Matthew Laurance ... Ali, Landry's Tank Crew
Christopher Maher ... Sayyid, Landry's Tank Crew
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Best Defence (UK) (poster title)
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Runtime:
94 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Eddie Murphy was credited as "Strategic Guest Star". more
Quotes:
Chief Padilla, Guatemala: Boom. Dead. Communista. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Eddie Murphy Raw (1987) more
Soundtrack:
A FUTURE IN ELEVATORS more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful.
what a sorry strip of celluloid, 28 February 2002
Author: navelpluis from Amsterdam, Netherlands

Thus movie is sorry in the broadest sense of the word. Paramount wished it wasn't there. Dudley Moore wished he was funny. Eddie Murphy wished he hadn't cried 'I love Iraq! I'm not in this war! I'm from Cleveland!'. The BBC wished it didn't broadcast the pile of trash. Kate Capshaw (Steven Spielberg's wife) wished she wasn't in it (humming the Indiana Jones theme so she must be longing for the Temple of Doom (1984) or something). US government wishes it wasn't involved in Arabia and that Eddie Murphy didn't drive around in a tank in Kuwait. As a gyroscope the movie keeps up its own pity and regret. The story destructs itself. The worst element of the movie is the score: it absolutely keeps on dragging low to the ground and pulls every potential idea of any other collaborator of this sorry project back into oblivion. Not strong, not viril and certainly not penetrating. You wouldn't believe there's actually a novel of this material.

A positive thing about the story is that the footage of the DIP-engineering process is alternated with footage from the present (two years later) with Eddie Murphy in a tank cruising Kuwait and Iraqi soil, approaching a climax. Bye bye belly button. Maybe Troma could distribute this more effectively. The only real comedy in this movie comes from the David Rasche. RIP rather than DIP: 2/10

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