Best Defense (1984)

Wylie is a lazy engineer. Landry is a Sergeant specialising in Armour. They have never met but their lives become entangled when Landry must take the tank Wylie designed into combat. Wylie ... See full summary »

Director:

Willard Huyck

Writers:

Robert Grossbach (novel), Gloria Katz,

Stars:

Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, Kate Capshaw

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

Storyline

Wylie is a lazy engineer. Landry is a Sergeant specialising in Armour. They have never met but their lives become entangled when Landry must take the tank Wylie designed into combat. Wylie is waiting for his employer to go out of business when he meets another engineer who gives him a disk with the plans for a system that will save his employer. The other engineer is dead moments later leaving Wylie with the disk and credit for the design. Suddenly Wylie is no longer a hack, but the saviour of his company and finds his life is no longer the same.

---

Plot Keywords:

engineer | tank | marriage | industrial espionage | helicopter | 

---

Taglines:

On July 20th, America will see the best in comedy.

---

Genres:

Comedy | War

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 July 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Best Defence

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinema Group Ventures, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of a number of movies made during the 1980s that looked at Middle Eastern politics and/or the Israeli-Palestine conflict. The films included Protocol, The Soldier, Wrong Is Right, The Delta Force, Best Defense, Witness in the War Zone, The Impossible Spy, The Glory Boys, Hanna K. and The Little Drummer Girl.

---

Quotes

Chief Padilla, Guatemala: Boom. Dead. Communista.

---

Connections

References Gone with the Wind (1939)

---

Soundtracks

"ON THE ROAD AGAIN"
by Willie Nelson

User Reviews

what a sorry strip of celluloid

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