The Wrong Guys (1988)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Danny Bilson

Writers:

Paul De Meo (written by) and
Danny Bilson (written by)

Release Date:

13 May 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

What "Stripes" did to the army, what "Police Academy" did to law enforcement...these guys do to scouting!

Plot:

Five former cub scouts have a reunion and go camping on the mountain they never conquered. High jinks...

Plot Keywords:

Camping | Reunion | Mountain | Escaped Convict | Cub Scout

Cast

Louie Anderson	...	Louie Anderson
Richard Lewis	...	Richard Lewis
Richard Belzer	...	Richard 'Belz' Belzer
Franklyn Ajaye	...	Franklyn Ajaye
Tim Thomerson	...	Tim Thomerson
Brion James	...	Glen Grunski
Biff Manard	...	Mark Grunski
John Goodman	...	Duke Earle
Ernie Hudson	...	Dawson
Timothy Van Patten	...	J.T.
Bunny Summers	...	Louie's Mom
Carole Ita White	...	Ginger Grunski (as Carol Ita White)
Garth Winsome	...	Marsha Grunski
Dion Zamora	...	Kid Louie
Joshua Horowitz	...	Kid Richard

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sex-related material including brief nudity, comic violence and some language.

Runtime:

USA:86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Grand Teton National Park, Moose, Wyoming, USA

Goofs:

Continuity: When Louie falls down the hill, he’s in an open meadow with barely a tree in sight. As the men form a human chain to pull Louie out, you can notice trees in the background close to them. As the tree they’re holding onto snaps, they fall and you can notice that they are in a open field again as they do so.

Quotes:

[Richard goes to check the engine of the Volkswagen van and it's gone]
Richard: I don't see it. Is it small?

Movie Connections:

References Mary Poppins (1964)

A guilty pleasure

I saw this movie when it first came to the theaters in 1988 and though I knew it wasn't of award winning caliber...I kinda liked it. It tales the tale of 5 former cub scouts reuniting to take on the one task they never got to finish as kids - which is to climb Mt. Whitehead. Of course now the cub scouts are all grown up and have developed their personalities in a variety of ways, but none too differently than they were as children. Richard Lewis is still neurotic, Richard Belzer is still a playboy, Franklyn Ajaye is still sort of the Dear Abby of the group, and Tim Thomerson is still the surfer dude of the group. Of course the top billed star is Louie Anderson, a "true believer" in everything Cub Scout related. He still lives in the same house with his mother, still goes over the Cub Scout manual daily, is brave, reverent and clean, and is the one who reunites the others for one more grand adventure in Scouting. Compounding their task, however, is the Grunski brothers, two bullies drummed out of the Cub Scouts by the above mentioned. By coincidence they run into their old den and decide to harass them a bit, albeit harmlessly. Not so harmlessly is three escaped convicts, who think Pack 7 is from the FBI and are intent on wiping them out. All in all, the movie still has bits of charm. Observe Richard Lewis trying to get comfortable on a folding cot, for example, and you have a really funny bit going for you. Upon further review, the entire film needed more of that type of observational humor. It doesn't hold up well after all these years but still remains a guilty pleasure.