Best Defense (1984)

A military weapons engineer struggles to do his job responsibly, while a hapless tank commander has to live with the consequences in combat years later.

Director:

Willard Huyck

Writers:

Robert Grossbach (novel), Gloria Katz

Stars:

Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, Kate Capshaw

1 nomination.

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.

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Plot Keywords:

lingerie | woman on top | engineer | tank | military | 

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Taglines:

Unfortunately, they're both on our side.

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Genres:

Comedy | War

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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)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,872,297, 22 July 1984, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$19,265,302

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

Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy never appear in the same scene. A scene with the two of them together was shot, then deleted from the final cut.

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Quotes

Wylie Cooper: Fat girls tend to come a lot.

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Connections

References Superman (1978)

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Soundtracks

A FUTURE IN ELEVATORS
Written by Richard Stone

User Reviews

Befuddly Dudley

On a dull evening at home recently I saw this was showing on ITV2, and I settled down to enjoy what I thought would be a reasonably amusing comedy.

Oh dear.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were one of the greatest ever comedy acts. Peter Cook was a hilarious solo act. Dudley Moore was a brilliant musician...but NOT a good solo comedy player.

All Mr Moore's films seem to have him in an ill fitting three piece suit and horrible seventies hairstyle, running manically around hotel corridors and swearing a lot. This film is no exception.

It just didn't have any really funny moments. Mr Murphy (whose scenes were slotted in later) had one or two funny lines but that was about it.

If Saddam Hussein got the idea of invading Iraq from this film, that would be a good reason to ban it!