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:

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

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Genres:

Comedy | War

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the original novel, Dudley Moore's character was named Harvey Brank, the engineering company builds a fighter plane, and the war is in Vietnam.

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Quotes

Wylie Cooper: Fat girls tend to come a lot.

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Alternate Versions

ABC edited just 35 seconds from this film for its 1987 network television premiere.

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Shameless Roles Taken Just for the Money (2018)

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Soundtracks

A Future in Elevators
Written by Richard Stone

User Reviews

Interesting concept, poorly executed.

An ironic aspect of this otherwise indigestible flop is that the final concept, although created as a desperate, expos facto attempt to inject life into the film, might have actually worked, had it been in the plan from the beginning.

Although the future plot line (or present, according to how you wish to perceive it) involving Murphy was filmed later, the concept of one plot line's actions having a direct result on another in the future could have been interesting. All it needed was a script, production values, creative foresight and inspired performances by the actors. This film, unfortunately, had none of the above.

Moore is convinced that a device slated to be installed on a tank is defective in its design, and must try to fix it before it's built and put into use. Two years in the future, sure enough, Murphy is driving a tank which uses this very device. Will Moore improve the design in time to save Murphy's life? Well, it's little confusing to flash back and forth between these plot lines, but they do manage to culminate into a semi-climactic moment, but much too late to save the viewer from mindless boredom.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 July 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Best Defense

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,872,297, 22 July 1984

Gross USA:

$19,265,302

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$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