Taking Care of Business (1990)

An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.

Director:

Arthur Hiller

Writers:

Jill Mazursky, J.J. Abrams (as Jeffrey Abrams)

Stars:

Jim Belushi, Charles Grodin, Anne De Salvo

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jim Belushi	...	Jimmy (as James Belushi)
Charles Grodin	...	Spencer
Anne De Salvo	...	Debbie
Loryn Locklin	...	Jewel
Stephen Elliott	...	Walter
Hector Elizondo	...	Warden
Veronica Hamel	...	Elizabeth
Mako	...	Sakamoto
Gates McFadden	...	Diane
John de Lancie	...	Ted
Thom Sharp	...	Mike
Ken Foree	...	J.B.
John Marshall Jones	...	LeBradford (as J.J.)
Andre Rosey Brown	...	Heavy G
Terrence E. McNally	...	Hamilton

Storyline

Jimmy Dworski(Jim Belushi) is a criminal serving the last 48 hours of a jail sentence. He wins a couple of baseball tickets by calling a radio quiz show. With help of other inmates, he escapes to go watch the game. When by chance he finds the Filofax of executive Spencer Barns(Charles Grodin) who loses it while traveling on a business weekend. Jimmy finds cash, credit cards and the key to a big mansion. He jumps on the opportunity and starts posing as Barns. While the real Barnes is trying to find his Filofax he gets in all sorts of trouble. How will things turn out when the two finally meet?

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Plot Keywords:

filofax | baseball ticket | radio | jail | baseball | 

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Taglines:

Who says you have to play by the rules?!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 August 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

Filofax

Filming Locations:

327 Winston Street - Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$20,005,435

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hollywood Pictures,Silver Screen Partners IV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In this film James Belushi plays a baseball fan. In "Mr. Destiny (1990)", released two months earlier, he played a baseball player.

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Goofs

Jimmy is in a prison at the beginning. There is a warden and they have prison jobs and it is a prison facility. However, the mistake is that they are wearing shirts with "County Jail" on the backs. A county jail is not a prison.

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Quotes

Spencer Barnes: I've worked HARD to work this hard!

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Connections

References Dynasty (1981)

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Soundtracks

Mean Old World
Written and Performed by T-Bone Walker
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
by Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

hilarious

This movie was one of the funniest James Belushi films. He is ideal as a convict who wins tickets to the Cubs' World Series game, has to break out of jail to attend, get his fellow inmates to cover for him, and break back in before the warden knows what has happened. In between, he finds uptight executive Charles Grodin's little black book and assumes Grodin's life, turning it upside down and being a better "him" while he poses as Grodin.

Belushi and Grodin are magnificent in the leads, and the film is overall very funny. See it if you get the chance; you will not regret it! I happened to love it myself.

*** out of ****