1987’s
unapologetically inane Real Men,
starring John Ritter and Jim Belushi, is a spy spoof rating as one of the more
zany espionage parodies. A box office failure for a myriad of reasons, poor
distribution leading the way, Belushi plays a flip CIA agent charged with
escorting “every man” John Ritter on a cross-country odyssey to serve his
nation in a very unique role. Trust me, you won’t guess.
This
isn’t a great film in a traditional sense. What some viewers, however, will
admire is the movie’s practically preening willingness to ditch any semblance
of restraint in an effort to make the audience laugh. The shamelessness is
delightful. Belushi’s character can have his parents living a few houses away
from Ritter’s character, presumably by pure happenstance. Some of the movie’s “gunplay”
features firearms loaded by the power of positive thinking as they cut down bad
guys shaping their hands into handguns and the characters never question it. It’s
close to a live action cartoon, in some ways, albeit geared towards adult
viewers.
Trailer:
Ask
it to be something it is never intended to be and it comes off as one of the
decade’s worst comedies, but if you appreciate it for what it is, Real Men has moments of inspired lunacy.
There’s a solid secondary cast working on this movie, but the key is obviously
Belushi/Ritter. Belushi, virtually forgotten now, turns in one of his best comedic
performances as Nick and exudes natural, entertaining smugness. Ritter’s
performance as Bob is a perfect straight man for Belushi’s flippant demeanor
and near constant smirk.
The
ending is rushed no matter how you view the film. It isn’t the wrong
conclusion, but there’s a strong feeling of the editor eyeing the expected running
time for this movie and skimming over the movie’s ending rather than giving us
a satisfying punch line. This alludes to another problem – the movie’s payoff
pales, unfortunately, to the goofy nonsense we’ve experienced until then. It’s
one of the decade’s underrated cult comedies, far more enjoyable than critics
ever acknowledge, and still well worth a viewing over a quarter century
following its release.
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