the groundhog day project

The best part of Fletch is not the humor, not the one-liners, or Fletch's deliberate obnoxiousness. The best part is that the plot works, and works well. And, like many a "detective" story-- like Jonny Gossamer novels in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang , "the plots, they all have this thing, this formula that was so cool... two cases that were seemingly unrelated. One's normal, and the other' some wild shit... Then you' defined out that they're connected. That it's all one case." --the two cases/stories that Fletch is working end up more connected than just the coincidence of him hanging out at the beach to look like a junkie and Stanwyk picking him because he seems aimless and disposable. And, the connections don't feel arbitrary. SPOILERS. But really, if you haven't already seen Fletch , you should just go watch it now, come back later. Stanwyk's connection the drug trade is a pretty good reason for him to fake his death and make a run ...

The Harold Faltermeyer music gets going and I'm all in when Fletch is on. We can start there. (Even though Hollywood Reporter reviewer Duane Byrge called the "eruption of mechanical drumming and percussive bass lines, appropriate in action and triumph-type movies... Annoying and incongruous here", the music helps define this film for me in a good way.) The titular Fletch (Chevy Chase) and his sardonic, sarcastic, deadpan disdain for everybody sat well with me when I was just turned nine and it sits well with me today. (Sidenote: I know the "Pup 'N' Taco" line could be taken as racist and dismissive, but I think it is just Fletch playing unsophisticated because he doesn't trust Alan Stanwick (Tim Matheson) one bit. Hell, most of Fletch's character, and his unsophisticated, boorish, childish behavior, is deliberate.) Meanwhile, in 2007, Reihan Salam, writing for Slate , calls the film "abominably bad" and I am baffled. Salam doe...

You know what movies made more recently that are set in the 80s do wrong? They only use the famous and obvious music. "Bit by Bit"--the opening song for Fletch (not to mention Harold Faltermeyer's music) has a definitive 80s sound. Seriously, that song starts and I'm there in the 80s. Just like a lot of the music in Better Off Dead... or Say Anything . There's not a lot of music you'd still hear about on these soundtracks, but if you were there, watching these movies at the time, you've got sense memory of all of them. Me--I'm back in the 80s again when I watch movies like this one. End of May, beginning of June, really. Last weekend, we saw Rambo: First Blood Part II and A View to a Kill . Rambo was #1 last week and will be again this weekend. Fletch will be #2 this weekend. #4 is Brewster's Millions ; we won't see that until it's at a drive-in with A Nightmare on Elm Street a month into that film's run. Whenever that would be...