Off Beat (1986)
As we spent yesterday taking a deep dive into some of the movies we purchased for video store inventories, we were suddenly struck with a fond memory of Disney's great experiment with their subsidiary labels, Touchstone and Hollywood........
Using the imprint of these labels, Disney, just like all the other studios, could feel free to pump out a steady stream of medium-to-low-budget movies that were most definitely not "Disney" films, but could still enter the marketplace of mainstream cinema.
They could even be PG-13.....or (hold your breath)....even R-rated!
The upside for Disney - it only took one or two of these minor little movies to strike box-office gold, since the Mouse House rigidly kept their budgets frugal. Hence the possibilities to make a huge profit out of one or more of these tiny trifles were enormous......
"Off Beat" serves as a prime example of Touchstone product. It's an ever so slight comedy that a good stiff wind would blow away. But we always found it sweet, funny and overall delightful even if it found no favor with critics, audiences......or even videocassette renters.
Judge Reinhold (whom you could consider that Paul Rudd of the 1980's) plays quirky New York City library assistant Joe Gower, who literally skates through his job retrieving books requested by patrons. (Yes, on actual rollerskates......)
His best friend Abe, (Cleavant Derricks) a beat cop, would do anything to avoid participating in a charity event that'll feature NYC police dancing with young kids, with all of them trained by a professional stage choreographer (veteran dancer-actor Jacques d'Amboise of "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers")
Abe and Joe brazenly arrange for Joe to pose as Abe and join the cop-kid chorus line in his place......leading Joe to fall for his new dancing partner, patrolwoman Rachel (Meg Tilly) and run afoul of crude obnoxious misogynist Pete Peterson (Joe Mantegna), one of Rachel's follow officers.
As you might guess, this also forces Joe into uncomfortable situations where he's mistaken for a real cop, participating in chases, shootouts and thwarting hostage-taking bank robbers (played hilariously by Harvey Keitel and Victor Argo)
It's all silly and not for one minute believable, but Reinhold's laid back goofy charm somehow holds it together......and it's a hoot and a half watching dance-master d'Amboise whip together an adorable production number with his unlikely platoons of previously dance-challenged cops hoofing up a storm along side the talented kids.
And we don't care if the movie was hardly a blip on the 1980's movie radar.......though it may have become nothing but a Touchstone tax write-off, it still never fails to make us smile. 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2).
No comments:
Post a Comment