Armed and Dangerous

An unemployed cop and lawyer become security guards but aren't very good at it.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 4-SEP-2007
Media Type: DVD

Perhaps Stripes and Caddyshack screenwriter Harold Ramis and Commando director Mark Lester were not an ideal collaborative team. But while this 1986 misfit comedy is something of a misfire, SCTV fans can take heart in watching John Candy and Eugene Levy triumph over weak material as mismatched security guards who stumble upon mob corruption. Candy, in particular, does wonders with a role that in lesser hands would have been a mere "fatty falls down" stereotype. He plays a cynical disgraced cop who takes Levy's cowardly former lawyer under his wing ("Stick with me, I'll keep you out of trouble," he reassures him). Like Ramis's character in Stripes, Levy rises to the occasion under fire, and even gets the girl--Meg Ryan in early ingénue mode, trying out the fetching grins and ingratiating smiles that would make her America's sweetheart three years later in When Harry Met Sally. --Donald Liebenson