Fletch (2007, DVD)

A genuinely intriguing plot, unusual supporting characters, a handful of hilarious comic set-pieces and a likeably wise-cracking hero are but the icing on the cake for Fletch. Thanks to a dazzlingly sunswept environment, gleaming LA locales and a subtle sense of the absurd, this is a film where almost every single scene is a complete joy.

This is one of those classic comedies from the eighties that helped shape our teens; Better Off Dead, Midnight Run, Three O'Clock High, Caddyshack - sadly we shall never see the like again.

Ahh, thank God for video.

Centre screen throughout, Chevy Chase has never been used so effectively; often lambasted by cynical, humourless critics, the goofy, chipmunk-featured comedian proves here why he was once so popular. Not only is Chase completely believable as a smug, wiseass investigative newspaper journalist, he proves his worth as THE leading man for the early eighties romantic-comedy and this is the film to catch him in.

The original anchorman during the golden days of Saturday Night Live (along with fellow wild and crazy guys Murray, Belushi, Aykroyd and Murphy), Chase was the first to jump ship and try his hand at movies; very effective he was too, but for every Foul Play there was an Under The Rainbow waiting to happen.
However, after the huge success of National Lampoon s Vacation in 1983, Chase was a hot property again and Fletch cemented his soaring status. Unfortunately a series of increasingly bad career decisions (Spies Like Us anyone?) saw the lanky goof plummet into relative obscurity.

But rewind back to the sunny year of 1985, and Chase was essaying his signature role of Irwin Fletcher, an undercover journalist (always accompanied by a pleasing Harold Faltermeyer synthesised theme tune) poised to bust a story on the mass drug trafficking through the vast, sandy beaches of Los Angeles.

Whilst disguised as a junkie, he is approached by a wealthy businessman named Alan Stanwyk (an icy Tim Matheson) who claims to be dying of bone cancer and asks Fletch to murder him (to spare him the pain and for the purpose of an insurance scam). It's during Fletch's investigations that he finds Stanwyk and the narcotics ring may be inextricably linked.

Detailed description would ruin the plot, which is surprisingly (and pleasingly) complex. It is also refreshing to see a film where the laughs serve the story rather than the other way around.

The scenes where Fletch adopts a series of disguises to gain vital information or blag his way out of a nasty situation raise most of the laughs. Imagine Eddie Murphy s sudden impersonations in Beverly Hills Cop and crank them up to 11; infused with the just the right amount of desperate awkwardness, and believably absurd quirks, they are rib-ticklingly funny.

Exhibit A: "I'm Don Corleone" he tells a gullible landlord. "I'm with the Matress Police".

Exhibit B, C & D? See them for yourself.

The set-pieces flow one after the other and just get funnier and funnier. Fletch posing as a patient to get information on Stanwyk's cancer (culminating in an unplanned body cavity search by the Doctor..."Ahh, you using the whole fist Doc?"),
Fletch being accosted by two burly cops ("why don't you guys go down the gym and pump each other?"), Fletch posing as an airplane mechanic, Fletch stealing a sleek Porsche (cue a surprisingly white-knuckle car chase that is as funny as it is suspenseful) to evade capture from the Police (all the time claiming that he is checking the car for "carbon emissions") and best of all Fletch flagrantly addressing a room full of bemused free masons whilst posing as one of their number.

You could write a book with the wisecracks on offer in this sequence alone.

If anything, Fletch proves Chase as an undisputed genius of light comedy; he refines the smart-alecky, self-satisfied persona of Ty Webb from Caddyshack and the awkward physicality of Vacation s Clark Griswold and squeezes them seamlessly to one character. He is helped no end by Director Michael Ritchie, who allows him free reign to litter his performance with japes, insults, quirks and tall stories all timed to perfection. The man is even funny trying to sip lemonade through a straw.

The supporting characters are given little to do but they are all given their moment to shine. Dana Wheeler-Nicholson is gorgeous (as Stanwyk's wife and Fletch's romantic interest) and she reacts with a knowing smile to Chase's sly, glib persona. Joe Don Baker is a paradox of crocodile grins and simmering violence as the corrupt Police Chief, Matheson is hissable as Stanwyk and Richard Libertini is a hoot as Fletch's stressed Editor.

In smaller roles, look out for Kenneth Mars, M.Emmett Walsh as "Doctor Jellyfinger" (you have to see it), George Wendt and a young Geena Davis as Fletch's willing assistant.

Enough. If you haven't seen Fletch, you're missing out on a potential favourite to add to that elusive all time top ten. There's so much more that it's impossible (and unfair) to mention it all here, so I won't.

Chase himself would return to the character again for the equally amusing Fletch Lives in 1989 and rumour has it that Kevin Smith is to helm the third instalment (with Jason Lee taking over as the eponymous hero), but the original is still as fresh, funny and dumbly essential as ever.

And Fletch himself? Well as one character remarks to another, "he truly defines grace under pressure" and seeing as Chevy Chase IS Fletch, shouldn t we be extending him a little more kudos?

I for one think so.

In the words of the late Kirsty MacColl, Chevy; "thank you for the days".