Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Lachlan Coulson
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
Freeman
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Rainey Dawn
Sgt. Joe Friday (Aykroyd) is back in action and this time he's after more than just to solve a crime - he wants "just the laughs, ma'am". This time Sgt. Friday has a partner that is just as funny as he is Det. Pep Streebek (Hanks).Dragnet has a great story and quite a few great jokes in it. This movie is not a spoof of the original TV series Dragnet, instead it is a movie based on the TV show but with the added element of good comedy.If you enjoyed the movie Dragnet then you might like other crazy cops (or spies) type of films such as "Spies Like Us", "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid", "Police Academy" "Turner and Hooch" or "The Naked Gun".9/10
HelenMary
Dragnet is one of those films from the 80s that you just love. It's laugh out loud funny, and the jokes - mainly the deadpan stuff - never get old. So many of the lines are incredibly familiar, and like films like Top Gun, Princess Bride, Dirty Dancing many people can quote you large chunks of the script. Dan Aykroyd is brilliant as the policing by numbers monologue play by the books guy; similar role to his character in Gross Pointe Blank and there's a little of the Blues Brothers in there too. His comedic genius is playing everything so straight against Tom Hanks' enjoyable over the top, very physical slapstick sort of comedy. Together they are comedy genius both against the foil of Christopher Plummer playing a rather similar bad-guy-but-charming character to a lot of his films - Pink Panther (whichever one it was), Dreamscape etc. Some of the best lines come from Harry Morgan (famed for M*A*S*H) as their Captain.Saddled together as an unlikely pair of partners in the Police Hanks and Aykroyd stumble upon a LA-wide conspiracy involving a prominent man of the church and the Police Commissioner and a group calling themselves PAGANs - people against goodness and normalcy - and there's Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul) the hapless virgin who will be sacrificed in on of the PAGAN's rituals... and Friday and Streebeck (Aykroyd and Hanks) have to get to the bottom of it. Hilarious police procedural, witty one liners, unforgettable scenes, great stunts and car chases and great performances make up this 80s remake and homage to the original 60s series. It's not aged that well and is a little clichéd in terms of 80s films but that is the charm. Love this film - it always really makes me smile.
lost-in-limbo
This 80s tongue-in-cheek parody of the early 1950s iconic TV serial has its fair share of hits and misses in humour stakes, but it's Dan Aykroyd's deadpan, by-the-book performance as the nephew of Sgt Joe Friday, who is also called Joe Friday that gets most of the laughs. His interactions with his polar opposite partner (played with laid-back charm by Tom Hanks), those old-hat monotone narrations and dealing with the crime case involving a Pagan cult (where Christopher Plummer gleefully plays it up and Jack O'Halloran tags along) brings up many amusing and ridiculous circumstances on the strips of modern, if crime-riddled Los Angeles. Although it did start off stronger than it finished, as it was prolonged and the reactionary situations did get wearisome. At least the script was filled with biting sharp wit which was always well delivered and it was easy to poke fun at. Harry Morgan (who appeared in "Dragnet 1967" series) returns with his character, but this time as the Police Captain and Alexandra Paul plays the victim / romance angle Connie Swell. Just the facts. A picture-perfect homage. "Just close your eyes and think of Christmas."
edwagreen
Dan Aykroyd does an hilarious take-off of the late Jack Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday in this 1987 film. With that straight face along with everything being straight by the book, Aykroyd is fabulous here. He is equally matched with a perfect foil partner in a very youthful Tom Hanks.The premise may not be all that funny but there are hilarious chase scenes and wonderful performances by Christopher Plummer, as a priest, who is really a maniacal thief along with Dabney Coleman and Elizabeth Ashley, the latter a crooked Police Lady Commissioner.Friday finds love and finally breaks down somewhat from his rigidity. Plummer's line when asked about a wonderful military force is to say: "Who the Israeli's?"Even the anti-climatic ending will not bother you here.