FirstWitch
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
generationofswine
When I first saw this I couldn't wait to get into college and play paintball...and when, over a decade later, I actually did go off to college I played paintball once and then switched to Disc Golf and Ultimate Frisbee.It still looks like it is a hell of a lot of fun, but the bottom line is that you would be arrested and tried on charges of terrorism and assault with a deadly weapon if you went around campus playing paintball...especially with guns that looked like those.So instead people got stuck playing other college games on campus...And watching Gotcha!, because it is fun.That's really where it's at, it's one of those movies that are "What if the typical American Male gets thrust into a James Bond role." And, like If Looks Could Kill, it works. The difference is Gotcha! is a little more muted and a lot more down to earth.What if an American college kid gets thrown into the French Connection...more like that than James Bond.And...for a Cheery...it's when Anthony Edwards had hair which was well before he became a Doctor. So double trouble.
MBunge
Anthony Edwards must have either had a really great agent or been really good on auditions to have simply survived, let alone thrived as an actor after this plodding, superficial and stereotypical 80s movie.Jonathan Moore (Anthony Edwards) is a college student who is absolutely great at a game called Gotcha! He and a bunch of other players hunt each other around campus and shoot each other with paintball guns. After the audience gets a display of Jonathan's skill, he and his friend and roommate Manolo (Jsu Garcia) are off to Europe for Spring Break. While in France, with their collars turns up as required by the federal Bad Cinema Fashion Act of 1980, Jonathan meets a mysterious woman named Sasha (Linda Fiorentino) and ditches his friend to go with her to Berlin. It turns out Sasha is a courier trying to sneak some film out of East Berlin. She ends up hiding the film in Jonathan's back pack and he ends up running for his life from the KGB.Now, you'd think that this point in the story is where Jonathan's skills as a paintball warrior would come into play and he'd use the talents at hunting and hiding he displayed in the first 5 minutes of the movie to win a cat-and-mouse game with the KGB agents. You'd think that…but you'd be wrong. Instead we get this incredibly ponderous and shallow series of scenes where Jonathan behaves more like a kid bumming his way across Europe on 5 dollars a day than someone caught up in international espionage.Eventually Jonathan makes it back home, where he puts on a pair of sunglasses for no reason as also mandated by the federal Bad Cinema Fashion Act of 1980 and the film stops even trying to make sense. The KGB follows him back to America but Jonathan doesn't trust the CIA so he enlists the help of an LA street gang and…ugh. It's just all so stupid.Anthony Edwards turns in a nondescript performance as one of those 80s movie rebels who are really about as unconventional and provocative as Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties. Linda Fiorentino rolls out an Czechoslovakian accent that makes her sound like Natasha from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The film's soundtrack lets you hear about 10 seconds of "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and then buries you under a landslide of the worst 80s synthesizer rock you'll ever hear. Most of the characters in this film seem to have come straight out of the best selling book "How to Write a Bad Sitcom".Basically, Gotcha! was produced when someone entered the words "paintball" and "spy" into the same bad movie generator that belched out dozens of other generically unfunny and unentertaining films during the Reagan era. If you want to see Edwards with a luxurious mane of hair or get a glimpse of Fiorentino's boobs, you can find it her. Otherwise, just go rent Teen Wolf again or something.
queenb80
Before Anthony Edwards was fighting cancer and his receding hair line he stared in this romantic thriller of the 80s. Edwards plays Johnathan, a student who spends his time playing paint-ball games and striking out with ladies in tight sweaters. He takes a little trip to Europe and finds himself mixed up in all kinds of crazy espionage. Nick Corri has a supporting role as the hot best friend. Linda Fiorentino (once again not so much as cracking a smile for more than five seconds)plays Sasha, the mysterious young woman who convinces Johnathan to take a little detour. This movie is a perfect 80s film. It has everything; sex, drugs, spies, and bad accents. It is a must see!
erdocgreene
This movie was soo sweet, funny and gripping. I really loved Anthony in this one, and thought he was adorable. The story was simple but interesting and I thought the movie carried itself well. A must-see for any Anthony Edwards lover...like me!!
