Synopsis
Wylie is a lazy engineer. Landry is a Sergeant specialising in Armour. They have never met but their lives become entangled when Landry must take the tank Wylie designed into combat. Wylie is waiting for his employer to go out of business when he meets another engineer who gives him a disk with the plans for a system that will save his employer. The other engineer is dead moments later leaving Wylie with the disk and credit for the design. Suddenly Wylie is no longer a hack, but the saviour of his company and finds his life is no longer the same.
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Cast
- Dudley MooreWylie Cooper
- Eddie MurphyLieutenant T.M. Landry
- Kate CapshawLaura Cooper
- George DzundzaSteve Loparino
- Helen ShaverClair Lewis
- Pamela StonebrookSinger, Rive Gauche Room
- Tom NoonanFrank Holtzman
- David PaymerKurly
- Tracey RossArab Girl
- Elizabeth Reiko KubotaJapanese Singer
Recommendations
- 63
Washington Post
It's difficult to predict if audiences will be patient enough with Best Defense to allow it the shakedown time necessary to hit a funny stride. But the movie confirms a flair for comedy that may pay dividends when the filmmakers' rapport with the actors is strong enough to discipline and perhaps improve dodgy material. [25 Jul 1984, p.D3] - 50
Miami Herald
A surprisingly dull and witless film. [21 Jul 1984, p.C1] - 40
Newsweek
Best Defense, already split in two by its dual story lines, lurches about desperately in search of a tone and a target. [30 Jul 1984, p.80] - 30
The New York Times
It really isn't easy to make a movie as mind-bendingly bad as Best Defense. It takes hard work, a very great deal of money and people so talented that it matters when they fail with such utter lack of distinction. - 30
Time Out
A dismally unfunny shambles. - 25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Sitting through this 100 or so minutes of painfully loud sound, and ham-fisted editing might best be likened to being slapped about the head repeatedly. It is insulting; it will give you a headache; and it should make you very angry. [21 Jul 1984] - 16
The A.V. Club
Not even a young Eddie Murphy is capable of generating hilarity out of thin air and Best Defense gives him nothing to work with. Even with Murphy inside the tank the film sorely lacks urgency and momentum. - 0
TV Guide Magazine
Try as they may, neither the cast nor the filmmakers can cover up the fact that this movie, like Moore's prototype, is a dud.
