Synopsis
An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Jim BelushiJimmy Dworski
- Charles GrodinSpencer Barnes
- Anne DeSalvoDebbie Lipton
- Loryn LocklinJewel Bentley
- Stephen ElliottWalter Bentley
- Hector ElizondoWarden Toolman
- Veronica HamelElizabeth Barnes
- MakoMr. Sakamoto
- Gates McFaddenDiane Connors
- John de LancieTed Bradford Jr.
Recommendations
- 63
Washington Post
Unexpectedly likeable, thanks to the high-spirited performances of stars James Belushi and Charles Grodin, under the relaxed direction by Arthur Hiller. - 63
Boston Globe
Taking Care of Business could be a lot worse. It's a swift, if entirely predictable, identity-switch movie that wastes little time on the way to its morality play conclusion. [17 Aug 1990, p.36p] - 60
Chicago Reader
This is a pretty stupid comedy in spots, with holes wide enough to drive trucks through, and director Arthur Hiller is as clunky as ever, but the cast is so funny and likable—above all, costars Jim Belushi and Charles Grodin, and newcomer Loryn Locklin—that they almost bring it off in spite of itself. - 50
Chicago Tribune
Veteran director Arthur Hiller keeps the vehicle galloping along with a sure hand, careful not to let any of it sink to a fatal level of believability and always on the prowl for whatever wit can be harvested from any gizmo at hand. [17 Aug 1990, p.B] - 40
Washington Post
Banal performances -- Jim is still not John and Grodin is playing a second-rate variation of the uptight guy in Midnight Express -- combine with derivative plot to tell us that yuppies are too grasping for their own good. - 40
Los Angeles Times
Taking Care of Business is a curious achievement: a laughless comedy starring Belushi and Grodin, two actors who are almost always funny. - 40
TV Guide Magazine
The real problem with Taking Care of Business is that it doesn't even get much mileage out of what it does have going for it. Grodin and Belushi have both done their best work in buddy-buddy pairings (Midnight Run and Red Heat, respectively), but while the two demonstrate some comedy chemistry here, they aren't brought together onscreen until the film is virtually over. - 30
Time Out
Through crass over-emphasis and sloppy continuity errors, Hiller fumbles most of the jokes away. The roles fit Belushi/Grodin like rubber, but the rest is second-rate.
