Armed and Dangerous (1986)

"It's a 50 caliber. They used to use it to hunt buffalo with... up close. It's only legal in two states. And this isn't one of them."

There were two celebrity deaths in 1994 that were pretty notable, for me at least. The most obvious one was a certain Mr Cobain, who decided to end it all at the start of April that year. It was a sad and shocking day for most young grunge/rock/metal fans, myself included. Drug abuse, shotgun suicide; it was pretty sensational stuff, and probably the celebrity death that most defined that era, if not the 90's altogether.


The other death was much more low-key but left me in a pretty sad way. A month earlier than Kurt, John Candy shuffled off this mortal coil via a heart attack in his sleep. I remember reading it in the paper, and a feeling as if a favorite uncle of mine that I should have spent more time with before he died came over me.Where had John Candy been the past few years? Why hadn't I seen anything he had made since Only the Lonely in 1991? I was still watching his films whenever they came on TV, but by the time he died, he was swiftly moving off the radar and out into the wilderness with the likes of Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase.

Armed and Dangerous will never be counted as Candy's finest moment, but that doesn't mean the film isn't solid fun. Candy stars as inept cop Frank Dooley, who gets dismissed from the force when he gets fingered for a corruption scam by other, less virtuous detectives. What else is an out-of-work cop gonna do? Become a security guard of course. At 'the last place for the terminally unemployable', he befriends fellow no-hoper Norman (Eugene Levy), as they try to survive training, gangster unions, savage guard dogs, sex shops, shark fishing, car chases, explosions, and a young Meg Ryan.

The film has some good street cred behind the camera. Written by Harold Ramis, it's a variation on similar territory he had walked with the likes of 'Stripes' years beforehand, and it does a reasonably good job of standing out in the midst of the 'Police Academy' clones that were showing up around the time. It's also directed by Mark Lester, exploitation filmmaker of the 70's (Stunts, Roller Boogie) turned big time action director of the '80's (Commando, Class of 1984). Needless to say, the car smashing action set pieces in the last 20 minutes are spot on. Some of the comedy is kinda choppy in places, but that has more to do with the editing. Overall the Lester keeps things light and ripping along.

Levy and Candy were obviously pretty good pals, as they appeared in several films together throughout the early 80's, including 'Going Berserk' and 'Splash', not to even get into their 'Saturday Night Live' years. Levy has made a career out of playing unfortunate straight men, and he does it well. Candy does here what he does best; oafish but lovable. We also get a few other cameos that make this a worthwhile experience; everyones favorite 2nd rate gangster, Robert Loggia, plays... the gangster. Steve Railsback has a bizarre but hilarious cameo as the truck driving cowboy in the finale, and we even get Brion James as a bad guy.

Some of the best moments are really just with the two leads bickering; the scene where they hide out in the sex shop is great, with Candy continuously searching for quarters to pump into the peep show as Levy tries to figure a way out of the place. Others are just great sight gags; the braindead trainee shouting, "take that, scumbag!" as he fires repeatedly into a cardboard cut-out of a clearly innocent woman on the riffle range, or when Candy deals with a bunch of jocks in a Monster Truck who throw beer at him. It's definitely the little moments that define a film like this.

Armed and Dangerous is worth digging out; it's well made, with a surprisingly big budget. It's got a very likable cast, and doesn't demand too much from you attention wise. Don't go in expecting Planes, Trains and Automobiles and you should do fine. Oh, did I mention the super-swanky upbeat soundtrack?