Best Defense (1984)

“Boom. Dead. Communista.” – Chief Padilla, Guatemala

Number of Times Seen – Twice (Cable in the 90’s and 16 Feb 2020)

Brief Synopsis – A tank commander training Kuwaitis to use a new super-tank must try and figure out why the tank has problems while the engineer who created the tank must do the same in his lab two years earlier.

My Take on it – This is a terrible film that tells two parallel story lines yet by doing so hurts the way that the story comes across for the viewer.

The disconnect between these two story line is too great and constantly makes one wonder why they chose to try and tell these stories in a parallel fashion instead of in a much more fluid direction.

Eddie Murphy is usually quite good in films like this one, but in this film, he feels too tacked on and extraneous to the plot and it makes very little sense as things progress.

Both Dudley Moore and Murphy are great actors, but they are both wasted here in these role which are too sophomoric and silly and that hurts things far too much.

The choice to tell this story in a non-linear fashion also hurts things because they never seem to find the groove that would help make things feel more useful in the way that they tell the story.

Instead, things are even more confusing and pointless which makes this even more difficult to try and get through.

Bottom Line – Horrendous film that largely doesn’t work because of the big disconnect between the two story lines. Murphy is usually quite good in roles like this one but he feels as if his character and situation seems tack-on and makes very little sense. Moore and Murphy are both great actors yet they are both completely wasted here in these roles because things are too sophomoric which hurts things too much. The non-linear aspect of this film should be more useful in the way that things come across yet they just help make things even more confusing and pointless along the way.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – When Kate Capshaw is humming in the car, waiting for Dudley Moore to get off from work, she’s humming the John Williams’ score from Indiana Jones. Her future husband, Steven Spielberg directed the movie. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (2/10)