Fletch

During lunch at work earlier this week, we started discussing movies and one of my co-workers proclaimed that the best movie ever was Fletch, a 1985 movie starring Chevy Chase. If you watched movies back in the eighties, you probably remember him from such films as the Vacation series and Caddyshack. If you happened not be born at the time, he might be familiar to you from the TV series Community. The actor has a long and impressive filmography that, with very few exceptions, contains comedy performances – he was for instance one of the original cast members of NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

Fletch is no exception and another movie on Chase’s comedy rap sheet. We meet Irwin ‘Fletch’ Fletcher, an investigative reporter for a Los Angeles newspaper, writing under the pseudonym Jane Doe. Irwin, if you dare to call him that, is currently undercover as a bum at the beach, where he is investigating a major drug operation. One day he is approached by Alan Stanwyk, a rich man, who asks him a very unusual favor: Stanwyk wants Fletcher to kill him for $50,000 dollars.

While Fletch isn’t the greatest movie ever (that award goes to Strange Days), I have to admit I enjoyed it a great deal. Being a 1980’s movie, it features a soudtrack that is very synth heavy – and I enjoy synths – a proper, Police Academy style, car chase, and a feature that was way more popular back in the days than it is today: The narrator. Fletch takes is time to tell you what he thinks from time to time.

The story in Fletch works well, it has enough twists and turns to make it unpredictable and intriguing, and enough funny moments to make the movie a proper comedy.