Rating: PG
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 08/19/1998
SubTitles: Espanol/English
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DDS
Run Time: 98 min
Flags: Violence, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Universal Studios
Chevy Chase added a classic comic hero to the film landscape with
Fletch, one of his few truly popular star vehicles in a famously misguided post-
Saturday Night Live career.
Chase plays
Irwin M. Fletcher, known to everyone as
Fletch, a Los Angeles Lakers-loving investigative reporter with a gleeful disdain for deadlines and a knack for pushing the buttons of his frustrated editor (
Richard Libertini). He's also known for donning numerous disguises and assuming zany false identities to help gain information. While pursuing an ongoing story about a powerful drug dealer who operates from Venice Beach, he comes across an intriguing offshoot in which he becomes intimately involved. Aviation executive
Alan Stanwyk (
Tim Matheson) has an unusual proposition for
Fletch: If
Fletch agrees to an elaborate plan to kill him, for reasons
Stanwyk refuses to divulge beyond explaining that he has bone cancer,
Fletch will walk away with a healthy sum of money and a plane ticket to Brazil. Curious yet suspicious by profession,
Fletch begins investigating
Stanwyk's true motives, which leads him through numerous misadventures. Among them are a visit to a stuffy country club; a high-speed car chase with an unwitting passenger; repeat encounters with
Stanwyk's wife (
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), although she may not be his only one; and a trip to Provo -- that's Utah, not Spain. Inspired by a novel of the same name by
Gregory McDonald,
Fletch went from
thriller to
comedy as it was adapted into a vehicle for
Chase.
~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
;)
