Best Defense

source: Best Defense

Almost every one that has been commenting on this film writes that it´s awful and it´s true.THIS FILM IS AWFUL.Eddie Murphy has a few funny lines but that´s all.1/5

I'll go against the crowd and point out that this much-reviled movie actually was quite prescient in premise. It anticipated a lot of History... and a lot of Human Error. Mayhap it was too 'out there' for audiences in 1984,...and mayhap it has become an easy target for arm chair critics to despise out-of-hand without due consideration.... But after Afghanistan and Iraq... After the highly-publicized and critical defense industry design errors such as the Osprey and basics such as protective armor in Hummvees and personal protective gear for troops on the ground.... After the loss of life due to a 'so-what-if-it-works-take-the -$$$-and- we'll-fix -it-later-if-we-have to' attitude prevalent in the defense manufacturing industry.... Can anyone really throw rocks at the plot line of 'Best Defense'...? Sure, it could have been executed better... Sure, Dudley Moore was still under the character-success-type-casting curse of '10'; having to be a perpetually the befuddled Randy-But-Inept Nice Guy in his every movie role.... Sure Eddie Murphy was ...well...stuck being 'Eddie Murphy'... (but you really can't take that away from him, y'know !) I still maintain that in the cold, hard light of 2014... 'Best Defense' makes A Lot Of Sense....(sadly, so..SO... sorry to say)

i'm not sure how else to say it.the above summary pretty much describes my feelings on this movie.add to that,lots of crude language for no apparent reason,and you have the recipe for a bad movie.there is some language that Christians might be offended by.***possible minor spoiler***Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy appear in this movie,but as far as i know,they don't share any scenes together.at least they didn't through the forty minutes i was able to watch before quitting.***end of spoiler***.I found Murphy more annoying than anything,and Moore didn't really leave much of an impression at all.in all pretty much a waste of time.pretty close to awful,in fact.for me,Best Defense is a 2/10

Brilliant movie, if you don't agree then you must be an ignorant trump supporter!

Even though this film was not entertaining, it is prophetic. This movie predicts that Iraq will invade Kuwait, and that the US will be involved, 7 years before it actually happens. Perhaps Sadaam got the idea from this movie, and it convinced him that he could win. After all, he did watch CNN.

Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy are two entirely different looking actors who have two things in common. They were both hugely popular box office comedy stars throughout the 1980's and they were both part of the cast of this 1984 Paramount release. If these two comedy titans had any scenes together, that could've made the film really great but despite that setback, the film is not a total waste. Two stories are told in the film. One has to do with technology programmer Wylie Cooper's (Moore) chance encounter with a man who's on the run from some shady corporate criminals and how Cooper's life changes for the better and for the worse after the encounter. The other is set two years later and has to do with American soldier Landry (Murphy) test driving a faulty experimental tank that Cooper had invented and accidentally driving it into the middle of a battlefield. That tank (Cooper building it and Landry using it) is what the two stories have in common. The most major complaint about this film is its constantly shifting from one story to the other thus confusing some viewers. I managed to follow along though and if anybody who's thinking of seeing this one can too, you may find both leading actors in fine form. Just don't expect the comedy sparks of their far more successful individually starring vehicles including "Arthur" and "Beverly Hills Cop."

As near as I can tell, some producers attempted to capitalize on Eddie Murphy's (then) new popularity by having him film some scenes to be badly edited into an existing Dudley Moore film. I say this because the two stars never share a scene, and their respective storylines really do play like two completely different and unrelated films. The end result is a film so monstrously bad as to be unwatchable. That Eddie Murphy's career could survive this cow patty of a film shows how funny and appealing a performer he is.

On a dull evening at home recently I saw this was showing on ITV2, and I settled down to enjoy what I thought would be a reasonably amusing comedy. Oh dear. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were one of the greatest ever comedy acts. Peter Cook was a hilarious solo act. Dudley Moore was a brilliant musician...but NOT a good solo comedy player. All Mr Moore's films seem to have him in an ill fitting three piece suit and horrible seventies hairstyle, running manically around hotel corridors and swearing a lot. This film is no exception. It just didn't have any really funny moments. Mr Murphy (whose scenes were slotted in later) had one or two funny lines but that was about it. If Saddam Hussein got the idea of invading Iraq from this film, that would be a good reason to ban it!

Brilliant? Um, no. Does the ending more or less blow? Sure. But does it have its moments and does it have a serious pair of balls on it? Yep. Best Defense deserves a (moderately) better reputation than it's been left with. For starters, even though he seems embarrassed to even be IN the movie most of the time, Dudley Moore IS funny in here and has his funny scenes (I miss him). Eddie Murphy (even though his scenes are obviously pasted in) is the 1984 Eddie Murphy that we used to love so much (you can keep the 'Disney' Eddie Murphy of late, thank you) and is worth a few good laughs, and David Rasche (yes... SLEDGE HAMMER!) is a stitch as Jeff (the KGB agent). The scene where David is throwing Dudley all around the bar is worth the price of admission alone (assuming that's a small rental fee for the VHS tape, that is). It's worth a look, if only because it makes moves that few movies (if any) these days have the guts to make - give it a chance - see it drunk if you have to. :)