The Wrong Guy

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source: The Wrong Guy

David Foley stars in this low budget / straight to video comedy that is more of a surprise than your typical off neat comedy. Famous from his early roots from Canadians the Kids in the Hall, Foley stars / co-produces this comedy during his News Radio days in the late 1990's. To those who think Foley is not leading man material, The Wrong Guy proves that Foley can lead a cast...just as long as he has a strong supporting cast as well. Jennifer Tilly and a group of other talented actors join Foley in this interesting and original comedy based on ignorance. Most comedy thrillers are based on the wrongly accused man having to prove his innocents. Here, Foley plays the "Wrong Guy" that was never accused of the murder that he think he committed. Instead, it is one funny situation after another as Foley runs from the police...which are not chasing him. Although Foley can lead a cast of actors, he can not play the strong macho type, because he can not kiss a girl (Tilly). Not to point fingers, but Foley is a talented and funny actor, but he is unable to play certain roles that Rock Hudson (wink wink) managed to play in the 1960's.

I have always been a huge fan of Dave Foley, he was my favorite guy in the 'Kids in the Hall' show. And unfortunately, I was not aware of this wonderful film until about a year ago when I went to blockbuster and found it in the bargain bin. The description didn't seem amazing, I thought it would be mediocre at best with a few amusing or dry witty jokes...boy was I wrong! The dialog is fantastic, the movie is through-and-through something to make you laugh uncontrollably. You might not want to be drinking anything when watching the film however, as you might end up choking or coughing it up all over yourself...that's just how hilarious 'The Wrong Guy' is!

The Wrong Guy is a lot like a broken clock. Just as a busted timepiece is still right twice a day, there are enough honest-to-goodness funny people involved in this movie that it can't help but occasionally veer into comedic territory. And just as you can't rely on a stopped watch to tell you what time it is, you'll be sorely disappointed if you expect this film to consistently keep you laughing. Nelson Hibbert (Dave Foley) is a soulless young man working his way up the corporate ladder by marrying his boss' daughter. When even that isn't enough to get himself named the next president of the company, Nelson explodes in impotent rage and babbles about his boss being dead to him. Someone else actually does kill his boss and Nelson, in a mostly unfunny way, winds up with blood all over him and the murder weapon in his hand. Thinking he must be the prime suspect, Nelson goes on the lam. He's the only one who thinks the cops are after him, though, because the police actually have video tape of the real killer. A mistaken fugitive, Nelson incompetently flees for Mexico only to constantly run into the real murderer (Colm Feore) while the apathetic and opportunistic Detective Arlen (David Anthony Higgins) leads an investigation that makes the Keystone Cops look like the folks from CSI (pick any one). Nelson eventually winds up in a small town, falling in love with a beautiful woman (Jennifer Tilly) and doing some remarkably unfunny scenes with SCTV's Joe Flaherty as her father. The killer catches up with Nelson, the police catch up with them both and blah, blah, blah. I honestly laughed out loud at a few moments of The Wrong Guy, was mildly amused by a few others and liked the premise of handful more. For the most part, though, this mix of thriller parody and sketch comedy absurdity is lazy, self indulgent and has all the comedic timing of a sumo wrestler in a vat of molasses. Given some of the creative people involved in this production, it's remarkable how often this movie reaches for humor and falls pathetically short. If The Wrong Guy was a baseball player, he'd have a sub .200 batting average. What's especially aggravating, though, is that when this film does make contact, it hits the ball a long way. A gag involving a picket fence and how Nelson tries to return the murder weapon after picking it up are hilarious and some shtick involving the killer's overly complicated getaway plan and a ruthless farmer threatening to foreclose on his banker are really clever. Those brief flashes of fun are simply buried under an avalanche of jokes that either start nowhere, go nowhere or end up nowhere. I called this movie lazy and let me give you an example of how creative sloth really characterizes this whole thing. At the start of the story, Nelson erupts furiously when he finds out he's not going to be the next company president. He's completely confident of that because his boss/future father-in-law TOLD him he was going to be the next president. What does his boss/future father-in-law say to Nelson when he give the job to someone else? "I lied." That's it. That's all. Why would he lie? Why would he have to lie or even want to lie to Nelson? There's no reason or explanation because these filmmakers don't care or think it's important to build their humor on anything real. You can get away with that attitude toward storytelling if you really bring the funny, but The Wrong Guy left the funny in his other pants. If you've got a high tolerance for lame attempts at humor, you might enjoy the momentary sparks in this otherwise wet pile of kindling. For most people, watching The Wrong Guy would be the wrong choice.

I've been a fan of Dave Foley for a while since his days on KIDS IN THE HALL, the underrated and oft-forgotten Canadian SCTV/SNL-esque sketch show. Here his talents are wasted in a plot that tries to introduce SO many cliches that it isn't even funny. It starts out as a case of mistaken identity (geek framed for murder), escalates into an unfunny Fugitive parody with similarly geeky and overweight cops chasing him around, then finds its way into a corner and tries to escape by introducing a mandatory romantic interest subplot with Jennifer Tilly and her "father" (Joe Flaherty) being the subject of Foley's compassion. Ah, forget about it. Flaherty is pretty funny in his small role and it's always great to see character-comedians like Foley and Flaherty being given screen-time -- but unfortunately the whole just careens out of control and doesn't know where to go...

It's obvious from the get-go that this rip-off of "The Fugitive" has the intelligence level of Bullwinkle. At least with moose, we knew he was meant to be dumb and could always depend on squirrel to get him out of a jam. Dave Foley is the dumbest of all corporate V.P.'s, engaged to the boss's daughter, and so cocky, he truly believes he is in line for the much coveted president position which is about to be announced. The corporate Cleveland office he works in is populated by arrogant people who don't even know who he is, let alone that he's up (at least in his mind) for promotion. Even his secretary barely acknowledges him, and when she does, it is to let him know that his sobbing over having been overlooked for that position has been heard all over the office. So when future pop-in-law is found with a knife in his neck, Foley is so smart, he automatically pulls the knife out then scrambles for a way to get it neatly back in. On the run, he is chased by the actual killer who believes him to be onto him. But a small-town farm girl (Jennifer Tilley, very cute here in spite of the horrid movie she's in) and her banker father (Joe Flaherty) believe in him, as the police and the actual killer close in for the capture. This would rank 5 stars on the IMDb scale if you counted each of the actual laughs in the film. At one point, Foley says, "Have I said to much?", to which I responded, "Yes, ever since your first line in the movie." Only when the breathy Tilley is on does the film raise any excitement, although she barely escapes with her dignity when her narcoleptic character all of a sudden passes out covered in Spaghetti O's. By the time this movie came out, cinemas had been over-run with spoofs of the big blockbusters, and this ranks as one of the smelliest in the group. There is a nod to an obscure Hitchcock World War II classic, "Saboteur", which does create one of the five laughs I counted. Colm Feore is appropriately creepy as the actual killer, but he is so cartoonish in his villainy, you just know his own inner stupidity will do him in, if the wretched screenplay doesn't.

In Cleveland, the histrionic and clumsy executive Nelson Hibbert (Dave Foley) expects to be promoted to president of the Nigel Industries since he is engaged of the owner's daughter. However, his future father-in-law Mr. Nagel (Kenneth Welsh) chooses the executive Ken Daly (Dan Redican) for the position, and Nelson threatens him in front of the board of directors. Later he decides to pay a visit to Mr. Nagel but finds him dead with a knife in his neck. Nelson removes the knife and is covered of blood, becoming hysterical and leaving the office assuming that he is the prime suspect. However, the surveillance cameras disclose the identity of the killer (Colm Feore), and while Nelson escapes to Metcaf believing that he is chased by the police, the killer is pursued by the police and tries to eliminate Nelson believing that he is a "super-cop" on his trail. "The Wrong Guy" is an extremely hilarious movie. I have just seen this film with my daughter and we are still laughing of the dumb but funny story. The lead character is a sort of Canadian version of Mr. Bean and is so imbecile that it is impossible to stay serious with his presence in scene. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "O Suspeito Errado" ("The Wrong Suspect")