This is a flick that has always left me more puzzled at the creative choices that went into the making of it then a sense of amusement at the end result.
I'll start with Tom Hanks as the co-lead and comic foil of Detective Pep Streebeck. Back in the mid-1980s, I had pretty much enjoyed what Hanks had done up until that point. From Bosom Buddies (an admittedly dumb sitcom elevated by then-newcomer Hanks and his charm) to Bachelor Party to The Man With One Red Shoe to The Money Pit, Tom Hanks came across as a funny guy you wanted to like. With Dragnet, the character Hanks played and the performance he gave...it all seemed very forced and mildly obnoxious rather than naturally funny. And, I must say, the scenes where Streebeck is depicted as a tough-guy cop lothario, bedding hot babes night after night...hey, Tom Hanks can be many things onscreen, but a sexy tough guy simply isn't two of them.
With the other co-lead Dan Aykroyd, I will say his very overused schtick of "I'm speaking technical jargon very very fast and this in and of itself is funny" actually isn't as grating as it usually is, because I do think it serves the Aykroyd Friday character well here, in the spirit of the 'just the facts, ma'am' vibe re: the original Dragnet tv series. This does prompt a question as to why anyone thought the then decades-old Dragnet tv series circa 1987 was a good choice for a movie remake, and, if so, why anybody would want to try and remake it as a dumb comedy (which the original tv series certainly wasn't).
Rounding out the rest of the Dragnet 1987 cast, really only Dabney Coleman provides much in the way of several lowbrow laughs as a Hugh Hefneresque smut peddler. Christopher Plummer's deviate televangelist minister bad guy character is doubtless one Plummer would go on to forget. Harry Morgan just looks old, tired, bored and disinterested reprising his character from the original tv series. Alexandra Paul is fetching and pleasant enough as the virgin damsel in distress, I suppose.
I think ultimately it was the plot and comedic situations Dragnet 1987 chose to depict that left me cold. Just a series of mildly outlandish scenes slammed together, none of which were particularly funny, and all the near-constant mugging Tom Hanks did for the cameras weren't going to make up for the shortcomings in the script and dialogue. Rather than craft a simple story and craft funny lines for the characters to say, Dragnet 1987 instead opted to go more and more over-the-top as the film plodded on...sort of "let's throw everything and the kitchen sink at the screen and hopefully enough will stick"...unfortunately, not enough did. This failed approach also makes the 115 minute running time seem much longer than it is: 90 minutes was more than enough time for a flick such as Dragnet 1987 to tell the story it needed to tell and sell the jokes if they were present from the get-go.
I'll start with Tom Hanks as the co-lead and comic foil of Detective Pep Streebeck. Back in the mid-1980s, I had pretty much enjoyed what Hanks had done up until that point. From Bosom Buddies (an admittedly dumb sitcom elevated by then-newcomer Hanks and his charm) to Bachelor Party to The Man With One Red Shoe to The Money Pit, Tom Hanks came across as a funny guy you wanted to like. With Dragnet, the character Hanks played and the performance he gave...it all seemed very forced and mildly obnoxious rather than naturally funny. And, I must say, the scenes where Streebeck is depicted as a tough-guy cop lothario, bedding hot babes night after night...hey, Tom Hanks can be many things onscreen, but a sexy tough guy simply isn't two of them.
With the other co-lead Dan Aykroyd, I will say his very overused schtick of "I'm speaking technical jargon very very fast and this in and of itself is funny" actually isn't as grating as it usually is, because I do think it serves the Aykroyd Friday character well here, in the spirit of the 'just the facts, ma'am' vibe re: the original Dragnet tv series. This does prompt a question as to why anyone thought the then decades-old Dragnet tv series circa 1987 was a good choice for a movie remake, and, if so, why anybody would want to try and remake it as a dumb comedy (which the original tv series certainly wasn't).
Rounding out the rest of the Dragnet 1987 cast, really only Dabney Coleman provides much in the way of several lowbrow laughs as a Hugh Hefneresque smut peddler. Christopher Plummer's deviate televangelist minister bad guy character is doubtless one Plummer would go on to forget. Harry Morgan just looks old, tired, bored and disinterested reprising his character from the original tv series. Alexandra Paul is fetching and pleasant enough as the virgin damsel in distress, I suppose.
I think ultimately it was the plot and comedic situations Dragnet 1987 chose to depict that left me cold. Just a series of mildly outlandish scenes slammed together, none of which were particularly funny, and all the near-constant mugging Tom Hanks did for the cameras weren't going to make up for the shortcomings in the script and dialogue. Rather than craft a simple story and craft funny lines for the characters to say, Dragnet 1987 instead opted to go more and more over-the-top as the film plodded on...sort of "let's throw everything and the kitchen sink at the screen and hopefully enough will stick"...unfortunately, not enough did. This failed approach also makes the 115 minute running time seem much longer than it is: 90 minutes was more than enough time for a flick such as Dragnet 1987 to tell the story it needed to tell and sell the jokes if they were present from the get-go.