Rozsika Halmos Movies

Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy try but fail to bring this flat comedy to life, while the story itself is hampered by intercutting between the years of 1982 in Los Angeles (Moore) and 1984 in Kuwait (Murphy), with no explanation of how these two disparate people and locations are related. Wylie (Moore) is an inept engineer trying to perfect a gyro system for his employers who contract projects with the U.S. defense department. Wylie accidentally gets some blueprints for another type of gyro -- and his company successfully manufactures the part, much to almost everyone's benefit. Unfortunately, these plans are coveted by a certain ruthless industrial spy (David Rasche), and the FBI itself is suspicious about the origins of the blueprints in Wylie's hands. Meanwhile (and in constant interspersed segments), Landry (Murphy) is trying to get his tank to stay on course, but no matter what he does the machine swerves and lunges at random -- could there be a gyro at fault here? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Dentist Sheldon Kornpett (Alan Arkin) is a respectable man. He has a daughter who is about to marry the son of a very suspicious character, Vince Ricardo (Peter Falk). They are practically relatives already, the wedding is so near. Certainly, Sheldon already despises Vince as if he were already a well-known relative. Nontheless, Vince calls on Sheldon and convinces him to go with him on a series of wild and hilarious adventures, claiming all the while that he is a CIA agent, and that what he is doing is in the national interest. Sheldon follows Vince to a South American country ruled by a very odd man, General Garcia (Richard Libertini), who talks to his hand (which talks back). It seems that the dictator is involved in a scheme to counterfeit and undermine U.S. currency. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi