Gotcha! When you're a child of the 80's like I was you tend to see movies in your adolescents that you don't understand until you become older. I would say this is true for any decade you live in, and the media in which we experience these stories is not exclusive to just film. I watched "Gotcha" when I was seven. I didn't get all the jokes, but I liked the action. The title and the imagines of the film stayed with me until this very day.
Yesterday, I watch "Gotcha!" again on Television. I knew it starred Anthony Edwards from 'Revenge of The Nerd" fame and later the hospital drama "ER". It also starred a very cute looking Linda Fiorentino(of course she always looks cute), sporting a short hair cut. The film is basically a James Bond as if written by a UCLA student. It's about a college pupil who gets caught up in Cold War espionage. You would think that by that description is would be like the terrible film like "If Looks Could Kill", starring the Richard Grieco-which by the way he served fries last week, and that was the best performance he has done in a long time. The truth is "Gotcha!" is not that dreadful. actually its kind of funny.
It turns out the college kid played by Anthony Edwards, who's name is Jonathan Moore in the film, likes to play a campus spy game with other students called "Gotcha!". The game is pretty simple; you have a paint gun, you follow your target around the University and you shot them. Jonathan is called by his best friend Manolo "a regular James Bond", then Jonathan say back "Yeah but James Bond had Octopussy, I can't even get a date." Later on in the film is romantic problems go from bad, to good, to great, then just down right terrible.
Manolo and Jonathan go to France during their break from school. The scene in which Jonathan asked his parents for money to go to Europe is amusing and but it could have been written better. In the city of love, Jonathan meets the Linda Fiorentino character called Sasha; she is not who she appears to be. I liked the love story between Jonathan & Sasha; there could have been a whole movie their by itself, a movie I would actually like to watch. She teaches him the art of lovemaking and Europe, while he teaches her about America. A few days after they meet and fall in love, she tells him she has to go to Berlin where she has to pick up a package. She asked Jonathan to go with her. It is about this time that he gets suspicious, but does not believe yet that she is involved in espionage or that they are in danger. He goes with her. After a day or two in Berlin, she asked him to go to East Berlin, and a series in a series of spy like chases and amusing jokes follow after that.
Even though there is many minor jokes in the film, there is one major joke that I thought was down right hilarious. It brought it from a two and a half star movie up to a three. After having a really bad time in East Berlin, Jonathan was told to leave that side of the country if she give him a certain message; she does. He leaves the checkpoint, walks over to a military officer on the West Berlin side and asked if he is in the American zone. The man says yes. Jonathan turns towards East Berlin, give the finger, and says "F*** You!" When he walks way, the military officer say "I've been wanting to do that for six months." This is a good movie to watch on Television, but I would not pay good, hard earned money to rent it. For what it was I thought it was fun.
Yesterday, I watch "Gotcha!" again on Television. I knew it starred Anthony Edwards from 'Revenge of The Nerd" fame and later the hospital drama "ER". It also starred a very cute looking Linda Fiorentino(of course she always looks cute), sporting a short hair cut. The film is basically a James Bond as if written by a UCLA student. It's about a college pupil who gets caught up in Cold War espionage. You would think that by that description is would be like the terrible film like "If Looks Could Kill", starring the Richard Grieco-which by the way he served fries last week, and that was the best performance he has done in a long time. The truth is "Gotcha!" is not that dreadful. actually its kind of funny.
It turns out the college kid played by Anthony Edwards, who's name is Jonathan Moore in the film, likes to play a campus spy game with other students called "Gotcha!". The game is pretty simple; you have a paint gun, you follow your target around the University and you shot them. Jonathan is called by his best friend Manolo "a regular James Bond", then Jonathan say back "Yeah but James Bond had Octopussy, I can't even get a date." Later on in the film is romantic problems go from bad, to good, to great, then just down right terrible.
Manolo and Jonathan go to France during their break from school. The scene in which Jonathan asked his parents for money to go to Europe is amusing and but it could have been written better. In the city of love, Jonathan meets the Linda Fiorentino character called Sasha; she is not who she appears to be. I liked the love story between Jonathan & Sasha; there could have been a whole movie their by itself, a movie I would actually like to watch. She teaches him the art of lovemaking and Europe, while he teaches her about America. A few days after they meet and fall in love, she tells him she has to go to Berlin where she has to pick up a package. She asked Jonathan to go with her. It is about this time that he gets suspicious, but does not believe yet that she is involved in espionage or that they are in danger. He goes with her. After a day or two in Berlin, she asked him to go to East Berlin, and a series in a series of spy like chases and amusing jokes follow after that.
Even though there is many minor jokes in the film, there is one major joke that I thought was down right hilarious. It brought it from a two and a half star movie up to a three. After having a really bad time in East Berlin, Jonathan was told to leave that side of the country if she give him a certain message; she does. He leaves the checkpoint, walks over to a military officer on the West Berlin side and asked if he is in the American zone. The man says yes. Jonathan turns towards East Berlin, give the finger, and says "F*** You!" When he walks way, the military officer say "I've been wanting to do that for six months." This is a good movie to watch on Television, but I would not pay good, hard earned money to rent it. For what it was I thought it was fun.