lukem-52760
Dragnet is a perfect FEELGOOD 80s cop comedy that i grew up watching & loving & have watched it hundreds of times & yet i can't get bored of it!!! Dragnet is my 2nd favourite film of all time after GHOSTBUSTERS 2, DAN AYKROYD is BRILLIANT as Joe Friday he's hilariously fun & rapid fire wit pours out of his BRILLIANT performance & works perfectly with the also BRILLIANT TOM HANKS as pep streeback his crazy fun-loving chilled-out new partner & these two are so much fun to spend time with watching this feelgood film. Yep a perfect Happy & fun movie that i never want to end!!! One of the best comedies of the 80s & so underrated & my favourite AYKROYD performance by far!!! A comic genius & comedy legend. DRAGNET sits perfectly & proudly next to my number one movie GHOSTBUSTERS 2
SimonJack
Satire is a wonderful, but small genre, of movies. The most difficult to make truly funny is satire of movies or of TV programs. That's because they are hard to come up with originality. When the audience knows the original source so well, the writers have to create comedy that we can't see coming. It's the surprise that's needed to put the dialog across as humorous. Unfortunately, "Dragnet" missed on this big time. It was so predictable throughout, that it's almost devoid of any original humor. That means no laughs. Then, with its combination of crude and crud, this film comes off as a big turd. It's too bad Tom Hanks picked this and a couple other stinker films as his career was taking off. And, Dan Aykroyd is capable of great comedy, not dumb, humorless garbage like this.
Robert Thompson (justbob1982)
Version I saw: UK DVD releaseActors: 7/10Plot/script: 7/10Photography/visual style: 6/10Music/score: 6/10Overall: 7/10Dragnet is a reboot/sequel/remake of the 50s TV series of the same name, although it blurs the boundaries. To be honest, I know very little about the series, but I get the impression that it is essentially a straight police procedural with a single central character, Sgt. Joe Friday. Originally played by Jack Webb, the role is taken by Dan Aykroyd for this version. In addition, a partner has been inserted in the form of Det. Pep Streebek (Tom Hanks).Although at first Hanks' role as the young, cool one slightly threw me, so used am I to seeing him as an older, more patriarchal figure, he plays it well. The contrast between him and the uptight, by-the-book Friday is and was an utterly hackneyed one, but it is implemented in an entertaining way that left me feeling forgiving.This is really Aykroyd's film, though. He co-wrote the script, and delivers most of the funniest lines. In an odd contrast to Hanks, who plays his part more-or-less straight, Aykroyd's Friday is almost clownish. In fact, characters in this film have a very varied relationship to the jokes: some are clueless, others are totally in on the joke, and yet others react with more human bemusement.It's all very 80s. The fashion, the music (including an ultra-80s synth opening sequence version of the iconic Dragnet theme), even the plot: I detected definite echoes of Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop and Police Squad, all very 80s products. In some ways, this is as much a parody of 80s cool as it is of Friday and his rigid world. Crucially though, if this is a parody, it is an affectionate one, with a warmth for its subject that I found myself reciprocating.
FlushingCaps
I thought most of the good laughs were in the first 20 minutes, then the film bogged down by chases (in and out of cars) that were too long and our "heroes" getting in too much trouble with their bosses when they really hadn't been fouling things up.I loved the Dragnet TV series of the 60s I grew up with--except for the episodes that were too preachy and didn't have enough detective work. I have seen many episodes of the 50s Dragnet and these were like the good ones from the 60s.To base a comedy movie on the characters from the series seems like a good idea. Tom Hanks did a good job with his character. Dan Ackroyd certainly nailed down the Joe Friday character in a comical way. It was fun to see Harry Morgan reprising his role from the series, now with a promotion. It was too bad he wasn't given much to do except be a cranky boss.The stereotype character of the religious leader being the bad guy was hackneyed before this film was made. If Martians learned our language and then sent for all U.S. films made between 1975 and today, they would be dead certain that almost anyone addressed as "father, reverend, etc." is an evil person, or an absolute idiot, because that is the way they are almost always portrayed in almost all films during these years, except when their role is minuscule.Here, there's a crooked politician working with the evil minister. Why stop with one stereotype when you can exploit two or more? I thought the film had some good laugh lines, particularly near the beginning. If they had the two cops interviewing more regular people and criminals, which is what the original series primarily featured, it could have been a much better movie.Where it went downhill was all the pointless "action" scenes that lacked true drama because we knew they weren't going to get killed. These scenes seemed to last forever, too.It's a decent movie with more laughs than lots of comedies, but it sure could have been so much better.
AD
