J Besser I've always loved this movie. I remember when I saw it in the theater. I remember the audience exploding with laughter. The entire cast hits the ball out of the park. Very exciting and wildly funny. Great stuff.

dougdoepke Despite presence of Hawn and Chase, the movie disappoints. It's all about a plot in Frisco to assassinate the pope, of all people. There's some good character color with the murder gang, a collection of physical oddities—the Scar, the Albino, the Dwarf. Hawn plays a repressed blonde librarian (!) accidentally drawn into the plot, while Chase takes a turn as a SF cop. Making Chase a cop, however, denies him his comedic abilities since he has to play it straight. Thus his scenes with Hawn lack the madcap spark to center events. Nonetheless, there are some memorable scenes— old man Meredith kick-boxing tough gal Roberts in winner take all; the albino showing his pink eyes; Hawn beating poor little guy Barty with a broom; and lonelyhearts mentor Sokol advising Hawn on which chemicals to use in handling men. Plus, it appears director Higgins viewed Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1955) more than once.Still, I get the impression the material didn't really gel for Higgins, though his feel for comedy is demonstrated in Harold and Maude (1971). Then too, editing could have slimmed down flabby scenes like the final car chase that unfortunately belabors without intensifying. Good to see movie vets like Meredith and Lawrence picking up paydays, especially Lawrence who was a primo thug before being blacklisted in the early 1950's.All in all, the movie's sub-Hitchcock, too drawn out for its own good. But does have its moments.

John Downes This is a strong candidate for the worst film I ever saw. Do I really have to add another 10 lines saying just how and why?(Presses Preview button) It seems I do. It's a poor state of affairs when the best thing you can say about a film is that the title song is the best thing about it. And especially when it's by Barry Manilow. That gives you an idea how bad this piece of crap is.Try again.No, still not enough. All right... how about that one of the bad guys is an albino. Now if I was an albino hit-man, I would definitely NOT go around in a white suit. Kind of conspicuous isn't it? Maybe I would do something to disguise my appearance a little. A little make-up, dark contact lenses, dark clothes, that kind of thing?And if I was directing a comedy, I'd want a script that contains a few funny scenes, or some witty lines. But all we get is Goldie Hawn doing her laughter schtick, though what she's got to laugh about I don't know. She's a gorgeous-looking girl but it's just not enough. Sorry Goldie.When the funniest thing in the script is a couple of elderly people playing scrabble and one of them comes up with "Muthafucker".... well that should have rung a bell somewhere among the production team. How the hell did this abomination reach the screen? It sure baffles me.

jzappa The first time I saw Foul Play, I didn't care for it a whole lot and this time, I was able to enjoy it a lot. I laughed a lot more, and I appreciated not only the dialogue but that Colin Higgins' film is an homage at heart. Although what I didn't like about it before still stands, and it concerns what else might be at its heart. But at any rate, Foul Play is a deference to Sir Alfred Hitchcock, more than a few of whose films are alluded to throughout the film. The basis of an innocent person becoming tangled in a snarl of conspiracy is at the hub of Hitchcock films such as The 39 Steps, Saboteur, North by Northwest and, most conspicuously in this case, The Man Who Knew Too Much, which encouraged Foul Play's opera house climax. When Gloria is assaulted in her home, she rummages inside her knitting basket and nearly settles on a pair of scissors to protect herself, a citation of Dial M for Murder. As well, the plot embraces a MacGuffin, in the shape of the celluloid roll hidden in the cigarette pack.But about the plot. The conspiracy that's pursued and ultimately of course unraveled by the movie's extraordinarily charming pair of stars is the diabolical work of the Tax the Churches League, a militant radical group maintaining that organized religion is a crooked, gluttonous con connecting billion-dollar corporations. Well, indeed, religious organizations like the Catholic Church, which the League plans to strike in Foul Play, are not obligated to contribute to their community in equal measure to the tax breaks they're forever awarded, nor can we ever seem to fully hold them accountable for any wrongdoings. And yet, somehow, the ruthless villains here are a progressive confederacy seeking to do so, and are portrayed in doing that as using assassination and also as being freaks. One henchman is albino, a condition rather indecently used to further estrange him from us as a villain. Another of their thugs is a killer with a scar.I wonder how much more gripping Foul Play's plot could've been not only imitating Hitchcock's in form but also in narrative workings. Why not the Archdiocese of San Francisco itself be at the heart of a political conspiracy, as, historically, the Catholic Church constantly has been? Our lead sleuths stumble upon information that the revenue needs of San Francisco are met by the Archdiocese at only a fraction of the rate all these different secular non-profits are taxed. A couple of expository characters are organizers of disease and poverty associations that now have to put their meager proceeds toward taxes because they couldn't meet all their requirements, and the detective and the girl look for the Archdiocese's tax-exempt standards. They're nowhere to be found. There could've still been plenty of great vignettes about Dudley Moore's would-be ladies' man, Burgess Meredith's old landlord who knows karate and dwarfs victimized by mistaken identity. But we'd care, just as we did that Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood would save Dame May Witty from the occupiers in The Lady Vanishes and that the factory worker could stop the Nazi collaborators from bombing the Navy ship in Saboteur.Regardless, Foul Play is undeniably a good light-hearted time at the movies. Chevy Chase is always an amusing presence because his persona is particular, a nice, pleasant guy with not a whole lot on his mind except extremely simple things. He's a meat-and-potatoes guy, but with an airy disposition. He's always smiling, and not really very aware of things outside of him like the table in front of him or that he's in mortal danger. This whole persona is reinforced by every delivery of every line. And as his counterpart of the film's vintage-style duo, Goldie Hawn uses her cutesy blonde naivete and tee-hee smiles to extreme effect as the classic damsel in distress. The less you think about Foul Play, the better.