Geeky Randy
When beautiful clumsy heiress Kelley goes missing and all attempts to find her have failed, psychologist Shearer convinces the wealthy father (Wanamaker) to hire an equally klutzy accountant Short to go down to the Mexican Riviera to find her. Glover, an experienced detective, accompanies and guides Short through the search, slowly losing his patience waiting for Shearer's theory of two cases of bad luck making a case good luck to come true. Lots of laughs, and Short and Glover make quite the humorous pair. Has such a great amount of charm, excitement and reply value, that suspending disbelief is very easy. The bee-sting scene is timeless.*** (out of four)
standardbearer
Though this movie is still watchable, it doesn't even come near the brilliance of the original. For starters: 1981 was a defining year in french popular-cinema. That was the year when "Le Professionnel" and "La Chévre" was released. "Pure Luck" is an American remake of the second one, made ten years later. I sometimes really hate way American film-making works: when they got so tired of their own clichés, they do a remake of a foreign film, which has foreign clichés. That was the element that made these two french movies great. European clichés. When they made those movies, they were totally aware, that they are only using the old recipes, which already worked well. The french humor in La Chévre is hilarious, and goofy. The scenery gives you a nostalgic feel, and the actors are just plain brilliant. Never over-acting, just plain funny. The strong, and aggressive Depardieu, and the always unlucky Richard made an unforgettable duo. NOW this movie... It doesn't have ANY of the elements listed above. Danny Glover and Martin Short are raging idiots, screaming through cities and jungles, acting so bad, it makes even your average stand up comedy actor look pretty sharp. The story is the same, almost word-by-word, yet the jokes don't work. Okay, I am a bit too hard on this one, but the original La Chévre was a generational masterpiece. And this is not. Just an average American early nineties comedy, with not too many things to remember for. Not that bad, but hey, if you take time to dig up this one, search for the original instead!!!
gcd70
"Pure "Luck" is based on a rather silly plot which is in turn based on quite a silly idea. After the disappearance of his amazingly clumsy daughter, 'Mr. Big' decides to enlist the services of an equally clumsy employee, in the hope that he may 'slip on that same banana peel', and find her.While Nadia Tass' direction (in her American feature film debut) appears rather hurried, "Pure Luck" benefits from the very funny Martin Short, the good teaming of Short and Danny Glover, and some hilarious one-off scenes. Hardly outrageous cinema, "Pure Luck" is still enjoyable however.Friday, December 20, 1991
nathan-williams-2
My wife and I enjoyed the movie and got a laugh from it. You can watch it with your Kids! Get the pop-corn out. Kids from 8 to 13 will get a kick out of this. (well most will). My family loved Its A Mad Mad Mad world ,and have watched it many times. Pure Luck is not worth as many viewings, but is well worth an evening with the kids. Martin Short is the most unlucky person and Danny Glover is funny as well. There are not many movies theses days that can whole family can watch together. There is not much to find offensive in this movie. If you would like to see the range that Danny Glover can play watch this and Gone Fishing (with the kids). Then put them to bed and watch SwitchBack. I like him better in the comic roles but he can be sinister as well.
AD
