The Wrong Guy

It wasn't me! It was the one armed man!!!

A Movie Review

by Shad

At a random corporate office in Cleveland, Nelson (Dave Foley of former Kids in the Hall and News Radio fame) has just found out that, despite his butt-kissing up the corporate ladder all the way to marrying the president of the company’s daughter, his promotion to be the new president is not to be (he didn’t marry the president’s favorite daughter). In a fit of rage and extreme disappointment, he marches towards the office of his boss, the president of the company and future father-in-law. But what he finds is a corpse – the dead man is, in fact, his former boss, and now Nelson is caught red-handed, so to speak. Nelson is now on the run, fleeing from the police towards Mexico and planning to return someday to prove that they’ve got The Wrong Guy. Unfortunately, Nelson doesn’t realize that the entire murder was caught on corporate security video surveillance, all the way up to the murderer’s impressively complex escape sequence (and some footage of the boss before the murder that we get a disturbing sound-only presentation of). Nelson is not even a suspect anymore, but it seems that no matter where the real murderer runs to, Nelson is there (because they’re both headed for Mexico, duh). A series of mishaps and strange acquaintances hinder Nelson’s run for the border in this strange comedy. I think it won the US Comedy Arts Festival award for Best Screenplay. It was on the front of the DVD, anyway. It was a good idea for a movie.

And Foley was good in it, very good in fact. He played the character of the extremely stupid corporate executive butt-licker who marries to further his career very well. Unfortunately, after the first 10 minutes of the movie, the film takes a decline into the ‘funny but not laugh-out-loud funny’ world of comedy. I was pretty disappointed with some of the jokes made within the same hour’s time in the middle of the film, by which I mean for about an hour of the movie was kinda funny here and there, but many jokes were met with uncomfortable silence in my mother’s living room. There was a lot of untapped potential in the flick, mostly in my own opinion due to the extremely smug and dry nature of the film. I’m sure that was intentional, and it would have worked too, had many of the jokes been more than the same thing over and over, or else uncomfortable fumbling in conversations between Nelson and some minor character (see Kevin McDonald, Joe Flaherty).

Actually, some of the minor characters were really good,. Such as, the police detectives who misuse their expense accounts to go to New York City, picking up hookers and eating at expensive restaurants, then seeing the Broadway musical of Moby Dick entitled “Moby” and a parody of a song from Beauty and the Beast “Be Our Guest”. Also, the scene with the hotel manager (Kevin McDonald) was good, but mostly because of Foley, which was disappointing. Finally, my favorite scene, Nelson hitch-hikes and takes a ride from a crazy (credited as Creepy Guy) conspiracy theorist who tells him that he could kill a man with just two tea bags and a piece of wax paper. Hilarious. Jennifer Tilly also plays in this movie as a narcoleptic love interest out on a farm. She gives Nelson a job as a handyman, and he starts by trying to fix the fence in a manner I wouldn’t recommend, especially in a rainy state like Delaware (my home) or Pennsylvania.

I guess that if I watched this movie a second time, I might like it more. But, it really didn’t pique my interest enough to go out and get it again (maybe if it hits HBO or Comedy Central). Anyway, if you’re really a big fan of Foley’s work (he actually did co-write this movie) then I would recommend seeing it, just to say that you’ve done so. Otherwise, if you end up renting this by accident or you’re just bored, watch the beginning, and when it stops being funny, fast forward until the last 20 minutes or so.