28/50x2: Fletch

After hearing about this film over and over again, mostly due to a nickname, I had to give it a try. Again, due to its age I had pretty much known most of what went on in the film, but never actually sat down to watch it in its entirety.

Chevy Chase stars as the titular character in Fletch. Fletch is a reporter for a newspaper. He will do almost anything to get the story, including going undercover.

As we find him pretending to be a homeless man to try and get the story on a drug trade. As he is undercover, though, he is approached by Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson), a rich man who says he has cancer and wants Fletch to murder him so his family will get the life insurance - unaware that Fletch is actually a reporter and not a homeless man.

Fletch actually agrees to help Stanwyk once he is offered a large sum of money to do the job, but as a reporter he becomes increasingly suspicious of Stanwyk's motives and begins to do a little digging - uncovering a whole mess of things about both Stanwyk and the drug trade he was originally pursuing.

Of course, there also happens to be a love interest for Fletch - this one comes in the form of Stanwyk's wife, Gail (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson).

Did I enjoy the film? Yes. Would I have enjoyed the film a lot more had I seen it in its entirety around the time it first came out? Most definitely.

I think it felt a bit dated to me. The references and the dream sequences that featured Fletch playing for the Lakers - featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who retired in 1989 - were just way too dated for this movie to be truly appreciated for a first-time watcher.

But, I did feel it was an interesting film and the comedy was pretty good. The type of comedy one has come to expect from Chase - he has certainly made a darn good living doing it.

I like it, but I didn't love it.

Grade: