Pure Luck (1991)

Overrated and overhyped

good film but with many flaws

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The daughter of a wealthy businessman has disappeared in Mexico, and all the efforts to find her have been unsuccessful. A psychologist, knowing that the girl has bad luck, persuades her father to send to Mexico one of his employees, an accountant with matching bad luck, to find her. Perhaps he will be lucky, and his bad luck could help to find the lucky girl...During the early nineties, Hollywood had a thing about releasing averagely high concept comedies featuring b-list actors who have appeared in very successful films a few years prior to this, hoping that fans of the more successful films would think 'oooo, I liked him in that film with the more successful actor, let's give this a go'Rarely were the films successful. They made a moderate box office in the states, but here in the UK, Universal video released them under a 'video Premiere' moniker. Which basically meant 'it's good, but it's not good enough to be shown at the cinema'.Other titles like this included The Super, Captain Ron, Clean Slate, and any film with Sinbad in a starring role.These films are in a league of their own, made at a time when studios would give five picture contracts to stars, because they had supporting roles in really successful films, followed by taking the lead role in a surprise sleeper hit.An obscure example is Joe Pesci. He's a fantastic actor, but after the double whammy of Home Alone and My Cousin Vinny, he starred in films that were very out of character for him.Remember the aforementioned The Super, Jimmy Hollywood, With Honors, and Gone Fishin'? Thought not, but the video shop always had a copy of them ready to rent.Pure Luck is nothing more than Short falling over, hurting himself, and thinking he's in charge, whilst Glover plays the straight man and rolling his eyes every now and again.In a luxurious setting. All the 'funny' parts were in the trailer, see Short in a fat suit, see Short fall down some stairs, see Glover stand there and look up to the sky, because his straight man levels out the comedy between them......It's not a terrible film, it's highly watchable.But just a little lazy.

You gotta love the originality and smarts to this movie. Just watching it again, last night (God knows the last time I saw this film, it was yonks) he had me bringing up the question, "What the hell happened to Martin Short?". He wasn't a bad actor, and deserved more roles. This film, incidentally, if you didn't know, was made from the people who made Malcolm. This is their first film, venturing out of Australia, yet somethings gone afoul here, when judged against their last three films, which I all enjoyed. They were all good films, and I'll let you in on a little secret, I did like this one the best, but as a film, it just fell into average fare, and as a comedy, I would of found it funnier, when I viewed it all those years ago, and I too clearly remember being impressed by the makers of it, if a little envious. The plot is pure genius. This consistently accident prone daughter is kidnapped while holidaying on the French riviera. No ransom, no note. A month has passed where this super detective (Glover) has got nowhere. His only option at the advice of the daughter's dad (Wanamaker) and a psychiatrist, is to use a accident prone sales assistant (Short) of equal misfortune, to lead, or more correctly let em' stumble onto the daughter's whereabouts. Glover and Short do make a wonderful team, and some of the gags are truly memorable, trust me, no more greater than the bee sting that gets out of control and Turns Short into Blubberman, while the ending is classic, and genius, not the only genius moment. I must of really enjoyed the film, cause it passed quick, yet again it's just average, as if running short of something. Some gags won't rub off of people. Summed up, it's a cute little film, like it's actress Kelly. The ending is a match made in Heaven, literally, if they die first. Ha.

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)

This film has an overall mediocre average from the total comments in this site - but I agree with those who liked it, and who wonder about the complaints. I don't have any feeling about its being something of a remake of an earlier French flick (so what; it's not as if the original were any type of classic). Martin Short is one of the funniest individuals, ever, and here Danny Glover is outstanding as his reluctant, straight-man sidekick. Sheila Kelley gives an excellent performance, and is certainly pleasant to view. Harry Shearer and Sam Wannamaker always add positively to films in which they appear, in their own different styles.A lot of personalities who have made their fame in television have enjoyed less success on the big screen. Sometimes it seems the cause may be difficulty breaking from their TV character(s) - but more often, they seem to try to stretch a story appropriate to a 10- or 15-minute skit, or 22 minutes of program during a half-hour slot, into a full-length film. While the story in this movie is predictable, and pretty much consists of several variations on it one-dimensional theme (Martin's and Sheila's vying for the title of the world's greatest "klutz") - it succeeds in holding interest and being enjoyable for the entire hour-and-a-half.I haven't seen Peter Bart's and Peter Guber's "Sunday Morning Shootout" program very often, but I did see the program where Short was their guest. These two men are true heavyweights in Hollywood and films, erudite, interesting, and they conduct a program which is engaging and succeed in drawing the most from their guests. While they are pleasant men, neither is a "ray of sunshine," and any humor they generate is more subtle, with few yucks.But Martin Short's appearance had both of them in the proverbial "stitches," and displayed his natural, tremendous talent as a totally funny individual, whether in a scripted or talk show venue. And this was done while not detracting from their normal meaningful programming.You might not feel compelled to label this picture "outstanding," but I would rate it on the upside of "excellent."