Fletch (US)

"Meet the only guy who changes his identity
more often than his underwear"

Chevy Chase, one of best comedian`s in the world stars in this hilarious 80`s comedy
called the Fletch. It`s based on Gregory McDonald`s best-seller, which sold millions of
copies around the world (including the sequals) and McDonald won the
Mystery Writers of America`s prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award for Fletch.
The director is Michael Ritchie and the cast includes actors like Joe Don Baker who
is known from many James Bond films (The Living Daylights, GoldenEye and Tomorrow
Never Dies), Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Richard Libertini, Tim Matheson, Geena Davis
and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar "the basketball superstar" who retired from the Lakers in `89.

Story: Fletch (Chase), is an investigative reporter who`s constantly changing his identity.
While working on a drug expose, Fletch attracts the attention of a strange businessman
(Tim Matheson) who wants to be killed so his wife will inherit more insurance. The wily
Fletch senses a scam, and soon he`s up to his byline in fram-ups, murder, police
corruption and forbidden romance, It`ll be the story of the year, if he can stay alive
to meet his deadline.Well, I think that the story is quite uniq to be a comedy, but it actually
works and with Chevy Chase`s superb performance as the Irwin Fletch this movie happends to be
one of the greatest 80`s comedies. Fletch is a combination of thriller, adventure and comedy.

The Universal`s Fletch Dvd is a must have for every Chevy Chase fan and for the lovers of comedy.
The packaging is keep case and it contains a collectable booklet, but there`s nothing information about the movie, only the chapters. The disc holds a little amount of extras, like Production Notes (giving some nice information), Cast & Filmmaker`s Bios and Theatrical Trailer (fullscreen) and actually nothing very valuable.

The transfer of this dvd is quite nice 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, with nice and rich colors and mainly the picture quality is good and clear. Sometimes there`s some little grain and the sharpness is missing, but if we look the age of this film it`s understandable. The audio is Dolby Digital Surround 2.0 and it sounds quite nice. The "talking scenes" are a bit flat, but the great Harold Faltermeyer`s composing sounds good (Fletch theme is quite similar with the Beverly Hills Cop theme). Overall the superb soundtrack has got a good bass and it sounds better than in any vhs release.

I`m really waiting for the release of Fletch Lives dvd, because it`s even funnier and better than this first part.

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