In 1982 California, Wylie Cooper (Dudley Moore) is an incompetent engineer building the latest super tank's dyp gyro. He and Laura (Kate Capshaw) have a young son. The company is failing and it's all down to his work. Clair Lewis (Helen Shaver) is his supervisor and Steve Loparino (George Dzundza) is his co-worker. In 1984 Kuwait, Lieutenant T.M. Landry (Eddie Murphy) commands the super tank demonstrating for the local Sheikh. Neither man meets each other but they are undeniably connected.These are two of the more compelling comedic actors of their times. It's a real headscratcher why they aren't acting together in this movie. Instead of Dzundza, there's no reason why they couldn't put in Eddie Murphy in that role. It would be the same screen time. Back in the day, I found this movie functionally average with two comedians I love. Looking at it with modern eyes, there is a bit of cartoon racism everywhere and I don't like Wylie's roaming eyes for his boss. The bumbling international espionage is stupid and a muddled mess. The central flaw of separating these two hot comedic actors is inexcusable. It's the final flaw that drives loving these actors into not liking this movie.

This is one of those few films from my childhood that made a strong impression on me, mainly for the Eddie Murphy's WAM joke. I remembered it had something to do with a faulty new tank in the Iraq war and US engineers at home desperately trying to make something work in it. Oh the good memories.But now that I rewatched it, well… Eddie Murphy and the tank take up only 1/5 of the movie, while everything else is dedicated to a poor plot about a looser caught up in a spy novel, later dropped and substituted for poor planning by the ministry of defense.Besides Murphy tank escapade, only the Russian spy was entertaining to watch, but he only appeared in a couple of scenes. Everything else was a chore to watch. The special effects aren't that impressive. The idiot boss is just intolerably dumb. The portrayal of foreigners were horrid. And I have no idea why the wife and child subplot was even necessary, because you could literally replace them with a sealing fan to resolve the main flaw. Oh… Guess I forgot those parts for a reason.One of the main problems was the editing of events – the tank was developed after the main plots got resolved, but the movie was spliced like it all was happening simultaneously. Unfortunately that meant that the tank flaws were already resolved, or not, so there was really no suspense.Let's just say the best parts of the movie were about 5-10 minutes long and I would not have missed anything rewatching it. At some points I even confused Dudley Moore's acting for a Rowan Atkinson impersonation. That confusion kept me more entertained then the actual movie.At least some of it is good to riff over.

I felt this was an interesting concept for a movie.Two characters separated by time and place, but connected by one piece of equipment, on a tank.It of course had its moments of cheese, but most comedies do.Moore's performance was good,as was Murphy's.The only really bad performances were the two female leads,Kate Capshaw, and Helen Shaver. Capshaw chews the scenery, but she pretty much does that in all of her movies, and certainly was no worse in this movie than in Space Camp.Helen Shaver's performance wasn't horrible, but she tended to whine a bit too much.Tom Noonan as the Soviet spy/surfer dude, was a scream,and the FBI surveillance scene made my sides hurt. My overall rating on this movie, is a solid 6,above average, but not terrific.I did feel the concept was very innovative, flashing back and forth from 1982 Southern California, to 1984 Kuwait.So, if you can find this movie in the bargain basement rack,for say 2 dollars or less, it might be worth it to have a look, otherwise, wait to see it on cable.

On a dull evening at home recently I saw this was showing on ITV2, and I settled down to enjoy what I thought would be a reasonably amusing comedy. Oh dear. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were one of the greatest ever comedy acts. Peter Cook was a hilarious solo act. Dudley Moore was a brilliant musician...but NOT a good solo comedy player. All Mr Moore's films seem to have him in an ill fitting three piece suit and horrible seventies hairstyle, running manically around hotel corridors and swearing a lot. This film is no exception. It just didn't have any really funny moments. Mr Murphy (whose scenes were slotted in later) had one or two funny lines but that was about it. If Saddam Hussein got the idea of invading Iraq from this film, that would be a good reason to ban it!