"Pure "Luck" is based on a rather silly plot which is in turn based on quite a silly idea. After the disappearance of his amazingly clumsy daughter, 'Mr. Big' decides to enlist the services of an equally clumsy employee, in the hope that he may 'slip on that same banana peel', and find her.While Nadia Tass' direction (in her American feature film debut) appears rather hurried, "Pure Luck" benefits from the very funny Martin Short, the good teaming of Short and Danny Glover, and some hilarious one-off scenes. Hardly outrageous cinema, "Pure Luck" is still enjoyable however.Friday, December 20, 1991

The original French version "La Chevre" ('the goat', in France a symbol of bad luck), with Pierre Richard and Gerard Depardieu, is much funnier, but I too agree that Martin Short is a great comedian and that this movie works not bad. Anyway I'm sure that a couple like Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor would have do a much better job. Wilder also worked in an adaptation of another funny and successful French movie: "The Woman in Red", and it turned into a little masterpiece... For Martin Short "Pure Luck" was the second "French" adaptation after "Three Fugitives" from 1989 with Nick Nolte (in France the original movie starred again the duo Richard-Depardieu).

My wife and I enjoyed the movie and got a laugh from it. You can watch it with your Kids! Get the pop-corn out. Kids from 8 to 13 will get a kick out of this. (well most will). My family loved Its A Mad Mad Mad world ,and have watched it many times. Pure Luck is not worth as many viewings, but is well worth an evening with the kids. Martin Short is the most unlucky person and Danny Glover is funny as well. There are not many movies theses days that can whole family can watch together. There is not much to find offensive in this movie. If you would like to see the range that Danny Glover can play watch this and Gone Fishing (with the kids). Then put them to bed and watch SwitchBack. I like him better in the comic roles but he can be sinister as well.

This movie, and every other remakes of french comedies by American directors are just awful (Father's day, Mixed Nuts, Three fugitives...). What makes "La Chèvre" an excellent french movie, is the acting of great actors like Pierre Richard and Gégard Depardieu, and the directing of great directors like "Françis Veber" which are by far more subtle than American acting or directing, especially in comedies. And as you talk about the goal of this movie, they bought an idea that was a big success elsewhere and they popularized it to make the movie accessible to a large audience. The result is a big load of tripe. I guess you have to be french to understand that, because it's just a matter of culture...