For a lot of people Martin Short can be sort of a turn-off. "¡Three Amigos!" "Innerspace," a small but enduring part in "Father of the Bride" movies...and really that's about all. Even then he's not exactly the lead in any of them, or at least not entirely so you can relax and rest assured that it won't be that annoying.At first glance "Pure Luck" certainly seems like one of those, you know, Martin Short comedies.But, you do have Officer Murtaugh, or I guess Danny Glover and if we know anything about him it's that your diplomatic immunity has just been revoked and that Glover can play one of the best straight men in Hollywood.No joke, it's a role that's often overlooked and there is a tendency to look at Glover as a dramatic actor and for good reason...but even in the Lethal Weapon movies you can see it.He's got great comedic timing. He approaches comedy in the right way, that is to say that he treats it like it's a dramatic role...and what's more he knows when to not be funny and just react so that horribly over the top people like Martin Short get a chance to shine.You put it all together and he was the perfect man to cast against someone like Martin Short. Without Glover "Pure Luck" never would have worked as a film.The jokes are funny, they really are.The part that stands out the most, in the twenty-plus years since it was on the big screen is the clip where Glover is torturing a poor soul with a photograph. A scene that would have failed if it was over done, but again, Glover knows when to step back for the sake of the joke and because of that it is still one of the most memorable and hysterical gags I've seen in a movie."Pure Luck" is a comedy that should have missed it's mark entirely, but despite of it's failures turned out hysterical and should be a lesson to all young actors out there. It only really succeeded because of Danny Glover and now it stands as a testament to how to properly play a straight man.

Though this movie is still watchable, it doesn't even come near the brilliance of the original. For starters: 1981 was a defining year in french popular-cinema. That was the year when "Le Professionnel" and "La Chévre" was released. "Pure Luck" is an American remake of the second one, made ten years later. I sometimes really hate way American film-making works: when they got so tired of their own clichés, they do a remake of a foreign film, which has foreign clichés. That was the element that made these two french movies great. European clichés. When they made those movies, they were totally aware, that they are only using the old recipes, which already worked well. The french humor in La Chévre is hilarious, and goofy. The scenery gives you a nostalgic feel, and the actors are just plain brilliant. Never over-acting, just plain funny. The strong, and aggressive Depardieu, and the always unlucky Richard made an unforgettable duo. NOW this movie... It doesn't have ANY of the elements listed above. Danny Glover and Martin Short are raging idiots, screaming through cities and jungles, acting so bad, it makes even your average stand up comedy actor look pretty sharp. The story is the same, almost word-by-word, yet the jokes don't work. Okay, I am a bit too hard on this one, but the original La Chévre was a generational masterpiece. And this is not. Just an average American early nineties comedy, with not too many things to remember for. Not that bad, but hey, if you take time to dig up this one, search for the original instead!!!

This is my favorite movie. I have never laughed as hard as I did in this movie. I don't like comedy actors like Martin Short, Jim Carrey or Steve Martin. As a matter of fact I avoid them and any other "slapstick" comedy, but this movie made me laugh. The idea of it...using one person with bad luck to find another is ingenious! I hope others out there will give the movie a chance and watch it with a light heart. If you don't think people like this exist...you are wrong! They are living their lives trying to accept with a positive attitude what fate has given them...just plain old bad luck! I had to watch this movie several times to hear the whole dialog, my continuous laughter made me miss a lot!

Miserable remake of the French comedy "La Chevre". Martin Shorty is a funny guy, but he gets no help here with a director (nadia Tass) who has no experience directing comedy (and has finally found her niche directing "Felicity" and "Samantha" pre-teen girl films) and a writer (Herschel Weingrad) who a long, long time ago wrote "trading Places" (a decent comedy at best) but since has done ham handed comedies like "Brewster's Millions", "Kindergarten Cop" and "Lift".As a result, the teaming of Short and Glover is an annoying failure. Glover's always pretty good at playing annoyance, but here he's in good company as he couldn't possibly be more annoyed than the audience watching.The big scene where Short's character Eugene Proctor gets stung by a bee and swell up to enormous size may have contained the genesis of his later (and much funnier) Jiminy Glick show biz reporter character.