(Flash Review)Hanks has made a slew of high quality films and this being his third leading roll has to be one his worst. The director, writer and producer should all be ashamed with this as a result especially with the rather big names in the cast. The brittle plot is about some political mischief within the CIA and trying to get someone fired so one side tries to mislead the other by using a regular person as a pawn. Hanks is spotted because he is wearing...yep, you guessed it...one red shoe and he is unknowingly selected as the pawn. The other side views him as important and tracks him to discover what he knows. Que clumsy and stupid plot gags about Hanks tricking them all by accident as he goes about his regular routines. Will Hanks learn what he's in the middle of? With both CIA groups get what they want and outsmart each other? In addition to the strained comedy is a preposterous romantic sub-plot. Unless you are working through Hanks entire film catalog there is absolutely no need to watch this! And mercifully, Hanks has fewer underpants scenes than he had in Turner and Hooch. ZING.

In a desperate attempt to keep his job as the director of the CIA "Ross" (Charles Durning) directs his assistant "Brown" (Edward Herrmann) to select a person at random and falsely suggest to his main rival "Cooper" (Dabney Coleman) that this innocent bystander has secret information that might thwart Cooper's political ambitions. To that end, Brown selects an eccentric musician named "Richard" (Tom Hanks) because he is wearing one red shoe due to a practical joke played on him by his best friend "Morris" (James Belushi). As expected, Cooper takes the bait and immediately puts all of his resources into finding out what Richard knows. However, what Cooper doesn't realize is the difficulty his agents encounter when they submerge themselves into Richard's bizarre life. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie started off a bit slow but got pretty funny towards the end with Morris deservedly having to endure his share of comedic mishaps. Admittedly, this wasn't a great comedy by any means but I still found it entertaining enough and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

There is a rivalry between Burton Cooper (Dabney Coleman) and his boss CIA director Ross (Charles Durning). Maddy (Lori Singer) is one of Cooper's agents. Cooper is able to doublecross Ross by getting a CIA agent arrested for cocaine smuggling in Morocco. The Senate calls on Ross to testify and he has 48 hours. Ross intends to misdirect Cooper by sending him on a wild goose chase. Ross' second Brown (Edward Herrmann) picks random guy at the airport, Richard Drew (Tom Hanks), the man with one red shoe. Richard is a violinist having an affair with his best friend Morris (Jim Belushi)'s wife Paula (Carrie Fisher). Cooper swallows the bait whole as his team struggles to discover what evidence Richard has against him.Tom Hanks is playing an everyman. If this movie works at all, it is due to his charms. At times, it tries to be a screwball comedy but it never gets to be outright funny. It's nice ... like Hanks. He's never unleashed and neither is the movie.

I am a huge Tom Hanks fan. Being the fan that I am I do admit some of his earlier stuff was just so-so. This was one of those projects. I mean it had its moments but it just seemed like it was thrown together. Hanks and Belushi do an excellent job and they should have worked together more often when they both made it bigger maybe they will who knows. I think Tom Hanks has wondered to far away from comedy which he does really well. Splash, Bachelor Party, Big all great films in the 80's of his so if you want to see some of his older but good stuff those would be better. If you are just looking to pass the time this movie would be fine but if your looking for Tom Hanks at his very best this movie is not for you. 5 out of ten stars