Best Defense (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Mar 17, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Willard HyuckRelease Date(s)
1984 (March 11, 2025)Studio(s)
Paramount Pictures (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)- Film/Program Grade: C
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B
Review
Best Defense stitches two completely different films together with a slender thread so as to amplify the role of a rising actor in the hope that his popularity would be enough to make the patchwork a box office hit. The film stars one comedian whose career was on the wane and features another who was becoming one of the biggest screen stars of the 1980s.
Engineer Wylie Cooper (Dudley Moore, Arthur) is assigned to a project to create a military targeting system that could bring huge profits to his company, but the outlook is shaky. Wylie’s home life is not in good shape. Wife Laura (Kate Capshaw, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) is upset with him because he keeps losing jobs and finding others that force the family to move again and again. She has reached her limit and is letting him know it. Wylie eventually finds himself drawn to his attractive boss, Clair Lewis (Helen Shaver, The Osterman Weekend). At a bar, he encounters a peculiar fellow (Tom Noonan, The Monster Squad) who seems to have a persecution complex and secretly stashes a computer disc into Wylie’s briefcase. The disc turns out to contain plans for a workable targeting system that were intended for a Russian agent (David Rasche, Hellfire) who’s determined to get them back at any cost.
The secondary plot is set in Kuwait, where a team headed by Lt. Landry (Eddie Murphy, Beverly Hills Cop) has been assigned to demonstrate a new super-tank equipped with the targeting system and several ground-to-air missiles. Along the way to the proving ground, the tank starts falling apart piece by piece and veers wildly off course. As Landry and team attempt to improvise their way out of a bad situation, they find themselves in the midst of a war.
The main problem with Best Defense is the screenplay by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck. The two stars never meet, and Murphy never appears with any of the actors in the main story. The strange structure of the script provoked a lot of speculation. Moore had recently appeared in a series of box office flops, and Paramount might have been nervous over the tepid audience reaction to screenings. To salvage the film, they hired Murphy, fresh from his successes in Trading Places and 48 Hrs., and called the writers back to concoct a whole sub-story around Murphy’s comic persona. The problem is that the two stories don’t mesh well and the attempts to connect them fail.
Two early scenes try to establish a link between the two stories. In the first, Wylie attempts to be amorous in bed with his wife. She rebuffs his advances. Cut to Landry in Kuwait, having a fine frolic in bed with a more-than-willing belly dancer. These scenes shift back and forth, but even this tenuous connection is never followed through.
Murphy certainly does his part, and his scenes are very funny. Billed as “Strategic Guest Star,” he brings a good deal of life to an otherwise uninspired film. Playing Landry broadly, he makes apt use of his trademark mannerisms—the deep laugh, the mile-wide smile, the rapid dialogue, and the perfectly-timed one-liner. If the tank story had been expanded, it could have made a funny armed-services picture. As is, however, it’s a desperate tack-on to strengthen a feeble comedy.
Moore, by comparison, seems to walk through the film. He goes through the motions but never fully inhabits his character. Maybe he knew he was appearing in a turkey.
Today, Best Defense is best remembered as a film that earned the wrath of critics and audiences alike. With Eddie Murphy’s name on the film, viewers assumed that he would be playing a major character rather than an extended cameo. Director Willard Huyck does his best to make sense of his own script (co-written with his wife) but never creates a cohesive whole from its disparate parts.
Appraising the film on its own merits rather than on its notorious history, Best Defense is awkward and uneven. The main story is neither engaging nor original and Moore does little to save it, while the secondary plot is markedly different in tone and Murphy imbues it with his unique energy. When the scene shifts from the troubles of Moore’s character to Murphy’s, it’s like going from a dull chamber music recital to a wild New Year’s Eve party. When Murphy could have done any picture of his choice (his very next film was Beverly Hills Cop), he went on record to state that though he didn’t think a lot of the Best Defense script, he was offered so much money, he’d have been a fool to turn it down.
Best Defense was shot by director of photography Donald Peterman on 35 mm color film with Panaflex cameras and lenses by Panavision, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Blu-ray features a brand new HD master from a 4K scan of the 35 mm original camera negative. The transfer is pristine, without any visible imperfections. The picture is sharp and details are well delineated. The color palette ranges from earthy browns and deep greens to brighter primary hues.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. English subtitles are an available option. Dialogue is clear and distinct. Sound effects include a tank driving over rough terrain and sand, assorted pieces of the tank’s interior breaking, missiles firing, explosions, Murphy’s laughter, and the tank destroying a tented dais and crushing a limousine.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber Studio Classics include the following:
- Audio Commentary by Screenwriter/Producer Alan Spencer and Author/Film Historian Justin Humphreys
- Trailer (2:46)
- Gotcha! Trailer (1:35)
- Fletch Trailer (1:35)
- The Experts Trailer (1:32)
- Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid Trailer (2:01)
- D.C. Cab Trailer (2:33)
- Running Scared Trailer (1:30)
- Holy Man Trailer (1:53)
Audio Commentary – Paramount’s marketing of Best Defense made it seem like the film equally co-starred Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy, even though Murphy is in it for only 15 minutes. Critics and audiences reacted negatively to the film, which was a studio project. Murphy was given the odd billing, “Strategic Guest Star.” The novel by Robert Grossbach on which the film is based is dark and satirical and ends on a very pessimistic note. Happy endings were “slapped onto” the film after previews. A reputable reviewer said that the film was made just for Dudley Moore and Murphy’s scenes were added as an afterthought. Dudley Moore was an “accidental movie star.” He scored big in a small scene in Foul Play and went on to replace George Segal in 10. He wasn’t the first choice for Arthur. He was hot at the time and had reached the pinnacle of his success. He received many offers, and often played roles originally intended for Peter Sellers after Sellers’ death. Film comedies got a shot in the arm with the Mel Brooks films of the mid-1970s. There were more opportunities in movies for comedians. Stars from Saturday Night Live were starting to make movies. Ratings were typically not strictly enforced in the 1970s, so those under age 17 could easily see R-rated pictures. Sometimes a disastrous preview can lead to not releasing a film, releasing it without inviting critics, or re-editing. The Murphy sequence is a military satire with no definite point of view and no edge. The film never explains why Moore’s Wylie is so licentious. It did good first-weekend business but dropped off in its second weekend. A reference is made to Bowfinger, another Eddie Murphy film. In the plot of that picture, a big star is filmed surreptitiously and inserted into a film to boost box office. This device may have suggested the plan to shoe-horn Murphy into Best Defense. The commentators give a shout-out to the “below-the-line” filmmakers who did great work. Reviews were uniformly negative (brief excepts from Time and People magazines are read) and the film has been “pilloried” over the years.
- Dennis Seuling