After two very successful TV incarnations back in the Fifties and the Sixties, the Eighties bought the story of the honest men and women of the Los Angeles Law Enforcement Agency to the big screen.
Joe Friday is a 'by the book' cop - able to quote regulations and read felons their rights with all the panache and control of his father before him. But when he is teamed up with an undercover 'street' cop by the name of Pep Streebeck, his sense of fair play and sober suits is challenged to the extreme. Not only does he need to clean up the city, his partner could use a bath as well.
The pair are put on the 'P.A.G.A.N' case, investigating a mysterious outfit seemingly intent on ruling the city. Their first target is the Ceasar Organisation, publishers of various soft-core skin mags such as Bait Magazine. When the 25th Anniversary issue is destroyed by fire, publisher Jerry Caesar calls in the police. And under the watchful eyes of the new Police Commissioner and the moral crusader Revd. Johnathan Whirley, the boys have to get to the bottom of the organisation. But not everyone is as they seem....
Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks make a great double act in this movie, with Hanks being the wild and crazy Pep Streebeck who slowly finds himself conforming to rule, regulation, and dress code, whilst Aykroyd is the straight-laced, straight down the line career cop who learns to 'bend' the rules when called for. And by doing so, he becomes irresistable to the 'virgin' Connie Swales (played demurely by ex-Baywatch actress Alexandra Paul). Christopher Plummer is suitably slimy as the Revd. Whirley, and the support cast ably push things along, most notably Jack O'Halloran as Emil Muzz.
Cheese? Yes, undoubtably. But Fun, Most certainly!
