Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie''s plot.
Dragnet is an affectionate pastiche of the 1950’s detective series. Unlike the original, however, this is very much tongue-in-cheek and the end result is a fine (albeit not perfect) detective comedy that’s well worth watching.
Detective Joe Friday (brilliantly played by Dan Akroyd [Blues Brothers, Spys Like Us]) – the nephew of the Joe Friday from the original series but so much like his uncle that you’d be hard pushed to tell them apart (well, apart from the uncle being dead by now, presumably) gets in to work one morning to find his long-time partner has quit. As is always the way, the fastidious Friday’s new partner is his diametric opposite – Pep Streebek (Tom Hanks [Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump]), a wild and loose cop from the narcotics division. As you would expect, their mutual dislike turns into respect, admiration, and eventually friendship – but not before they both go undercover as street ruffians and find themselves in the middle of a very weird secret society… Also, a new hero is in town, in the shape of a charismatic Reverend (Christopher Plummer [Sound of Music, Operation Cobra]). He is not all that he seems, but will the Police Chief (Harry Morgan [MASH – the TV series, he was Colonel Potter]) ever believe that this man of God is involved in all the pandemonium breaking out around the city?
Well, as you can see it’s pretty much standard cop comedy material, but it’s well put together, well paced, and (most importantly) funny. Thumbs up to Director Tom Mankiewicz for this, along with himself, Dan Akoyd, and Alan Zweibel as scriptwriters. The cast is brilliant – from Harry Morgan’s laconic performance as the police boss to Akroyd’s deadpan hero to Plummer’s outrageous holy man act, they’re all superb and very funny. Well, almost all… in fact, the only performance that I didn’t find completely convincing was Tom Hanks, who just hadn’t quite got enough of the rebel about him to be truly authentic to his character. Not that he was actually bad, but he obviously hadn’t quite perfected his trade by that time. (Dragnet was released in 1986, a year before Big, which to me was Hanks’ defining comedy performance.)
Not all the scenes work as well as they should though, and like Starsky and Hutch, I was left with the feeling that this could have been even better if some of the more peripheral characters had been developed a little more. It’s very enjoyable and certainly wouldn’t suffer from repeated viewings, and is (mostly) quite family-safe. There is one scene in a strip club that doesn’t leave much at all to the imagination, so parents should be aware of this. Other than that the subject matter is not geared to kids and they’d perhaps enjoy Hanks’ performance more than Akroyd’s, but adults will appreciate the ironic humour and dry wit. Seeing veterans Morgan and Plummer in such fine form was excellent, too.
Overall Dragnet is a very good comedy that will perfectly suit the bill if you’re in the mood for some light-medium entertainment. I only recently saw an episode of the original series, and I must say that Akroyd’s monologues are perfectly in keeping with the original. While it does make fun of the original to an extent, this is done in an affectionate way and fans of the original should enjoy this too (as long as they don’t expect it to be as serious in tone!).
A seemingly squeaky clean television reverend and a porno magazine king are suspected of operating a crime-ridden cult. It's up to Joe Friday's nephew...More at Family Video
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