Underground Aces

Definitely "buck night" drive in fare but there are well-handled bits that recall Shakespeare, Mack Sennett, Chuck Jones, Rube Goldberg, The Three Stooges, and burlesque sketches ("I'm bearish!" "I'm bullish!" "I'm chicken!"). Frank Gorshin's cigarette shtick is fun as well. Enjoy those elements and ignore the excuse for stringing them together.

I like to think of myself as a bit of an 80's expert. I spent most of my teenage years in the 80s. I watched a lot of TV, hung out at my favorite VHS rental store and even today I destroy people at any game that involves 80s trivia and yet... I had never even heard of this 1981 classic before this week.

It's never on an 80s movie list. It was never trashed by my favorite movie channels on YouTube. It never gets referenced on Family Guy and the people who went on to actually have a career never brought it up on talk shows.

Yet there it sits, free to stream on Prime, invisible to 80s historians, and still craving your attention.

Set in the early 80s, and quite possibly filmed in the late 70s, this time-capsule of actors, tropes and jokes reminds me of what life was like the day after the last episode of That 70s Show.

This movie has it all... car chases, a 5 minute Rube Goldberg scene, a little bit of unnecessary nudity, the prince and the pauper, roller skates, comedy racism, slapstick, Melanie Griffith...

Yes. That Melanie Griffith along with Dirk Benedict (before he went on to be Face on A-Team) and Robert Hegyes fresh from Mr. Kotters classroom. Sid Haig shows up in a comedy role, Frank Gorshin does his best George Murdock impersonation, Jerry Orbach with the same haircut he had in Law and Order and my personal favorite is a pre-Police Academy, Michael Winslow, who was not allowed to speak a single word, but was still a main character.

The actors are reallty great but, the characters in Underground Aces are really the biggest flaw in this whole movie. There are no less than twelve characters struggling to develop who they are in a 95 minute film, and it takes 45 minutes for the lead story to even emerge. It's not about Melanie Griffith and Dirk Benedict developing a relationship. It's not about Michael Winslow overcoming a traumatic past that forced him to speak with sound effects instead of works... it's about Robert Hegyes finding true love for the first time in his life and using a Sheik to make it all happen.

Most sites compare this movie to the cult classic Car Wash, and while that is a fair comparison, this movie reminded me more of the movie D. C. Cab, that was released 2 years later, featuring Mr. T. Unliked Car Wash, it features a college educated lead who wants to quit the real world and live the exciting life of a job that depends on tips. Car Wash was about people who hated their jobs and pulled pranks to deal with a substandard life and not people who thought they were hip and cool because of their service industry jobs.

Still, if it were up to me, all three of these movies would be sold as a the "Hollywood Has No Idea What Jobs Are Trilogy." Maybe throw in a, "AKA, Actors Hungry For Work," secondly title.

This movie is worth watching. You will laugh. You will tell your friends about it. It may take 10 years, but you will even watch it again!

I missed the plot basis for years until I rewatched it.

This is Much Ado About Nothing set in a snazzy hotel.

The Sheik is the Prince.

Frank Gorshin as the House Detective is the Sheriff.

We have the woman the Sheik is trying to woo as his bride. Dirk Benedict as his coach. Bunches of misunderstanding. Assorted recreation including Auto Soccer.

I'm not sure who the Commodores owed a favor to, but the ending theme is catchy and pop for the era.

Entertaining fluff, with decent actors. Worth an occasional watch.

"Underground Aces" was released to movie theaters...I saw it as a youngster. Remember, this was back in the day, as cfc_can mentioned, of movies like "Car Wash"...which were a dime a dozen. Comedy ruled the day. I agree, though, that this film can be a guilty pleasure, just like "The Gumball Rally." (Another obscure 1976 film.) I went to see "Underground Aces" because I loved "Battlestar Galactica." Worth noting is "Underground Aces" director Robert Butler, who cut his teeth on many a Disney film and television show. Another star of note (and a staple of television) in an early film role (after her appearance in "1941") is Audrey Landers.

This was a minor comedy that I'm pretty sure never made it to theatres. It is basically a Car Wash style comedy only with parking valets instead. It may have sat on the shelf for awhile as the opening theme song is very mid-70s ish. Most of the plot deals with the zany PG and PG-13 slapstick shenanigans of the guys and an obligatory romantic subplot involving a shiek masquerading as one of the valets in an attempt to win over a girl. There's plenty of knockabout humor and stunts. What really makes this film a curio is the cast: Dirk Benedict (The A-Team) Melanie Griffith (who would be a major movie star in a few years) Robert Hegyes (Welcome Back Kotter) Frank Gorshin (the Riddler) Michael Winslow (Police Academy,yes he does get to do his sound effects in this movie as well) and TK Carter (Punky Brewster) It's fascinating to see all of these actors together in one movie, mind you, Gorshin has an awful role. Another odd thing is that the actor playing the shiek, who is far less known than the other cast members, seems to get more screen time than them. The film as a whole isn't much and is fairly predictable. Oddly, the film doesn't turn up very often on TV and few seem to remember it, or even know of it's existence. Though no comedy classic, Underground Aces deserves a better fate.