Taking Care of Business

This movie was one of the funniest James Belushi films. He is ideal as a convict who wins tickets to the Cubs' World Series game, has to break out of jail to attend, get his fellow inmates to cover for him, and break back in before the warden knows what has happened. In between, he finds uptight executive Charles Grodin's little black book and assumes Grodin's life, turning it upside down and being a better "him" while he poses as Grodin.

Belushi and Grodin are magnificent in the leads, and the film is overall very funny. See it if you get the chance; you will not regret it! I happened to love it myself.

*** out of ****

An extremely well-paced and funny mistaken identity movie that got no credit. Belushi pulls off perfectly the exhuberant, boy-like fugitive who breaks out of prison for a couple days so he can see the World Series (wouldn't you)? The tickets he won on a radio show are to be picked up at LAX, where a bigger pick up awaits. While dodging a set of cops he spots Grodin's day planner atop a phone booth with the note of a reward to anyone who returns it. So he heads to Malibu looking for Grodin who has found himself in the slums of LA trying to get people to believe who he is. He's come to town to close a big advertising deal but loses his beloved orgonizer ("My life was in there!"). In the process he's mistreated by gang members, can't get anyone to believe him, has to resort to help from DeSolvo's mind-numbing nitwit, and ends up walking Pacific Coast Highway in the rain. Meanwhile Belushi takes it upon himself to enter Grodin's boss's Malibu mansion and even assume his job which includes a tennis date and dinner with a witchy female executive. Belushi even scores with the boss's daughter, leading to one of the film's funniest lines: "I slept with Walter's daughter?! How was I??" "You were great!" "I knew I could be great in bed!" It all culminates in an extended finale that goes from the World Series to prison. A lot of people point out the film's inplausibility, but as I always say, don't all films have a level of that? Just ignore it and enjoy the laughs. Though the film does feature the nicest set of prison inmates in history, maybe a little too far-fetched. And when Belushi gives a stolen car to his date, he's obviously unaware that cops are probably on the lookout for it (and he's supposed to be a car thief). He and Grodin also get along too well, but again, movie magic. All told this is a lot of fun and oddly enough was very reminiscent of Belushi's other work from 1990, "Mr. Destiny" (guy's life is altered with riches and adventure).

And a little sidenote about all the dumb brother comparisons by critics: Belushi is his own performer, judge his ability on that alone and stop comparing him to his sibling, please. At the point of this movie John had been dead nearly ten years and James had made his mark in great offerings like "About Last Night", "Red Heat" and "K-9". Be it comedy or drama, he can hold his own and needn't be put up against his brother's incomplete career.

"Taking Care of Business" is a sort of "Trading Places" knock-off with Belushi playing an irrepressible and always upbeat con who escapes from prison to attend the World Series and stumbles into the identity of a lost workaholic exec (Grodin) after finding his Filofax personal organizer. A rather ordinary but lively B-movie romp, "TCoB" makes a fun watch for guys in need of a little decompression after a hard day's work. (C+)

Jim Belushi is fun in one of his most engaging roles: Jimmy Dworski, a car thief and die-hard Chicago Cubs fan who escapes from prison in order to attend a pivotal World Series game. Along the way, he happens upon the forgotten Filofax organizer belonging to uptight, ambitious Malibu executive Spencer Barnes (Charles Grodin). The whole weekend ahead of him, Jimmy first figures to return the organizer (a combination wallet and daily planner) to Spencer and collect the reward advertised inside. Instead, he ends up pretending to *be* Spencer for the weekend, leading to the expected wacky mishaps as unwary people expecting a different sort of behaviour from this Spencer character get something else entirely.

Although quite predictable, formulaic, and overlong (the script is by Jill Mazursky (daughter of Paul M.) and J.J. Abrams (his earliest screenwriting credit)), "Taking Care of Business" is indeed a cute comedy that travels far on Belushis' easygoing charm and the perfectly cast Grodin. Spencer will have a long road towards meeting this temporary nemesis, enduring some hardships, while Jimmy will enjoy this brief opportunity to live in the lap of utter luxury. (That Malibu mansion is a wonder to behold.) Entertaining side characters also help a lot: Anne De Salvo as a persistent, annoying, but endearing old school chum of Spencers', Mako as a tough Japanese businessman, Stephen Elliott as Spencers' ailing boss, Hector Elizondo as the weaselly prison warden, Veronica Hamel as Spencers' fed-up wife, the enticing Loryn Locklin as the boss' daughter, Ken Foree as a convict, and 'Star Trek' universe actors Gates McFadden and John de Lancie, as employees in Makos' company.

The picture is silly, and reasonably amusing, and may not exactly be very believable, but it serves as a good diversion for people who aren't demanding something of substance. One does feel good for the unlikely lead duo when all is said and done.

Naturally, the title invites the expected use of the classic Bachman-Turner-Overdrive hit tune.

Seven out of 10.

I fell in love with this movie the first time I saw it, although the script is not brilliant the cast made a great effort and made it very convincing, James Belushi plays nice guy convict Jimmy Dworfski as he plans to escape prison for the weekend to see the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, getting his fellow in-mates to cover it up. While out he finds business executive Spencer Barnes (Charles Grodin) filofax and takes over his life. Belushi & Grodin are great together in this feel good comedy, as a lover of Baseball I was drawn to this even more, but if you're not you'll still find it just as enjoyable. This is the best James Belushi film I've seen!