Real Men

This was one of those movies that was silly enough to expect anything, but just normal enough to be unsure of what to expect.

Bob Wilson (John Ritter) is a perfectly normal guy. He has the fortune (or misfortune) of looking exactly like agent Pillbox who was killed. Agent Pillbox was in charge of making a critical exchange with some aliens (yes, I said some aliens). Being that the aliens would only accept Pillbox for their exchange the CIA hustled Bob into being the guy. Agent Nick Pirandello (James Belushi) was the special agent in charge of acquiring and protecting Bob as they made a cross country journey to Washington D.C. to make the all important trade.

The movie is funny at times, dull at other times, and you can't ignore the fact that the plot is on the bizarre side. Could I be spending my time doing something better? Yes. Was this movie entertaining enough to fill 90 minutes of empty time? Yes.

a movie like real men is for some people quite difficult to like. i suppose in that respect it falls in the same category as 'hudson hawk', another movie that is as much vilified by its opponents as it is praised by its fans. for me, real men was an utterly hilarious experience.

when i saw the movie, i never heard of it, and was therefore without any expectations about plot, people playing in it or general need for suspension of disbelief. this is perhaps the best way to view any movie, yet also harder and harder to achieve in this day and age of mass communication. i guess that it came upon me pretty quickly that nobody in this movie took themselves seriously, and even better, played their parts over the top and had so many completely unbelievable situations happening to them that i couldn't help but be entertained. in fact, i have this movie in my private video collection, and even show it from time to time to small groups of friends who invariably can't help but laugh their lungs empty. yes, this movie might not have eminently quotable lines, a brilliant script or a beeline to the oscars for best comedy, or even the most inspiring actors, but i've seen a lot of movies that label themselves comedies yet fail miserably where this movie succeeds brilliantly; it ends with me having a huge smile on my face. not only that, but any movie which has a clown squad of elite killers should be applauded for it's complete disregard of normal and sane everyday logic. if you can enjoy a good laugh and don't have too high standards of what should and should not happen in movies, this is definitely one to brighten up your afternoon.

I really like this film. It has a simple charm to it that wins you over. I remember the night I watched it - pouring rain like crazy, feeling bummed, and then this came on tv. It picked me right up, out of my low spirits, and what would have been a boring evening at home turned into some real laughs. I haven't forgotten that, and I won't forget "real men". It's really a sweet, funny film.

This has become well known from cable television. It didn't do anything in the theaters, but it is very funny. I don't know why this was not a hit. A wonderful spoof. I'm not a John Ritter fan, but he and Jim Belushi are really good together. Next time it pops up on cable check it out.

This forgotten about film is a little guilty pleasure of mine. I have seen this movie many times in my life and have always enjoyed it. Seeing the rating on this website, perhaps I shouldn't apologize, because it seems others have enjoyed it as well.

It's a strange and kind of ridiculous movie that if you are able to throw logic out the window for laughs and a little bit of action you might enjoy. Jim Belushi plays super-CIA agent Nick Pirandello. He's like half James Bond and half MacGyver. He has been sent out to number one find the map to where the aliens are going to meet the humans to save the humanrace and number two find the right man for the job. That man is Bob Wilson played by John Ritter. He looks like the man who was originally set up to do the job. All the while making sure the map doesn't fall into the wrong hands. I know, I know it sounds quite silly and yes it is. But both Belushi and Ritter are very good in their roles and work quite well together. Another good thing is the film doesn't let up or give you two minutes to breathe which works best for a film like this one.

In a small role is James Le Gros who plays a local toughie Buddy McGruder who has stolen Bob's son's bike. A very interesting note to me as well is there are a couple scenes where Ritter is being faced with clowns that he may have to fight. 3 years later he starred in Stephen King's IT about a crazed clown named Pennywise.