Gotcha!

It's got action, it's got sex, it's got humor, and most of all, it's got a college kid who seems to be able to outsmart highly trained German spies. Everyone loves it when a complete loser, virgin college guy gets duped by his spy girlfriend to be the patsy for a large coup involving other spies, CIA, and the FBI. And what better way to show Anthony Edwards beat all of these people than with a mere animal tranquilizer gun. See it, if just for the "Yes, I am a weergin" line.

Gotcha is a perfect example of the old expression "you can't judge a book by it's cover". In this case, you can't judge a film by the art on the video box. If you can manage to ignore the misleading 80's teen sex romp box art long enough to give Gotcha a chance, what you'll find is a fast paced, surprisingly suspense filled, action-comedy starring everybody's favorite ER doc Anthony Edwards (who knew he ever had this much hair?) as a college loser hoping to find himself as he embarks for a few weeks in Europe. What he finds is espionage, assassins and a beautiful stranger with a secret.

What can I say, but this is one of those "eighties movies" featuring Anthony Edwards before he was "Goose" and Linda Fiorentino before she was that chick in M.I.B.

Plot Summary: A paintball enthusiast utilizes his finely tuned skill at hiding behind things when he gets involved with a CIA courier working behind the Iron Curtain. East Germany meets West L.A. with some really funny stereo-types that weren't all that tired when this movie came out in '85.

This film is primarily aimed at entertaining young men with a 007 lust. Still, there are so many one-liners and funny bits that my sister and I still make references to this movie when joking around, e.g. "I thought he was KGB from Russia." ~ "He's a CPA from Encino! Are you outta your mind?"

The utilization of various on-location landmarks make it fun and almost like a travelogue movie. There's a German fortress, the Louvre (pre-pyramid entrance), the eiffel tower, the UCLA campus, Olvera Street in Downtown L.A., and the Bonnaventure Hotel.

I also love this movie for introducing me to Pernod, and the scene in which it is introduced is so funny I can still remember it line for line!! I love this movie!!

Sharp action-comedy with Edwards starring as an American college student in East Germany who undergoes a strange sequence of events which lead to his involvement with the C.I.A. Fine mix of humor and suspense, plus sexy Fiorentino as Edwards' love interest is worth the watch.

Anthony Edwards played an 18 year old college student from Los Angeles, California where he goes to Paris, France on vacation. He meets Sasha, a Czech woman played well by Linda Fiorentino. The film begins with a silly game called Gotcha! I thought the film would be more funny than expected. It has some serious moments. Linda Fiorentino and Anthony Edwards' characters have chemistry onscreen. The adventure abroad in Europe during the last days of the cold war in the eighties were interesting. Alex Rocca and Marla Adams were cast as Jonathan's parents. The film is enjoyable and entertaining. I didn't think it was such as serious film with the title so I was pleasantly surprised. Both stars were getting their career started with films like these. The plot and mystery isn't as predictable to the audience.