Protocol

Goldie Hawn vehicle that starts out well falters half way through and ends in too simplistic a fashion. The problem is also is that the story is written and based on "Private Benjamin" formula. It worked there, not here.

PROTOCOL(1984) Goldie Hawn, Chris Sarandon, and Richard Romanus.

In this film, Hawn plays Sunny Davis, a ditzy cocktail waitress who becomes famous around america after she saves a man from an assassination attempt. She gets offered a job working at Washington D.C.

This was an above average comedy, but not as good as some of Goldies' other films.(such as Overboard, Housesitter, and Seems like Old Times)But i did laugh a lot. So if you enjoy a cute comedy, I would recommend this movie.

PROTOCOL: 6.4/10

PG; some sexual humor, brief language, and mild violence.

Sunny, a cocktail waitress in the D.C. area, is a bit dim, to put in mildly. She drives an old clunker and rents a tiny room from a gay male couple. However, she saves the life of a prominent Arab, by taking a bullet in the behind that was meant for the official. She charms the national press with her zany remarks and her sweet looks. Sniffing an opportunity, Presidential aides get her installed in the protocol department for the U.S. government. Even then, she messes things up at times, but she tries hard and learns a lot. She even grabs the romantic attention of a State department official. But, is there another sinister plot in the making, involving an Arab man who wishes to take another wife? A blonde one? LOL, LOL, LOL. This movie features Goldie as pretty as a picture and as dumb "as a fox", as they say. Sunny learns her way around the jungle of the U.S. government very, very well. She even has important things to say about honesty and the lack of it in her protocol surroundings. Perhaps, the Arab community would be less than thrilled with this work, but for those who like to laugh, rent this today.

The very first scene of "Protocol" is all wrong: Goldie Hawn (again playing a sweet ditz) holds up traffic on a busy Washington, D.C. street when her car breaks down. Not only has her engine blown but she can't get out of the car because the door is also broken. Who wrote this? Buck Henry?!! Hard to believe, but it gets worse. Hawn saves a Middle Eastern leader from being assassinated and becomes the toast of the town--but only until jealous and nefarious White House insiders attempt to make her look foolish. Goldie Hawn only looks foolish when she's required to act too dippy for her age, but I cannot think of any "young" actress who could've gotten away with this role either. Early on there's a bouncy press-conference sequence with many funny lines, but too often the script is loaded down with groaners. An uncontrolled party scene near the finish brings everything to a screeching halt, with characters we don't like acting even more moronic than usual. It nearly makes "Private Benjamin" look like Shakespeare. ** from ****

Unlike many 1980s Hollywood comedies, "Protocol" has all but been forgotten today. It doesn't take very long upon watching it to figure out why. The main problem is simple: the script. It's hard to believe at first that Buck Henry, who earlier wrote humorous movies such as "The Graduate" and "What's Up Doc?", wrote this movie. But it doesn't seem to have been his fault, since he was working with a story outline written by THREE writers. Those three writers came up with a story that has been done many times before and since, concerning a ditz who is pushed into a position of power but proves in the end to be smarter than everyone thought. Oh, it could have been made to be funny, but it isn't, partly due to the predicable nature of the movie, but that it's been directed with a woeful lack of energy and snap. There's also a curious fragmented narrative at times, as if some key linking scenes were never filmed or cut out in the editing room. The only good thing about the movie is Goldie Hawn, who gives her character a good amount of spunk and sympathy, but it isn't enough to save things.