Cash-cash

In the grand scheme of things, "Finders Keepers" is one of those silly comedies that they cranked out in the '80s. This one has a scam artist (Michael O'Keefe, of "Caddyshack" fame) accidentally getting mixed up in a wacky larceny case on a train after he has to escape the cops and a roller skate team in 1973. You see, he thinks that a coffin on board the train holds a man killed in Cambodia, but it actually holds an exorbitant amount of money stolen by a woman believed to have been kidnapped. If that sounds overwhelming, just wait 'til you see what happens on the train! The point is, this movie makes no pretense about being completely goofy. Probably the main reason that anyone would notice it nowadays is the presence of a pre-fame Jim Carrey as...well, I might spoil a major part of the movie if I explain it. But one can see a slight hint of the roles that would later make him famous.

Speaking of the present day, there's a link in "FK": Watergate. Throughout much of the movie, we hear about Pres. Nixon (Nickerson?), the Watergate investigations, and how Spiro Agnew may not last in his position. Agnew was of course replaced by the recently deceased Gerald Ford. Personally, I believe that Ford doesn't deserve the praise that he's been getting (what really did he do besides fall down?).

But anyway, this is a pretty funny movie. You're sure to like it. Also starring Beverly D'Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr., Pamela Stephenson, Ed Lauter and Brian Dennehy.

Back when Richard Lester was directing The Beatles' movies, who ever would have guessed that he would direct this flick?

Richard Lester is an American-born director who was a quiet architect of a certain type of English screen comedy, working on early TV experiments with members of radio's "Goon Show" (Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan), then the first couple of Beatles movies, then some movie stuff which parallelled the surreal comedy of the TV Monty Python, inc "The Bed-Sitting Room" (from a play co-written by Milligan) and "How I Won The War". This is a nice little film which has some of the gagsmanship of his old stuff, and kind of a "What's Up Doc" type plotline, with money from a heist, plenty of screwball characters, and general old-fashioned movie farce confusion. Doesn't probably get the momentum it wants to, but it's low-key affable loopyness is pretty watchable. As the Maltin review suggests, in a pretty decent little comedy cast, the David Wayne turn as the antique, shambolic train conductor is the real highlight, with laughs pretty much every time he turns up. In Lester's career, it's not a "Hard Day's Night", "Three Musketeers", "Cuba", or even "Juggernaut", but it's different and enjoyable enough on its own terms for comedy movie addicts to take a look.

Richard Lester is one of the great comedy directors, but amidst the brilliance there was always this sloppy, cheap-feeling shlockiness peeking out from underneath, balanced out because it was still often funny.

Finders Keepers magnifies Lester's worst tendencies without the counterbalancing humor. Not only isn't the movie funny, but often I couldn't figure out why the movie expected us to find it funny. The movie seems to think Beverly D'Angelo calling everyone she meets by a slur for gay people funny, but even if you don't apply modern social norms to an ancient movie, it's just not funny.

I watched the first half hour, and then, since some people claim it gets better towards the end, I watched the last 20 minutes. It's basically a bad 80s comedy with forced silliness (an angry mob of roller derby women) and unconvincing sex (woman pulls a gun on the protagonist then takes a bath with him).

Richard Lester made a lot of terrific movies. This wasn't one of them.

This is the kind of 80s comedy in the same vein as many 80s farcical comedies. OKeefe plays his part like he did in Caddyshack, Beverly D'Angelos plays a very spunky, mouthy blonde, opposite of the mother character in all the Vacation movies, but she still cute and adorable. Louis Gossett Jr shows up halfway through the movie and is there to the end.

The story, set around 1972, isnt bad, it moves along and is never boring. There are some funny scenes and some funny dialogue. However the utterly farcical and slapstick type ending kinda ruins the movie, somehow we are supposed to believe Louis Gosset Jrs character doesnt know where the brake peddle is, but hey, its a comedy its needs a light hearted end to this "crime" story.

Ive been a mission to watch as many "bad" movies as I can, and found a site dedicated to forgotten movies, good or bad. This was one of them, but I didnt think it was bad at all. However, looking through all the reviews, people are fiercely divided, they seem to love it or hate it, and in the end, maybe their were more haters in the critics circle and by whomever distributed it. CBS owned (owns) it, so Im surprised I never caught this on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when TVs were still built with tubes.

As I sat down to watch the 1984 comedy "Finders Keepers" here in 2022, I did so without ever having heard about the movie prior to sitting down for watching it. I had no idea what I was in for here, but I figured that a mid-1980s comedy with this cast ensemble should prove interesting.

However, I was off target, because I didn't enjoy the storyline told in "Finders Keepers". The narrative was pretty slow paced and I didn't really care about the story, nor overly much about the characters either. So I found "Finders Keepers" from writers Ronny Graham, Terence Marsh and Charles Dennis to be somewhat of a swing and a miss. Sure, there are worse mid-1980s comedies out there, but "Finders Keepers" wasn't something special.

I was initially impressed with the cast ensemble, which had the likes of Michael O'Keefe, Beverly D'Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr., Ed Lauter and Brian Dennehy on the cast list. So there was a good handful of familiar faces on the screen.

I didn't find the storyline amusing here, so this movie didn't make me laugh. And while I did manage to endure the movie to the end, this is not a movie that i will ever be returning to watch a second time.

My rating of "Finders Keepers" lands on a four out of ten stars.