L'Homme à la Chaussure Rouge

In this remake of the French comedy "The Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe", Tom Hanks plays a violinist who randomly gets selected as a spy, leading the government to turn his life upside down. There are certainly some really funny scenes here - namely anything involving plumbing - but it's really undesirable when Hollywood remakes a foreign movie. "The Man with One Red Shoe" is pretty characteristic of Tom Hanks's career before he got into serious roles: innocuously silly.

So, I recommend the original, but this one isn't bad. Just don't expect any kind of religious experience. Also starring Lori Singer, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Edward Herrmann, Carrie Fisher, James Belushi and David Ogden Stiers.

OK, it's not the most brilliant piece of art in the world, but neither is it the turkey that the video guides make it out to be. It's a cute spy-cliché spoof with good performances from Hanks, Durning, Coleman, Belushi, Herrman and particularly Tom Noonan as the deadpan Agent Reese. Super music by Thomas Newman (one of his first scores), an elegant string of sight gags featuring Belushi and a couple of corpses, and a sweet ending scene more than make up for the underlying silliness of the plot and a handful of flatly delivered lines. Good to watch on a Sunday afternoon when you need to occupy your mind, but not TOO much.

Remake of the 1972 French comedy "The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe" hasn't the flair needed for sophisticated spy comedy, and so instead fizzles a bit despite a colorful cast. Tom Hanks is green and occasionally shrill as a concert violinist who is mistaken for a spy by the CIA and is completely unaware that he is being followed, photographed and shot at; Lori Singer struggles with a real puzzler of a role as a beautiful agent(always back-lit)who has to seduce Hanks--but she seems so fed up with his bumbling that their romance comes as something of a shock. Jim Belushi has some fun as Hanks' musician buddy whose wife is cheating on him, but Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning and Carrie Fisher are all wasted.

There is a rivalry between Burton Cooper (Dabney Coleman) and his boss CIA director Ross (Charles Durning). Maddy (Lori Singer) is one of Cooper's agents. Cooper is able to doublecross Ross by getting a CIA agent arrested for cocaine smuggling in Morocco. The Senate calls on Ross to testify and he has 48 hours. Ross intends to misdirect Cooper by sending him on a wild goose chase. Ross' second Brown (Edward Herrmann) picks random guy at the airport, Richard Drew (Tom Hanks), the man with one red shoe. Richard is a violinist having an affair with his best friend Morris (Jim Belushi)'s wife Paula (Carrie Fisher). Cooper swallows the bait whole as his team struggles to discover what evidence Richard has against him.

Tom Hanks is playing an everyman. If this movie works at all, it is due to his charms. At times, it tries to be a screwball comedy but it never gets to be outright funny. It's nice ... like Hanks. He's never unleashed and neither is the movie.

Keep your expectations in check and you won't be disappointed. This film was hilarious! While not the best vehicle for Tom Hanks to show his talents, the movie's pacing, score, visual style, sound effects, and black humor were extremely effective. James Belushi was at his comic best as Hanks' best friend whose facial expressions constantly suggest he doesn't have a clue as to what's going on, but he's still probably the sanest person in the film. Well worth a look, despite what the other over-critical reviewers had to say.