Opportunity Knocks (1990) - Video Rental Chicken Fat

"Your major life decisions aren't made in the board room. They're made in the bathroom."

Director 
Donald Petrie

Cast
Dana Carvey - Eddie Farrell
Todd Graff - Lou Pesquino
Julie Campbell - Dr. Annie Malkin
Robert Loggia - Milt Malkin
Doris Belack - Mona Malkin
James Tolkan - Sal Nichols


A week ago, one of my favorite YouTube channels, "Hack the Movies" posted a video critiquing the 2002 Dana Carvey film The Master of Disguise, called The Master of Disguise is Miserable.
During the review, the host Tony is asked by his co-host, Joe from the YouTube channel "Movie Dumpster" if he recalled any other previous movies with Dana Carvey in the starring role aside from Wayne's World (1992) and Wayne's World 2 (1993). 
"Nothing!" is Tony's answer. 
And that's where Carvey's 1990 movie Opportunity Knocks comes in. Does anyone remember this movie?
I had Opportunity Knocks in my line-up of reviews before Hack the Movies's video as I have a little history with this film. 
In my post about Cloak & Dagger, I explain the use of the term "video rental chicken fat." Opportunity Knocks was the movie I wanted to start this whole "chicken fat" thread of reviews off with. But I started off with Cloak & Dagger because I hadn't seen that since I was a little critic.
Back in my sixth or seventh grade year of elementary school I found Opportunity Knocks sitting on the shelf of my local rental store. 
Wayne's World was a movie I and all my elementary school pals loved. We quoted it a lot. We were familiar with it. Everyone was telling everyone else to "party on" or ending every quip with the exclamation, "Not!" 

So, I was familiar with Dana Carvey, aside from seeing him in his reoccurring roles on Saturday Night Live - The Church Lady, Pumping Up with Hanz and Franz, and his George H.W. Bush impression.
This was also the time when my 13+ year old self was shifting attention away from the G and PG rated movies, and looking to PG-13, and the R rated films when I could get away with it. 
I recognized Dana Carvey from Wayne's World so this movie caught my eye. And it's rated PG-13. 
I rented it several times, and bragged to my friends how much I loved it. I didn't love it because it's good. It's not good. I loved it because it had Carvey, and it wasn't rated G nor PG. 
I clung to Opportunity Knocks as my proof of maturity in movie taste. I used it to prove I wasn't a kid. I used it to prove my interest in movies was turning adult (in a nice way, I mean), sophisticated, and cool. The movie completely centers on adults doing adulty things like stealing, lying, spending money, getting involved in romances based completely on lies. This was all certainly key to maturing in my taste in films! My poor 13-year old self...how naïve you were.
In this movie, Carvey plays a con artist named Eddie Farrell who, along with his partner Lou Pesquino (Todd Graff), pull off quick con jobs. They attempt a con in which they visit a random home pretending to be repairmen checking on a neighborhood gas leak. 
As this con job ends up failing, they decide to burglarize another house. They can tell no ones home because of all the newspapers in the driveway, and all the lights are turned off. 
It's clear the house they break into is owned by someone very wealthy based on the amount of high priced items inside. 
During the robbery, the phone rings and the caller leaves a message on the answering machine. As they listen, they learn the homeowner is overseas and won't return for a month. The caller also indicates he won't be able to house sit afterall. 
Eddie and Lou take advantage of this opportunity to take over the house, and crash there for the night.
The two are also on the run from local gangster Sal Nichols (James Tolkan - Back to the Future) whom they owe a lot of money to. Hence, the con jobs. 
The next day, they get separated after stealing a car belonging to one of Nichols's henchmen, or so they think. 

Robert Loggia and Dana Carvey in Opportunity Knocks

While cruising around in the stolen car, Nichols calls on the car phone. Farrell answers the phone to joke around with the owner, only to realize it's his car. So, they ditch the vehicle on the side of the road where it's stripped by vandals. 
Farrell hides in the empty house and tries to locate Lou to tell him he's at the "stereo house." 
The next morning, Farrell walks out of the shower to find a lady named Mona in the living room. They both scream in alarm. Farrell, because he just got caught. And Mona, because Farrell is wearing nothing but a towel. 
Shocked, he tries to talk his way out of being in a house that's not his. But Mona, who's Eddie the homeowner's mother, thinks he's her son's house sitter and best friend, Jonathan Albertson. Apparently, she's never met nor seen Jonathan before. 
Not missing a beat, he goes along with it and pretends to be Jonathan. 
Mona's husband, Milt (Robert Loggia) runs in from outside as he heard their screams. 
Milt is a wealthy business man who operates a successful bathroom fixture company. 
They take a quick liking to Farrell especially after hearing so much about him from their son. They invite him to lunch at their country club, and introduce them to their daughter, Annie (Julia Campbell) who works as a doctor.
She's gorgeous. And Farrell, playing the role of Jonathan, is interested in her but needs to work a bit to win her affection.

Later, Milt even offers him a job on his company board, which he reluctantly takes.
While working for Milt, and being impressively successful at what he does despite not having a clue as to what he's supposed to do, Milt shows him his most priced possession - an autographed baseball which he keeps in an office safe behind a hefty stack of cash. 
Farrell's Uncle Max (Milo O' Shea) and Aunt Connie (Sally Gracie) encourage him not to let his feelings for Annie get in the way of what he does best - con jobs. 
They tell him to use Annie as a way to Milt's money so they can pay off Sal. Farrell is torn. His conscience, perhaps for the first time in years, starts to bother him as he agrees to use her, get Milt's money, and leave them behind.
Opportunity Knocks fails at being the romantic comedy it's supposed to be. 

Watching Carvey's character try to win over the love of an intelligent medical professional is like watching a 12-year old trying to win the affection of an intelligent medical professional. I've seen Hallmark do a better job at telling a romantic comedy several of their Christmas movies that use the same formula over and over again. 
The story is peppered with forced opportunities for Carvey to do his comedic impersonations such as his Indian accent, and Asian accent which I'm sure many will find offensive. The movie also throws in his famous impersonation of George H.W. Bush made popular on Saturday Night Live. Again, it's forced. 

Evidently, making juvenile jokes and singing 'Born to be Wild' in front of a group of drunk club-goers is all it took for fake Jonathan to win Annie over. Nothing deep or sincere is needed. It makes the intelligent doctor, Annie, seem void of any true depth of character. In other words, it took poor writing to get them together. 
At this time, I also started getting into cop movies like K-9 with Jim Belushi, Turner & Hooch, The Hard Way with Michael J. Fox and James Woods. That one is rated R! Yeah... I wasn't messin' around. I also started watching NYPD Blue on T.V. in the mid 90s. It definitely was a phase. 
At some point, I moved on. But Opportunity Knocks is a movie that's been stuck in my mind all this time. 
The ending (spoiler) is a complete joke, but not the kind the producers intended.
This is a movie I don't care if I spoil or not. The entire relationship between Farrell and Annie is based entirely on a lie conjured up by Farrell. 
In the end, when he admits to everyone who he really is and what he does for a living, they're naturally crestfallen and heartbroken. They can't believe how far he duped them, especially after they took to him naturally and made him a part of the most important aspects of their lives. 
With true feelings for Annie, Farrell goes to see her at the hospital where she works. She asks him politely, but angrily, to leave. He tells her if she says she doesn't love him, he'll leave. So, she tells him precisely that.

He leaves as he said he would - the only time in the movie where he's actually honest. 

But she has second thoughts running through her mind. 
Annie runs out of the hospital to look for him. 

Farrell is crossing the street when she yells "how dare you!" 
He starts going into an explanation when he gets hit by a car in the middle of the street. 
Panicked, Annie runs to him and starts asking if he's o.k. She then says she loves him when he doesn't respond.
Farrell replies, "that's all I wanted to hear." Then they kiss. 

The camera pans up to reveal Lou and Uncle Max behind the wheel of the car that hit him - a con tactic we see at the beginning of the movie.
I explain the ending because I mentioned bad writing earlier. This is bad writing. I can't emphasize that enough.
All Annie knows about Farrell is that his real name is Eddie, not Jonathan, and that he cons people for a living. Even while they went on dates and she willingly endured his little juvenile jokes to impress her, she knows nothing about him. All he did to her was lie. But she still loves him? Does she think they'll have a meaningful relationship from this point forward? How does she know he's not lying to her when he says he loves her? He just admitted to using her to get to her dad's money. Farrell lied all the way to his getting hit by a car. Even that was a lie. It has all the appearances of a happy ending, but is it really? 

The story in itself isn't a bad idea. It's just not thought through very well.
Opportunity Knocks is so saturated in immature romantic sap story telling, it can't even come to a logical conclusion.

Carvey even resorted to using his Saturday Night Live character, "the Church Lady" in the trailer to entice audiences to watch Opportunity Knocks. She has nothing to do with this movie whatsoever.

Carvey's humor in general is really hit or miss with me. He's funny and entertaining in the Wayne's World movies. He's funny in his Saturday Night Live skits which is the perfect platform for his impersonations and style of humor. The only part of his 2016 Netflix Comedy Special Straight White Male I found funny was the last routine - John Lennon talking to Paul McCartney from heaven about Paul's duet with Kanye West. This leads to Paul telling John about Facebook and smartphones. That got laughs from me. Carvey's impersonations are spot on.

His comedy in Opportunity Knocks is funny once or twice. Most of it is forced because of what audiences at the time were accustomed to seeing when it came to Carvey's wit. Impersonations. 

As for the rest of the movie, it's just a throwaway romantic story with little to no effort behind it. 

Director Donald Petrie has some notable titles under his belt such as Grumpy Old Men (1993) and Mystic Pizza (1988). I even enjoy his 2000 movie Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock. I guess they can't all be winners. 

Opportunity Knocks isn't worth remembering, so I don't blame "Hack the Movies" not recalling it in their video. I didn't realize this back when I was a young teenager looking to PG-13 movies prove somehow prove I was maturing. Better late than never, I guess. 

Cloak & Dagger (1984) - Video Rental Chicken Fat

"Jack Flack always escapes."

Director 

Richard Franklin

Cast

Henry Thomas - Davey Osborne

Dabney Coleman - Hal Osborne/ Jack Flack

Christina Nigra - Kim Gardener

Michael Murphy - Dr. Rice

William Forsythe - Morris

Video Rental Chicken Fat?

Recently, some sad news broke that marks the final leg of an era. One of the last (if not the last) chains of video rental stores closed its doors - another victim of the havoc-wreaking Covid19 epidemic. 

All of the Family Video locations are closing after 42-years of business. 

In a January 5 letter posted on the business's website, the company said that thanks to Covid19, both foot traffic and movie releases grew slim. 

There happens to be a Family Video across the street from my place of employment. They're selling all...and I mean "all"...their inventory at largely discounted prices.

So, I meandered through their aisles of former rentals for the last time in my life looking for hard-to-find movie titles to claim as my own.

Among the lot was the 1984 movie Cloak & Dagger. Finding this particular movie, and carrying it to the check out took me back to those elementary school days when, on some Fridays after school, I'd fling myself into the family Toyota van while still in my parochial school uniform to go rent a movie for the weekend at the local video store. Family movies was what I was limited to. Occasionally I'd sneak over to the horror section to look at the tape covers. Some of those have stayed with me to this day. That's another post for another time.   

California Video was my local rental place at the Lincoln Square Shopping Center along Mountain Boulevard in Oakland, California. Even now, I have a nostalgic love for video rental stores. And with the closing of Family Video, I get a sense this is truly the end of movie rental locations. Things change. Better things come along. Still, someday I'll make it to Deschutes County, Oregon to visit the "last" Blockbuster Video.

Before that ever happens, I'm going to check out some movies I recall once warming the shelves of California Video. Some I've seen before. Others, I only remember the pictures on the tape covers. I'll set these particular posts "Video Rental Chicken Fat." 

These titles somehow lasted this long on rental shelves. I know because I picked up a few of them at Family Video last month.

Ok, so...why "chicken fat?" 

One of my favorite sources of news and information was and still is Mad Magazine. Anyone who has ever read Mad should remember those small background gags or side-cartoons drawn on the blank margins outside the actual comics thanks to the artistry and wit of cartoonists Sergio Aragones or Will Elder. These are referred to as "chicken fat." They're just as present as the main course on each page, but off to the side. They're more like the desert to Mad's main content. You could cut it out of the main strips and gags, and they become their own things. 

Today, the more common term is "Easter Egg." These movies are kind of like that. They're the movies that were in the background warming the shelves of California Video. I don't recall ever having to be on a waiting list to rent them. Some of these are favorites from my past. They're titles I haven't forgotten despite not having watched them in years.

My labeling these movies "chicken fat" certainly isn't a reflection of the film being good or bad, or unnecessary. I need to make that clear.

 

~The Review~

With 1980s pop culture still flooding toy aisles, current social trends, YouTube commentary videos, and our general nostalgic reverie, some movies of that decade still don't seem to get as much attention as other movies. I mean, there's so many after all. 

Cloak & Dagger is one of those movies. Sure, some remember it. But it doesn't seem like it's as fondly celebrated through merchandising and what not like other films of the 1980s. 

Henry Thomas as Davey in Cloak & Dagger

This is a little odd to me. The movie is as 1980s as it gets. It stars Henry Thomas who played Elliott in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial two years before. 

It's also tied in with an Atari 5200 game also called Cloak & Dagger. 

At the time of the movie's release, the game was still underdevelopment with the working title called Agent X.  

When the movie producers heard about the game, both they and Atari collaborated with each other's project. Videogame-based movies were pretty novel at the time, especially as other movies such as Tron (1982) and The Last Starfighter (1984) were hitting theaters. In fact, Cloak & Dagger was released along with The Last Starfighter as a double feature.

In this movie, Henry Thomas plays 11-year old Davey Osborne who's often within his own imagination along with the fictional spy Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman), and making up adventures. He pretends Jack Flack is accompanying him where ever he goes. Davey even carries around a realistic looking water gun because a good spy always has protection.

Davey's real friend, Kim Gardener (Christina Nigra) tags along with him on daily routines, reluctantly playing along as "Lady Ace" in Davey's Jack Flack imaginings. 

He and Kim stop by a gaming store in the mall as they do regularly, operated by their friend Morris (William Forsythe). He's a video game expert and software engineer. Morris, jealous of how well Davey plays the Atari, sends the kids on a "mission" to buy some Twinkies at the vending machine inside the offices of a game developing company nearby.

While inside the building, Davey and Kim separate. Rather than take the elevator, because Jack Flack would know better than to place himself in such a vulnerable position, Davey takes the stairs where he overhears two spies talk about smuggling secret U.S. information out of the country. He then witnesses a murder. 

The victim dressed in a white lab coat stumbles down the staircase and gives Davey a Cloak & Dagger video game cartridge telling him to keep it safe. The spies burst through the door at the top of the landing, and finish off their victim.

They see Davey, and begin shooting at him. Luckily he escapes.

Davey tells the building's security about what he witnessed, and leads them to where the victim was killed, but his body isn't there. 

The police take him home to his father, Hal (also played by Dabney Coleman).

Meanwhile, both he and his father are dealing with the loss of Davey's mother.  

Hal, who works as an Air Force pilot, is struggling at being a single parent. His job requires him to leave Davey alone much too often. 

When Davey tells his dad about what he witnessed, he thinks his son is acting out one of his Jack Flack fantasy adventures. Hal sees these fantasies as Davey's way of coping with the loss of his mom. 

Nevertheless, those same spies, led by a guy named Dr. Rice (Michael Murphy), find Davey and break into his house while his dad is at work. 

He escapes, and the pursuit is on. The spies want the game cartridge and are willing to do whatever they can to get it. Davey wants to figure out what national secrets are hidden and then turn it into the proper authorities. 

Davey often looks to his imaginary companion, who looks exactly like his father, for help along the way. 

Jack appears while Davey is trying to convince his dad about what he witnessed. Jack tells Davey that his dad is useless when it comes to any kind of help. 

Davey continues running and hiding throughout the city, narrowly escape bullets, hitmen, chasing, kidnapping, and close calls.  

He then takes the cartridge to Morris, who plays through the game and figures out how to access the secrets. 

Rice and the spies kidnap Kim and hold her until Davey hands over the game.

Dabney Coleman and Henry Thomas

It really gets intense, and Davey learns not everyone can be trusted. 

Coleman is great acting as two different characters distinctly. Jack is the leadership Davey is thriving for as his dad is struggling to be the support Davey needs. Yet, his words are clearly out of the mind of 11-year old Davey. Jack's actions and instructions reflect what an 11-year old would expect his hero to say. Coleman pulls that off well.

One scene that left me confused occurs during a stand-off between Davey and Dr. Rice. As Rice has a gun pulled on Davey, cornering him against a concrete wall, Davey also has a gun but is afraid to shoot first. Jack appears to Davey, encouraging him to hurry up and fire. 

Rice watches as Davey talks to someone he can't see. Jack then attempts to save Davey by becoming translucent and grab Rice's attention. Or so Davey is imagining.

But Rice turns towards Jack and fires several times, hitting the cement wall.  

So, could Rice suddenly see Jack, whom the audience is led to believe is Davey's imaginary friend? That entire scene threw me off.

But the love between Davey and his father unfolds well in the story, and both Thomas and Coleman depict their character's respective struggles with each other convincingly.   

Though Hal doesn't believe Davey's tale of murder, and being chased down by spies to capture government secrets hidden in a video game, he still shows the support Davey needs, especially in one scene were Davey asks his dad if he could sleep in his bed for the night. Hal agrees to it.

Christina Nigra plays a character who's just a typical kid. It's not a stand-out performance, nor does it need to be. But she plays her character as both exasperated and purposely trying to be as normal and straight and she can alongside Davey. Kim wants the adults to know Davey is the abnormal one, and she's there to watch over him. 

It's cute, just as it's meant to be.   

Cloak & Dagger was a favorite of mine growing up. Watching it more than 30 years later, there's certainly more to appreciate. 

The movie is based on Cornell Woolrich's novelette The Boy Who Cried Murder. And it's not the first screen adaptation of his story.

The 1949 film noir The Window starring Barbara Hale and Arthur Kennedy is the first. The 1966 British thriller The Boy Who Cried Murder is a remake of The Window. And the 1970 film Eyewitness has a similar plot to the original story. 

My mind lumps Cloak & Dagger with the movies Monster Squad (1987) and Flight of the Navigator (1986). These were titles that graced the family section of my old video rental store which caught my 10-year old attention. They were the movies I'd watch when I was home sick from school, or while stuck inside on a rainy weekend.

It's a fun movie. Cloak & Dagger is, however, a family movie that's dated in its violent depictions and use of guns. A few characters are shot and killed. Some might find Davey being shot at by adults rather disturbing. 

It doesn't necessarily standout for its somewhat predictable story elements. What does stand out is its depiction of family first through adversity, as well as trust. 

And somehow, this movie hasn't fallen into the nostalgic limelight among sentimental enthusiasts of pop culture from 30 years ago.  It has some memorable parts. It's a bit haphazard at times but makes up for it with good acting and intense action for a family picture - action that doesn't slow down.