I reviewed the original Chevy Chase comedic classic Fletch no too long ago, with its kinda over-the-top antics but not completely suspect in its investigative reporterings plot, plus a lot of comedic gems sprinkled throughout, so it did its job. But when writing that, I discovered they did finally go back to this property, with Jon Hamm in the lead. The serious Mad Men guy? The couple of seasons I watched, it seemed ok for what it was. And he popped up in Wright’s Baby Driver, and did a good job for like the first 2/3rds of it, but was also responsible for the last bit that was kinda the shite part of the film, so no favors there. So steppin into the Lakers hat-wearin role here? Skeptical. But...he does a pretty okay job with the role. The character is almost congruent, so those not seeing the previous (and I kinda am not referencing Fletch Lives and the slightly more preposterous story that is, but honestly, it’s all preposterous.), this one continues the role of a smart-ass (now ex-reporter) Fletch, investigatin some shit that may or may not involve a stolen Picasso, among other paintings. From the director that hit the scene with Superbad, fortunately, this one shows his progression.
Some modernizations thrown into the script to make it relatively current, as Fletch gets involved with some Italian princess kind of chick and some high-priced paintings. Ride-sharing ratings is a running gag. Covid Lockdown shit to date it in the future. But there’s a few dialogue choices here and there that are a product of eye-rolling koonteries. But besides that, overall it’s a pretty flippant but sharply dialogued adaptation of the original author Gregory Mcdonald’s book from 1976. I think. I still have to read a few of these books though. Definitely in the vein of Donald Westlake, specifically his more comedic Dortmunder ones (aka Bank Shot, The Hot Rock), and probably had some kind of influence on Carl Hiaasen, a Florida reporter who ended up getting into the book-writin business with a very comedic flair to the stories that always seem to involve some sordid materials and hooking up with hot chicks to get to the bottom of it. Same mostly applies here. Fun, entertaining romp, minus the few hackneyed speedbumps the bitch screenwriters threw in there.
Sorry to opine again here, but I really would’ve liked to have seen the alternate reality where Jason Lee picked up the role. We’ll always have My Name is Earl, but damn. This coulda been a good run, Mcdonald wrote like 9 of em. And shit. Landshark! Because I meant to work in a Chevy Chase reference about that earlier but it sucked and here we are at the end of the review.
