Fletch Lives

Movies like this are why Chevy Chase destroyed his career. It's a pure vanity project. Fletch is NOT a quick-change artist in the books and seeing the movie opening with him in drag in a maid's uniform while an old man hits on him shows me the precise problem with Chase's vanity projects. And it's not just that he's destroying a cool franchise like The Fletch Mysteries. I think Chevy Chase was under the mistaken impression that he was funnier and more talented than he actually was. This is not a career mistake he's learned from either, and why the dude burned his bridges with Community who gave him a second chance nobody else would have. I'm not saying that Chase doesn't understand what's funny. I'm saying he mistakenly believes only he can deliver it. And the fact that he's NOT funny is the biggest thing I noticed.

I will get people arguing with me over this insisting Chase IS funny, and this is just a bad movie. The thing is, bad movie or not, if Jim Carrey had done this exact movie with the same script it would be tolerable. Just like a bad movie like Ace Ventura is tolerable. Solely because Carrey is funny. Or at least talented. Chase does not have that. Bill Murray similarly played his comedic roles in the 1980's with a twinkle in his eye but he had the comedic chops to back it up. Chase simply does not.

It's interesting and on some level impressive how fully immersed Chase puts himself into the part of Fletch playing the faith-healer. You can actually barely tell it's Chase, and I actually did a double-take realizing it's him. But the most amazing thing about the role is how it's not funny in the least, so the con feels like this huge waste of the viewer's time instead. I'd almost say it was a waste of Chase's talents, but a talented person could have made me laugh.

I'm not surprised Calculus was an FBI agent. I would have been pissed if he weren't. One consistent thing about movies from the 1980's is that they are shockingly racist. Political correctness was an actual thing back then, and people actually knew better. And movies like Fletch Lives STILL did both the Song of the South segment, and the Klan segment. It's painful and especially painful because Chase thinks it's funny. That whole dream sequence is precisely why The Fletch Mysteries was the wrong vanity project for Chase, and why he ruined it simply by being involved in it. That crap should NOT be happening in a Fletch mystery. It's not just that it's offensive. There is plenty of offensive stuff in The Fletch Mysteries. It's stupid. And those books are the farthest thing from that.

I'm disgusted. I'm disgusted Chevy Chase was given tent-pole movie after tent-pole and did nothing but waste the audience's time without delivering a single laugh. Want to know why none of your friends showed up at your comedy roast Chevy? Because you burned all of those bridge by your crappy and self-involved career choices.

This movie doesn't just bum me out. It angers me too. 0.