Dragnet

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Buy This Item Dragnet by Universal Studios  Available from Amazon  $9.99  on 11-16-2008     The line between parody and tribute can be hard to draw, but any marginally hip baby boomer who ever watched Jack Webb's straight-laced Detective Joe Friday caught a glimmer of the comedic vein waiting to be mined beneath <I>Dragnet</I>'s gritty Los Angeles streets. In 1987 moviegoers had yet to be crushed under the weight of the 1990s TV remake mania, and <I>Dragnet</I> comes off as fresh and funny. Dan Aykroyd plays Joe Friday, the straight-arrow nephew of Webb's iconic cop. This part was made for him (in fact, he's given top writing credit), and under his steely exterior you can tell he's having a ball delivering those rapid-fire recitations of regulations and deadpan expressions of moral outrage. Tom Hanks plays Pep Streebek, the laissez-faire narco agent who is Friday's new partner. Their assignment: bust the Pagans, a wild-and-woolly gang of dope fiends, deadbeats, and beatniks behind a bewildering array of bizarre robberies. Hilarity ensues. Friday and Streebek outfox a corrupt televangelist (Christopher Plummer), bicker over chili dogs and cigarettes, alternately revile and fawn over a porn millionaire (Dabney Coleman), wrestle a 30-foot-long anaconda, and rescue the virgin Connie Swail--the only girl capable of stealing Friday's heart. <I>--Grant Balfour</I> Reader Reviews As a big fan of Jack Webb and the 1960s Dragnet, Dan Aykroyd couldn't have parodied him better! I look at this as imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and I'm sure Webb would've appreciated it. I love it when Friday and Streebek (after wrecking multiple vehicles) get issued a Yugo "on the cutting edge of Serbo-Croatian technology". Hilarious!

Dragnet Available from Amazon Price: $9.99 Updated on 11-16-2008.

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