Off Beat

Librarian assistant Joe Gower takes up the offer to help out his friend Abe by posing as a cop to take his place in a police dance performance, but he finds himself falling for female officer Rachel. Therefore he digs himself deeper when he starts acting like his a cop outside of the dance training to impress this lady. "Off Beat" is a pleasurably breezy, light-hearted 80s romantic comedy with plenty of familiar faces on show. The cast are indeed great, with Judge Reinhold and Meg Tilly in the leads. For me, the adorable Tilly is always a delight to watch, but she still can pack a punch. James Tolken sure finds out. A tolerable Reinhold is gawky, but likable as Gower. Loved the scenes he shares with the wise-cracking Cleavant Derricks, who plays his friend Abe. The sequence with them arguing in a change room and Derricks' final word to the shop assistant is priceless. Most of the lively support roles with character actors are spot-on and do over-shadow the leads. Harvey Keitel and Victor Argo might only have small roles towards the end, but their chemistry together was hilarious with Argo truly stealing the show. Austin Pendleton as a gun shop salesman is quite humorous too. Rocket launcher for home protection?! Joe Mantegna is a true live-wire as fellow-cop / ex-boyfriend of Tilly's character. Also dependably showing up is Mike Starr, Amy Wright, John Turturro, Penn Jillette, John Kapelos, Anthony Zerbe and Fred Gwynne. But the list still goes on. Quite a macho lot, where the script seems to sarcastically tear apart at this bravado and the dialogues are fun in nailing it. Even questioning one's own comfort, by taking a chance outside that familiar zone. Its bubblegum soundtrack gives it much added bounce. Commonplace, but endearing comedy.

"I won't hurt them. I'll kill them. "