Take Your Best Shot (1982)

Memorable, crazy movie

Good concept, poorly executed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Man, you cannot get ahead of this film. The main character - a reasonably talented but far-from-successful LA actor - makes a series of choices in the story: selfish choices, altruistic choices, foolish choices, practical choices - and nothing, NOTHING, turns out exactly as you'd expect. Which makes it very much like life. Urich is good in the lead. You can't help liking his character even though he's a bit of an egomaniac. And Meredith Baxter (in what amounts to a supporting role) does fine subtle work as Urich's loving but frustrated soon-to-be-ex-wife who's tired of waiting for his ship to come in. Jeffrey Tambor's good in an early role as Urich's acerbic gay best friend, who inadvertently offers Urich an alternative to the acting life: The restaurant business. But is that what Urich really wants? Enjoy the story. Just don't expect a rollicking comedy (which is how it was promoted). What it is, really, is a sometimes funny but more often painfully realistic, warts-and-all character study about the struggles of a 30something actor.

This is a better than average T.V. movie that details the struggles of a veteran actor (Robert Urich) who gets the sudden news that his wife (Meredith Baxter) wants a divorce. Struggling to get his life back on track, he goes on one successful audition after another while trying to convince Baxter that they can work things out simply because they still both love each other. In the end, what it comes down to is that Urich must re-invent himself, and at this time of his life, getting to know who he really is can be a difficult chore.This goes into great detail of what it is like to be a struggling actor, that even with some previous success, maintaining that is a full time job. One sad moment has a seemingly bubbly heavy set actress unleashing her soul to Urich in a studio parking lot after finding out what the casting directors really thought of her. Between his compassion to her and his open acceptance of his gay best friend (an excellent Jeffrey Tambor), Urich shows hiss character to be quite likable. Also memorable are Ruth Manning as a very New York like casting director and Claudette Nevins as a struggling actress who befriends Urich after giving him unsolicited acting advice and unleashes her soul to him as well. The real discovery for me that Urich's character needed to figure out was that he really didn't need to find himself. His own magnetism that brought people to open themselves to him just made him need better luck and a move in his acting career to different outlets. He reached out to try to accomplish too much, not realizing that he already had it all.