Deal of the Century (1983)

Nice effects though.

It is a performances centric movie

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

You got the director of Sorcerer, you got Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, and Gregory Hines, and a contemporary Dr. Strangelove story, man, it's gonna be something great!Well, unfortunately it is something great. A great pile of crap. I don't know what happened, but the movie bombed because it was savaged by critics and ignored by audiences, and for good reason. The film fails to ignite the outrageous Dr. Strangelove storyline. I think Friedkin was out of his comfort zone and into unknown territory. Honestly, Friedkin is not the kind of director you call for comedies. It's not his forte. Although the film is total crap as a whole, I will say there are elements of genius in there, not much, but it's there. One interesting note is that Friedkin completely throws away his unique induced documentary style and goes classical and traditional for the second time in his career. The first time was on The Brink's Job in 1978. Some of the action sequences are pretty raw and realistic. The jokes are amateurish and sophomoric. Friedkin should have never made this film. If anyone is contemplating if they should view this film, well my answer to you is absolutely no. I really mean it. Not even Friedkin would watch it. I think he would burn this film if he owned the negative. Watch Lord of War (2005), it has a similar story and concept, but only slightly better or just watch great films about this same concept like Wag the Dog (1997) or Dr. Strangelove (1964) and Charlie Wilson's War (2007).

It seems like everyone's opinion on this movie is evenly divided. People either love it or hate it. Personally, I am not a Chevy Chase fan by any stretch of the imagination. But I like many of William Friedkin's films so I wanted to give this a chance and went in without too many preconceptions.It obviously can't stand up to a comparison to DR. STRANGELOVE as a few here have done. However, it still remains a fairly on-target, unflattering satire of the weapons industry and by extrapolation, other mass production industries that love to sell the government and public crap product cosmetically hyped as the next great answer to all their fears and desires, product that ends up being useless or obsolete within a year (if it even works properly in the first place). There are some pretty funny scenes sprinkled throughout and I was pleasantly surprised through the whole film how much dark, subversively funny jabs Friedkin gets away with. Especially in a big studio movie. There's one scene in particular that makes the film well worth seeing --Gregory Hines (I believe it was him) gets into a verbal altercation with another extremely hotheaded driver (a maniacal Tony Plana) (over a fender bender? it's been a while since I've seen it) -- the verbal sparring quickly escalates into a life-threatening situation and the emotional dynamics the two actors bring to the scene is scarily believable while remaining extremely funny. This scene alone provides a microcosmic metaphor for the provocations of nations going to war and perfectly illustrates the pointless absurdity of aggressive behaviour in general. Also of note, it's great to see the underrated Vince Edwards in a large supporting role as the ruthless air weapons manufacturer. DEAL OF THE CENTURY is never less than amusing and has some extremely funny sequences -- much better than many of these IMDb reviews would lead you to believe.

The overall plot of this movie is weak however there are A LOT of memorable scenes. These scenes make me watch this movie a couple times a year. This movie has a similar tone to Caddyshack, Head Office, Fletch, etc. I think it's one of Chevy's better performances. His narration in the movie helps add to the overall comical tone.If you are at all a Chevy Chase fan and enjoy his older work (Caddyshack, Fletch, etc.) this is definitely worth renting.

If you work in certain areas in the defense business, you will be sure that some one who worked in the business did the script. Some of the most outrageous incidents in the film are the most true to life. It may be that you have to have some professional insight to appreciate it fully. It's like a Dilbert cartoon.