Today's Movie: Opportunity Knocks

Released in 1990, Opportunity Knocks is a comedy starring Dana Carvey. Honestly, until recently I had never heard of this movie. The film made no money at the box office in 1990 and currently holds a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes but, I like Dana Carvey so I decided to give it a watch. 

The film is about a con-man named Eddie (played by Carvey) who owes a substantial amount of money to a local crime boss. After breaking into the house of a business man who is on vacation, people just assume Eddie is the man's old college buddy who is supposed to be house-sitting. After stumbling into the con of a lifetime, Eddie soon starts to really enjoy this fake life as he gets a great job and falls in love. This is one of those movies where a few simple lies snowball, and eventually you know Eddie is going to have to come clean to everybody. 

This movie isn't bad, it's just nothing special. Carvey of course gets a few opportunities to do some of his impressions, and the the movie does have some charm. While not as funny as Wayne's World, which Carvey would star in alongside Mike Myers in 1992, there were a few funny moments scattered throughout this movie that genuinely made me chuckle.

Overall, I give this one a 2 out of 5.

Dumb Voices and Fart Jokes: Revisiting 'The Master of Disguise'

The Master of Disguise is a 2002 "comedy" starring Dana Carvey, that features a bare-bones plot that only serves to loosely tie together a series of Carvey impressions. 

In the film Carvey plays Pistachio Disguisey, a bumbling goof who can't seem to help mocking people with his impressions of them. As it turns out Pistachio comes from a long line of "Masters of Disguise". A fact that is only revealed to him after his father and mother have been kidnapped. With the guidance of his grandfather (played by Harold Gould) Pistachio learns the way of the Disguisey and soon hires an assistant named Jennifer (played by Jennifer Esposito). Together Pistachio and Jennifer seek to unravel the mystery of Pistachio's missing parents. As it turns out, the evil Devlin Bowman has been forcing Pistachio's father to steal items such as the Liberty Bell and the U.S. Constitution while disguised as celebrities. Oh, and the running gag with Bowman is that he farts every time he laughs. 

This movie is objectively bad. It current holds a whopping 1% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.3 on IMDb, and frequently appears on 'Worst Movies of All-Time' lists. It's poorly directed, edited, acted and the overall story and jokes feel like they were written by a group of 6 year olds. That being said, while the execution was a complete failure, I think there is a good idea for a film here; Dana Carvey is a talented impressionist and character actor, he proved that for years on Saturday Night Live and he's very funny in the Wayne's World movies. In the right hands, this could've been a hilarious showcase of Carvey's talents. Also, to be fair, there is a quick gag where Abraham Lincoln dances to the song 'I Like to Move It' that I genuinely find quite funny... and the movie is only 81 minutes long, so that's a plus.

For me, The Master of Disguise falls just on the right side of watchable and I have seen it a number of times. However, I don't recommend it.

1 out of 5