You know, it’s kind of fun when a cast list is full of familiar faces. Watching the movie becomes like a seek-and-find game.
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Admittedly, this movie has a HUGE cast, but the cool thing is all but one of our leading ladies has been in at least one Disney movie before. And so has our writer! Don Tait’s record is a little spotty, with hidden gems like Snowball Express and Apple Dumpling Gang and cringeworthy messes like Treasure of Matecumbe and Castaway Cowboy on his filmography. So this one could go either way, though I will say TV directors like Bruce Bilson are usually not super promising. This was based on a true story, as outlined in Reverend Albert Fay Hill’s memoir The North Avenue Irregulars: A Suburb Battles The Mafia , though the title alone includes enough of 70s Disney’s favorite things, like the mafia and underdogs, for it to send off some red flags already.
All right, we’re almost done with the 70s. We can do this. I just need to knuckle down and push through. No more long gaps. No more real life getting in the way (I just moved and it was a train wreck, sorry). Just… get through this. By the way, like Hot Lead and Cold Feet, I would like to apologize for my knee-jerk reaction to this movie about a church. I’m trying to keep it to a minimum and spoiler: this movie is much better than that one, but, uh, yeah. The religious trauma is strong with this one, sorry.
STORY
After an animated opening that resembles UPA’s simplistic, jerky style more than anything Disney’s ever done, we fade in on a car towing a Uhaul up to North Campton’s local church, North Avenue Presbyterian. Reverend Mike Hill admires his new home, and his kids Carmel (yes, really) and Dean rush out to look around. While they’re playing around, Dean pulls a rope that rings the churchbells… and knocks old man Delaney Rafferty off of the roof he’s been painting.
We’re starting the slapstick early, here, and Delaney flails around the rope for quite a while before anyone notices. Eventually, a group of church ladies hear his screams for help, including Delaney’s wife Rose, and we get some comedic misunderstandings! One of them thinks he’s trying to commit suicide which is a wild start to a family movie, and a couple of the others take all day about bringing a ladder up to the roof. For his part, Mike tries to call the police, but they straight up refuse to help. In the end, Delaney ends up sliding off the end of the ladder, across the roof, and down into a blanket held by a bunch of extras.
Only now does Mike get the chance to introduce himself as the new pastor. We get reaction shots of half the Earth’s population gasping “he’s the new pastor!” We finally get introduced to our leading ladies by name: Vickie Sims, the harried mother; Claire Porter, high-maintenance and wealthy; Cleo Jackson, the tough girl; Rose Rafferty the sassy old lady; and Jane No Last Name Given, who’s getting married soon and wants Mike to officiate. This movie actually handles its ensemble cast quite well in its later half, but the character introductions here are incredibly clunky. They’re literally standing up, telling Mike their names and personality traits, and leaving. Except for Claire, who has to literally be pushed out because she won’t stop flirting.
And it’s not over. There’s one more church lady to meet: Anne Woods, resident stick in the mud, church secretary, and daughter of the old pastor. She’s having some trouble adjusting to her father’s retirement, and it doesn’t help that the old place is having some trouble as it is. Membership is shockingly low and funds are in dire shape. But it’s okay, because Mike knows just how to revitalize the old place. For a start, he decides to give the parishioners a more active role in the day-to-day operations, and gives the church’s funds to Rose for safekeeping. Unfortunately, the next day Rose rushes up with bad news just before Mike is supposed to give his first sermon. Delaney gambled all of the church’s money on a horse race! Because it’s 70s Disney and Ron Miller loves his gambling.
After delivering the world’s shortest sermon, Mike dashes out to stop that bet. One wild and wacky motorcycle ride later, he pulls up to the tailor that serves as a front for Delaney’s bookie. The tailor points him to the back room where all the shady illegal stuff goes down, but insists that Mike leave his pants behind. That’s one way to make sure no one tries to welch on their bets, I guess. Mike finds himself among a bunch of sketchy characters in their boxers and asks the bookie for they money back. But you didn’t really think it would be that easy, did you? Besides, if Delaney’s horse wins, the church will have seven times the money! It’s too late, anyway. The race has begun, and Mike has no choice but to root for the horse to win. And it doesn’t. Mike threatens to call the cops if he doesn’t get his money back, but the mafia-controlled bookie laughs in his face and has him thrown out.
When he returns to the church, one of Vickie’s kids notices that he’s still sans pants, leading to a real awkward conversation that basically boils down to “religious leaders can do whatever they want and no one can question it”. And I could make so many uncouth jokes here but I’ll try to have some class. Or, you know, as much as possible in a movie centered around organized religion as reviewed by a cynical atheist. Once he gets home and gets dressed, Mike does make good on his threat to call the police. Unfortunately, the gamblers hid their tracks well. When Mike leads the cops to the tailor’s shop, there’s nothing in the back room but storage. Not that there’s much evidence that the cops would actually bother to do anything if there was a gambling ring back there. They’re clearly on the take and Mike is on his own.
Later on, Mike is supposed to deliver a sermon on TV. Instead, he can’t help himself from breaking into a rant about the illegal gambling festering through the town, urging his congregation to work together and stop it before it’s too late. It’s a wild 180 from Cat From Outer Space, which used its leads’ gambling addiction to solve all their problems. Pick a lane, Disney. We get reaction shots of most of the other characters, ranging from Anne’s horror to the Rafferty’s vocal support. But most of all, we se the bookie meeting with the mob boss Mr. Roca, worried that the Reverend will cause trouble. But Roca isn’t worried. They have ways of keeping him out of trouble.
Threats pour in so fast that all the church ladies combined can’t keep up. Anne the wet blanket in particular is livid at his foolishness, and Dr. Fulton, the church’s executive, isn’t thrilled either. He chews Mike out for using the church as a vehicle for his political beliefs (….) and reminds Mike that his most pressing responsibility is to get the church’s membership back up. So the next day, Mike heads out to do just that. Unfortunately, no one’s interested. For some, it’s because of Mike’s own antics, but others, like Great Value Brand Ellen Greene over here, just isn’t interested in religion at all and good for her.
He does have one major success. A garage band called Strawberry Shortcake (not that one) agrees to do the music for the church. Anne the buzzkill hates this idea, but no one’s going to join the church if they’re miserable. They have to make things hip and fun if they’re going to attract new members. The other church ladies agree, but Anne hates the idea of fun so much that she quits as choir director. She’s probably one of those people who thinks rock n roll is the Devil’s music.
Late that night, two men enter Mike’s office. It’s all staged to look super shady like the mob is about to punish Mike for challenging them. But actually, Marv and his assistant Tom are from the Federal government, and they’re here to help take down the mafia. But before they can break up all these gambling dens, they need a few good men to help with a sting operation. Once again, there are no takers. Everyone’s too afraid of mob retaliation. Discouraged, he heads back to his office and finds Claire there, returning her keys before leaving for the night. And that gives Mike an idea. Knowing Claire is smitten with him, he invites Claire to meet him tomorrow night at nine, here in the Sunday School Room. She’s speechless, thrilled with the scandal of it all.
The next night, she slips into the Sunday School room, dressed in her finest and finds… all her friends gushing about how nice she looks. It’s not a date at all! No one knows what they’re actually doing here until Marv and Tom walk in. Mike explains that he tried to get men, but he couldn’t, so he got women instead. Marv splutters because women can’t do things competently, that’s a ridiculous idea, but that’s just why no one would suspect them. To his point, none of them have ever gambled before, but they’re all willing to learn and raring to go. So let’s do this thing!
The plan is for each woman to place her own bet in the presence of a federal officer, catching these gambling dens in the act. First up is Jane, dressed like a lady of ill repute in a short skirt and high heels and flouncing into a seedy bar. A man offers to buy her a drink, but it’s only Marv, all part of the deception. But a passing car recognized her on the way in, and her fiancee Howard and his mother storm in demanding to know what’s going on. Or at least his mother does. He mostly just parrots everything she says like a total dweeb. Panicking, Jane knocks him out with one punch.
Maybe Claire will have better luck? She’s super excited about this exciting new development in her boring single rich lady life, and she can’t stop gushing to Tom all the way to their gambling den of choice. When they park in front of the florists’, she freezes, fumbling over the script she was given. It’s a lot more nerve-wracking to actually face danger than to daydream about it, apparently. And it only gets worse when they head inside, though Tom does his best to save face by posing as her husband. Still, the front hears her whispering about getting her money back if this doesn’t work out and throws her out of the florist/gambling den. Two down, three to go.
Maybe Rose, Cleo, and Vickie will have better luck? Their gambling den is hidden within an outdoor burger joint, and there’s really nothing suspicious about three female customers. Well, unless they all happened to be dressed in identical long khaki trenchcoats and sunglasses. Rose has a tape recorder hidden in her coat, which was a lot less subtle in 1979 than it is now. Back then, you could very easily hear the tape whirring as it recorded, which the cook picks up on instantly. It only gets worse when Rose decides to check the tape right there in broad daylight. It starts blasting the Andrews Sisters, and the ladies flee while pretending to actually be the Andrews Sisters, heroes of Johnny Fedora and Little Toot, singing along badly to the track while they beat their retreat.
Well, that could have gone better. There’s not a lot of loving thy neighbor going on back at North Avenue Presbyterian. Everyone’s bickering about who’s fault it was that the stings were such a trainwreck. Marv has just about enough of that and yells that it’s his fault for ever agreeing to an idea as stupid as letting women do things. The sting is over, it failed, they’re done. Well, even if the girls know they messed up, they just know they can do it and beg for another chance. What they actually need is a new angle. They don’t need to catch the gamblers in the act, they just need to find where they stored their money. Marv still doesn’t think this will work, but he gets outvoted.
With shiny new codenames and radios to keep them connected, the ladies hop in their cars and the men set up a base of operations in a hotel room. Phantom Fox (Claire) stakes out another shady bar, but ends up surrounded by sketchy drunks because she drove her ultra fancy sports car into a bad part of town. Suddenly, another male voice pipes up, surprising everyone. Marv and Mike question it, but Blarney Stone (Rose) reminds everyone that she doesn’t have her driver’s license. But it’s okay, because Delaney graciously agreed to dress in drag to further this deception. And, you know, he’s here now so we might as well live with it.
June Bride (Jane, naturally) witnesses a guy handing another guy a paper bag full of money but gets distracted describing his car and loses him. It’s okay, though, Kiddie Car (Vickie) is close by, though she in turn gets distracted by the 87 kids crammed in her car. That’s about Marv’s breaking point, but he forgot about Clunker (Cleo), who happily agrees to go wherever she’s needed. She’s got her baby in the car, too, but he’s asleep. Unfortunately, she has to get out and change her baby, resulting in her getting stopped for illegally parking. Their mark passes by, and there’s no time for a traffic stop, so she runs for it until she can’t run anymore. She got the information, and that’s all they need for Phantom Fox to pull out of her hiding spot and give chase. But all she ends up finding is their mark eating his lunch in the park.
Undeterred, Vickie tails their marks to the same grocery store from Gus. She does her best to look inconspicuous, but her best isn’t great. Her kids can’t help but notice her filling up their whole cart with Cheerios while trying to hide her big old 70s radio among the boxes. Technology marches on. Another guy walks in and carefully switches bags with the first guy, who’s actually the second guy because the first guy was the guy eating his lunch. This would be so much easier if the mafia guys had like, names. Or identities. Or anything. But all we get is guys.
Hey, do you hear that? It’s the bell for Car Chase O’Clock! Guy 2 and Guy 3 leave the grocery store, and Vickie and Jane follow. Everyone else is right behind them, so Marv urges them to peel off. So they all do. Marv loses it, because one of them was supposed to stay, but he didn’t actually come out and say that so like, really this is your fault, dude. Claire catches up, sort of, but she’s actually in front of him, so she backs up and causes several traffic accidents along the way, making this the most accurate car chase we’ve seen. She manages to wiggle out of it and get back behind him, but he backs out and smashes into her fancy sports car. When he stops to assess the damage, the driver hears Mike on the radio, so Claire does the sensible thing and smashes the radio to smithereens. So, you know, not the outcome they wanted.
The whole debacle puts Marv into such a severe state of shock the doctor orders bedrest. Still, Mike believes in his friends and urges him to let them try one more time. Marv just can’t care anymore. They can do what they want, but he’s out. And this next try actually goes a little more smoothly! At first. Vickie’s dog won’t get out of the way and the Raffertys can’t get it together long enough to get over a bridge, but you know, it’s an improvement. It all goes sideways when Anne hears Mike acting as home base and realizes he’s still on this crazy vigilante kick. He argues that the police aren’t stopping crime, so someone has to, even if it’s not his job as a preacher. Anne the killjoy puts her foot down and quits on the spot, lest she get wrapped up in this mess.
Sunday morning rolls around, and the congregation is in much higher spirits now that the service opens with some lively Christian rock instead of dreary hymns. Only Howard, his mother, and Anne have sour faces… them, and two mafia guys sitting at the back pointing out their pursuers. Mike notices, but he can’t do anything right now, so they’re free to report back to Mr. Roca that their tails are operating out of the church. Roca still isn’t worried. All they have to do is put a little more pressure on them. And man, describing this makes Roca look like a much more compelling villain than he is. Really, all he does is sit there and pet his Doberman. The dog’s adorable, though. They keep badly ADRing growling noises over him, but I can see that tail wagging.
This is starting to feel like a reasonably okay comedy and not a piece of LifeWay propaganda, so you know, gotta get on that. Mike goes to tell his kids goodnight (hey, remember them?) and finds Carmel crying. She just wants her daddy to Always Put Jesus First and stop trying to do real, actual good in the world and just preach. Okay, that’s a little big of an exaggeration, you all know by now how I feel about this stuff. And it’s not that much of an exaggeration. But this is really the only point in the movie where I felt the evangelicalism creeping in. For the most part, the church is really more of a very pretty community center, and even I can get behind that. It makes this one incredibly cheesy moment feel really out of place, especially since we haven’t seen the kids in over an hour at this point.
Suddenly, the church explodes! The Reverend’s house rocks, and Anne, who was driving up to the church for… some reason, screams for help. The whole neighborhood rushes out with hoses to help contain the blaze while Carmel calls the fire department. Now, when filming a scene like this, you usually only get one shot at it, since, you know, you’re blowing things up. But this time, when they blew up the church set, after detonation they realized there was no film in the camera! They had to rebuild the whole church and blow it up again. Whoops.
The mob is clearly not messing around. Mike starts to realize that this may all have been a bad idea, actually. Surprisingly, Anne has the opposite realization. She’s finally done with all her naysaying. These people need to be stopped, and she’s on board with stopping them. Mike puts an arm around her, and she lays her head on his chest and… what??? Where did this come from??? I thought he was being set up with Claire??? I’m so confused. Am I too aromantic to see this coming? Did they have any chemistry at all? I don’t understand forced romantic subplots. Help.
Fourth time’s the charm, and this time it’s “Rookie”, or Anne the reformed former party pooper, hot on the oufit’s trail. The Raffertys and Jane pick up the trail, but because it’s a 70s Disney movie and there’s nothing Ron Miller loves more than car stunts, they crash. Ann catches them again, finding them pulling into the garage and quickly disguising their van as an RV. Roca threatens the increasingly nervous drivers not to give up or else, but for extra insurance authorizes his goons to shoot if the tails cause trouble. But the ladies get away clean and go over what they’ve learned. Every time they lose the collector, it’s in the same spot. That has to mean something, right?
They may not get the chance to find out what. Anne enters, and this time she has a very good reason to bring everybody down. The church executives have decided not to rebuild the church after the explosion. Even worse, they’ve defrocked Mike. It’s all over but the formalities. Anne is charged with picking up the executives, Dr. Rheems and Dr. Wainwright from the airport so they can begin auctioning off what’s left of the church while Dr. Fulton formally fires Mike. But as she drives, she spots the mob driver!
Mike can’t come to the phone right now, but an opportunity like this isn’t going to come by again. After a moment’s deliberation, he breaks off of trying to convince Fulton to keep the church open and calls out reinforcements. Not that they’re not busy, but every one of them runs out when called, even Jane who’s in the middle of her wedding day! Apparently Mike is not, in fact, officiating. Howard won’t leave her alone and ends up riding shotgun, whining about her scratching his car all the while. But there are other unwitting passengers who prove a lot more useful. To Anne’s surprise, Dr. Rheems, played by the inimitably Ruth Buzzi aka the coach from Freaky Friday, goes all in on the thrill of being a secret agent and throws herself in as an ally. She even comes up with her own codename, the Ecumenical Enchantress!
So, Vickie scrambles to gather up all the pets and children in her house into her car while causing a major traffic incident, Delaney gripes about tearing his stockings while getting dressed too quickly, Cleo nabs a used car from her husband’s lot, and Claire rushes out of her hair stylist’s with her curlers still in. And that’s right, it’s Car Chase O’Clock the second! It’s also at this point that I noticed a patch on his jacket that reads Silky’s Place, the gambling den in Blackbeard’s Ghost. I’m sure there were other references on there too. I always appreciate an Easter egg but holy crap I can’t believe there are that many gambling dens in live action Disney. Anyway, long car chase short, Anne tails the guy to a warehouse and finds the bank!
The other ladies meet them at the warehouse with Vickie’s kids and Jane’s loser husband in tow. Roca tries to leave in his limo but they’re not having it and oh look another car chase that’s original. In the end, everyone but Anne surrounds Roca’s limo as his goons scramble to clear out the bank. Roca tries to escape but Anne cuts him off, so Roca smashes into hers and gets her stuck in a tree. Well, no one’s escaping if Cleo’s gigantic truck can help it. She rams and destroys the ramp the other mob guys are driving down, trapping them in the warehouse. And, well, if the mob’s going to play rough, so are the girls. And we go from car chase to demolition derby, completely destroying 14 cars worth $155,000.
Functionally, there’s really not much difference between the two. Lots of screeching tires and flipping cars, lots of silliness, more smashing and crashing. Howard won’t stop stealing the steering wheel to keep his precious car from getting scratched, much to Jane’s frustration. Vickie gets pinned under a mobster’s car, and worst of all, Claire breaks her nails! Because women. Okay, Chloris Leachman manages to make it pretty funny with her wildly over the top reaction and the wide variety of female leads make it clear that this is a Claire problem not a women problem. So it’s more of an eyebrow raise than a cringe. We’re learning. In the end, the Raffertys launch their car off a rise and and right on top of Roca. Mike rides up on his motorcycle, snatches Roca’s briefcase full of money, and the ladies finish things off by beating the crap out of some mobsters.
The mafia’s hold over the town of New Campton is broken and the day is saved, but it’s a bittersweet victory. The church is still ruined, and Mike’s still set to lose his job. Still, he gathers the town for one last outdoor service, thanking the six (or seven, we support Delaney in this house) women who risked everything for their community. But weirdly, Delaney is the only one there. Or is he? The other six church ladies pile out of a huge van all babbling excitedly. It’s really hard to hear because they’re all talking at once which is not really the greatest way to resolve your movie’s central conflict, but they managed to convince the executives to rebuild the church and rehire Mike! Everything worked out okay! Anne kisses Mike because they were such a well-developed couple, and Mike gives all the credit to God instead of the people who did all the work, and we end on a reprise of the Strawberry Shortcakes’ banger of a song.
Cynicism towards the church aside, I actually enjoyed this one! It wasn’t great, but as 70s Disney comedies go, it was one of the better ones. Not as aggressively, obnoxiously preachy as Hot Lead and Cold Feet with more entertaining car chases than most of the rest of this decade, this takes all of 70s Disney’s favorite tropes and manages to make them work. It’s all thanks to the strengths of some varied and funny performances from our leading ladies. They’re all so different and capable in their own way that, even though the entire premise of this movie is based on sexism, it only rarely actually feels like sexism.
CHARACTERS
Reverend Mike Hill invites some comparisons to Eli Bloodshy from the last movie, and he comes out of them looking much better. He’s a very passionate man who knows, despite being a preacher, that God can only do so much. When there’s trouble, he’s not going to offer thoughts and prayers and leave it at that, he’s going to take action. I also appreciated that he’s a little hot-headed and stubborn- flawed protagonists are way more interesting than perfect goody-two-shoes. I spent the whole movie thinking Edward Hermann was the guy from Troll 2, but he’s not. He’s actually best known for playing Richard Gilmore on The Gilmore Girls, and for playing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a few different productions, notably the 1982 version of Annie with Carol Burnett and Tim Curry.
Claire Porter starts out looking like she’s going to be the love interest. She has the most screentime of all the ladies, she flirts with Mike for large chunks of the first act, and there’s one scene where it almost kind of looks like he might reciprocate. Then he ends up with Anne out of nowhere. It’s really weird. But Cloris Leachman steals every scene she’s in, pushing even a joke as banal as “omg I broke a nail!” to such an extreme that it actually becomes hilarious. And her outfits are incredible. Apparently she was a nightmare to work with, according to some interviews I listened to, but, you know, stars are like that sometimes. We last saw her in Charley and the Angel.
Vickie Sims is kind of an airhead but you can’t really blame her for being kind of distracted. I have to give them props for taking a cast full of middle aged women and only having one focus on being a mother. At least one of the others has kids, but Vickie’s the only one where that’s her whole life. What’s more, they portray it as a bad thing, or at least a challenge, that she has to focus so heavily on the chaos of her million kids over what she actually wants to do. We’re getting away from forced gender roles, and you love to see it. She has a lot in common with Barbara Harris’s previous character in Freaky Friday, empowering the mother figure and acknowledging that life for a housewife isn’t a Norman Rockwell painting.
Jane needs better taste in men. Seriously, she doesn’t even seem to like Howard that much, and I can’t say I blame her. The guy’s a drip. She, on the other hand, is a spicy, outspoken lady who won’t be held back from what she knows is right. I mean, she drops everything on her wedding day to chase criminals! She’s way too good for her mama’s boy husband, and way cooler than Karen Valentine’s last character in Hot Lead and Cold Feet.
Rose and Delaney Rafferty are life goals. Oh, sure, they bicker, but there’s an affection under all of it. They’re really ride or die for her. Rose is thrilled when Delaney gets to safety at the end, and Delaney’s willing to dress in drag just to help his lady. It’s glorious. And if you read my live action reviews you know how much I love a sassy old lady who’s way beyond caring anymore. She’s no Iris Adrian, but Patsy Kelly’s one scene in Freaky Friday was just as much of a delight. And while Douglas Fowley hasn’t been in another Disney movie, he’s well known as Roscoe Dexter in Singin In the Rain. This was the final film role for both of them and I think they went out on a fine note!
Cleo Jackson has the biggest personality of all the ladies and that’s saying a lot. She’s raring to go from the jump, ready to stick it to these mobsters for the sake of her family. The demolition derby is all her idea. And for as loud and big and tough as she is, she never falls into the sassy Black woman stereotype. She’s just determined and up for a good challenge, and it’s wonderful. Virginia Capers is the only one of the ladies who’s never been in another Disney film, but she was Greta Wagner in Golden Girls and Florence Sparrow in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. And she’s also in Howard the Duck, the shining jewel of any prestigious filmography.
Anne Woods is the most miserable human being I’ve seen in one of these movies yet. If this wasn’t almost aggressively inoffensive and family-friendly, she’d totally be one of those people who went around huffing and puffing because listening to worldly music is a sin or whatever. You know what I’m talking about. We’ve all seen that person. No one likes that person. Fortunately, she loosens up later in the movie, but not so much that it’s not insane to me that she hooks up with Mike in the end out of absolutely nowhere. And even more insane, Susan Clark was Dusty in Apple Dumpling Gang! How do you go from awesome rough and tumble snark queen cowgirl to… this?
MUSIC
One half of a country comedy duo is a really weird choice for a composer for a gimmick comedy, but here we are with Richard Bowden. And you know what? It’s not half bad. It’s not as good as his work on the original Tron, but you know, it’s interesting. There’s lots of saxophone and surf guitar that combine to create a high energy spy kind of vibe that stays distinct and unique. I mean, most Disney spy scores sound exactly like Pink Panther. This one sounds like North Avenue Irregulars. Way to have an identity, Bowden, goodjob.
Pass a Little Love Around, for being Disney’s take on Christian Rock, is actually kind of a bop. It’s dated and trying kind of desperately to be hip and cool, but it’s succeeding more than failing. There have been other songs, notably the travesties from Superdad, that tried to mimic the Monkees-esque sound with close harmonies and way too much tambourine, but I think this one’s worked best so far. Al Kasha and Joel Hirshhorn are solid songwriters- their work on Pete’s Dragon might not be spectacular, but more people know Candle on the Water than These are the Best Times and there is a reason for that.
ARTISTRY
This era of Disney is not known for its spectacularly beautiful films. This one’s no exception. Once again, we have flat lighting and way too many wide shots, and all of our scenery is an unsightly shade of grayish beige. Leonard J South previously shot Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, and as ugly as that movie was it at least had the benefit of some on location shooting in Paris. This one doesn’t even have that. It’s just shot around the Disney Studio, and they didn’t even try to disguise LA as a small town. There are street signs visible! I mean, come on! I will say the costuming makes up for it, though, especially on Claire. Her outfits are incredible.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m not going to come out and pretend like this is the greatest movie I’ve seen yet. It’s still a gimmick comedy with the mob and a lot of car chases, after all. But of that weirdly specific and weirdly expansive subgenre of movies, this was one of the better ones! The characters are enjoyable enough to elevate and it’s worth checking out at least once!
Favorite scene: Claire breaking her nails and FREAKING OUT. Throughout the rest of the scene, she keeps flashing her hands up to the mobsters like this is the worst thing they did, which drives the whole thing into absurdity.
Final rating: 6/10. Pretty okay, as these things go!
The Great Disney Movie Ride 
