MovieChat Forums > Let's Get Harry (1986) Discussion > Wow, really? So few people?

Wow, really? So few people?


Okay, so I'm writing this like 20 years after I first saw the movie. But I'm surprised there isn't more commentary than this. I remember loving this movie. Sure, I was 16 then. But it was great.

Sad to see that so few people consider it worthy of discussion :(

reply

I watched it on TV the other night, I thought it was good 80's fun even though I didn't know at the time when the movie was made.

reply

I had this recorded on VHS from HBO in the 80's. Loved the movie. I watched it on SonyHD today and the movie is really good. Rambo(2008) seems like a complete rip-off of this movie.

reply

I've never watched any Rambo movies but it doesn't surprise me that this one would be a rip-off. I've taken to watching Turner Classic Movies - primarily because there's no commercials and secondarily because relatively new channels like THIS (actual channel name) and GETTV are clueless as to when to interrupt a program in order to sell a product. The THIS Channel seems to have a formula that states, "Regardless of what's going on, stop the program at 8 minute intervals and sell something". Not only that but I noticed the other night while watching one of my all time favorites, "Cinderella Man" that either THIS or GETTV actually CUT SEVERAL SCENES OUT COMPLETELY in order to make room for commercials! This is absolutely appalling! Some pay channels - and a few cable channels, but rarely a broadcast channel - will start a movie not exactly on the hour or half-hour, and will have a reasonable amount of time before the commercials, but I've just looked on the THIS Channel for a movie that's playing later and you won't believe it but for the movie "Rescue Dawn" starring Christian Bale, the movie is listed as 126 minutes but it's scheduled to run in a 3 hour time slot! That's 54 minutes worth of commercials. So that means for every 8 minutes that the program runs, there will be 15 interruptions of commercials, and the ads will run for 6 minutes and 45 seconds. On the other hand, "Let's Get Harry" runs for 2 hours and only has 13 minutes of ads.
I digress. I've watched lots of movies on Turner Classic Movies and people would be astounded as to the number of movies that have already been done, and even though in black and white, they were done better than the blatant rip-offs being made today. That's because Hollywood writers are lazy in my opinion, and the producers are only concerned with making money (who isn't, but still) and instead of making movies based in fact, they fill up the screen with explosions and criminals with an unlimited supply of ammunition, and throw in some high speed car chases followed by some nifty CGI, but the underlying story is formulaic: A divorced guy who doesn't pay enough attention to his kids crosses some evil kingpin and his wife or girlfriend wants to get married but the guy spends the rest of the movie dodging bullets, trying to make his kids like him, evading the question of marriage, and then there's a chase scene, more bullets, something blows up, then everyone rides off into the sunset.
And another thing. There's too many channels (I have 1,500 to choose from) so that means that there are way too many "movie stars", I mean people you never heard of, and they're needed to not only fill up the stations 24/7 programming but also - you gessed it - sell commercials. EVERYTHING in this modern world is based on ad revenue, think about it, think about how many commercials you are subjected to each day, not only on the aformentioned movie channels, but take a baseball game. Every half-inning they cram in a few so there's at a minmum 18 interruptions during baseball, and dozens during football games including the idiotic "Official's Time Out" which is nothing more than the networks cramming more commercials in because they signed a contract with either a beer company or a truck company and they GUARANTEE that come hell or high water, they WILL show X amount of commercials during each football game. And which industry makes the most ads? Simple: Insurance companies. Why? Simple: They make 40 cents on each dollar they take in, so there's an endless stream of ads from all the different insurance companies because they get to write it off as a business expense on their taxes.
In conclusion, I'd like to see a separate category on IMDB which shows whether or not a movie is a rip-off of another film. And don't get me started on movie sequels, puh-leeze. All those Bourne movies (I've never seen any, primarily because it involves another pet peeve of mine which is the "amnesiac victim", there must be several hundred movies with that theme, ugh), or all the Rocky movies (what is it now, 6, 7?), or all the "Lethal Weapons", but if that's your thing, i.e. watching a rehash of the same thing, more power to you.
There's only one movie that deserves applause for having a sequel and that was "Jean de Floret", a French film with English subtitles and its sequel "Manon of the Spring". Besides originality they're simply two of the best movies ever made. Catch them both, one after another if you can, they're simply spectacular.

reply

I myself also loved this movie when I was younger and wondered to myself just the other day "Hmmm....TV sure hasn't played Let's Get Harry in awhile....in a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong while".

I think this is like one of those movies that like people think is uh, ya know, bad or something.

reply

[deleted]