DRAGNET distributed by UNIVERSAL pictures (1987). Dan Aykroyd is a Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch comedy alumni. He portrays Joe Friday who is the nephew of Sergeant Joe Friday from the classic "Dragnet" radio series (1949-57) and the TV series, (1951-59) plus the revival series, (1967-70).
The production budget climbed to $20 million. It grossed $66 million at the world-wide box office. It was a hit for Universal but there was no sequel planned. Even though Hollywood is a town built on sequels.
Joe Friday (Aykroyd) and his new partner Pep Streebek (Tom Hanks) investigate a series of thefts that lead to a pornographic magazine called, "Bait." A church group fights against this magazine posing as a cult. Friday and Streebeck go deep undercover to reveal something much worse.
Dan Aykroyd earned rave reviews with his spot-on portrayal of Joe Friday. Many critics believed that he deserved an Oscar nomination as "Best Actor." Comedy films never get respected by the Academy. That's just the way it is... Aykroyd is absolutely hilarious in this film.
Today in 2024 - The original "Dragnet" is long forgotten. Joe Friday is a classic character with his classic line, "Just the facts ma'am." Plus, the theme song introduction... (Older fans follow it on the Internet. I love the radio series which gave us crime in Los Angeles of the early 1950's).
"Dragnet" 1987 is on Blu-Ray. Check it out. You won't be disappointed.
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