ThiefHott Too much of everything

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

SnoopyStyle In 1982 California, Wylie Cooper (Dudley Moore) is an incompetent engineer building the latest super tank's dyp gyro. He and Laura (Kate Capshaw) have a young son. The company is failing and it's all down to his work. Clair Lewis (Helen Shaver) is his supervisor and Steve Loparino (George Dzundza) is his co-worker. In 1984 Kuwait, Lieutenant T.M. Landry (Eddie Murphy) commands the super tank demonstrating for the local Sheikh. Neither man meets each other but they are undeniably connected.These are two of the more compelling comedic actors of their times. It's a real headscratcher why they aren't acting together in this movie. Instead of Dzundza, there's no reason why they couldn't put in Eddie Murphy in that role. It would be the same screen time. Back in the day, I found this movie functionally average with two comedians I love. Looking at it with modern eyes, there is a bit of cartoon racism everywhere and I don't like Wylie's roaming eyes for his boss. The bumbling international espionage is stupid and a muddled mess. The central flaw of separating these two hot comedic actors is inexcusable. It's the final flaw that drives loving these actors into not liking this movie.

parmrh I'll go against the crowd and point out that this much-reviled movie actually was quite prescient in premise. It anticipated a lot of History... and a lot of Human Error.Mayhap it was too 'out there' for audiences in 1984,...and mayhap it has become an easy target for arm chair critics to despise out-of-hand without due consideration....But after Afghanistan and Iraq... After the highly-publicized and critical defense industry design errors such as the Osprey and basics such as protective armor in Hummvees and personal protective gear for troops on the ground.... After the loss of life due to a 'so-what-if-it-works-take-the -$$$-and- we'll-fix -it-later-if-we-have to' attitude prevalent in the defense manufacturing industry....Can anyone really throw rocks at the plot line of 'Best Defense'...?Sure, it could have been executed better... Sure, Dudley Moore was still under the character-success-type-casting curse of '10'; having to be a perpetually the befuddled Randy-But-Inept Nice Guy in his every movie role....Sure Eddie Murphy was ...well...stuck being 'Eddie Murphy'... (but you really can't take that away from him, y'know !)I still maintain that in the cold, hard light of 2014... 'Best Defense' makes A Lot Of Sense....(sadly, so..SO... sorry to say)

Craig Benting (craigbenting) I cannot believe the appalling "tripe" I'm hearing from some IMDB users about this and other "bottom 100" IMDB movies.After only a few hundred votes, this movie makes it into the bottom 100??? How is that fair? Only a few hundred stuck-up movie critic wannabe's rate this movie and it gets a bottom-of-the-barrel rating?This movie is pretty good, especially when you consider it was one of Eddie Murphy's first movies. It was a little dull, but hardly worse than a 4-6 rating.Please people, let's save the 1-3 ratings for the TRULY horrible movies out there. If you give bad ratings to movies like this, you completely invalidate the entire system. These ratings have to be weighted by the number of people who voted -- you can't take 100 votes and call that comprehensive!!!

navelpluis Thus movie is sorry in the broadest sense of the word. Paramount wished it wasn't there. Dudley Moore wished he was funny. Eddie Murphy wished he hadn't cried 'I love Iraq! I'm not in this war! I'm from Cleveland!'. The BBC wished it didn't broadcast the pile of trash. Kate Capshaw (Steven Spielberg's wife) wished she wasn't in it (humming the Indiana Jones theme so she must be longing for the Temple of Doom (1984) or something). US government wishes it wasn't involved in Arabia and that Eddie Murphy didn't drive around in a tank in Kuwait. As a gyroscope the movie keeps up its own pity and regret. The story destructs itself. The worst element of the movie is the score: it absolutely keeps on dragging low to the ground and pulls every potential idea of any other collaborator of this sorry project back into oblivion. Not strong, not viril and certainly not penetrating. You wouldn't believe there's actually a novel of this material.A positive thing about the story is that the footage of the DIP-engineering process is alternated with footage from the present (two years later) with Eddie Murphy in a tank cruising Kuwait and Iraqi soil, approaching a climax. Bye bye belly button. Maybe Troma could distribute this more effectively. The only real comedy in this movie comes from the David Rasche. RIP rather than DIP: 2/10