Customer Reviews

Taking Care of Business

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Just the facts - from the back cover: Jimmy Dworski (James Belushi) is a happy-go-lucky convict who breaks out of prison and finally gets a life . . . somebody else's! When Dworski finds the daily planner book that literally runs the life of ultra-organized executive Spencer Barnes (Charles Grodin), all hell breaks loose. With newfound cash, credit cards and the keys to a Malibu mansion, the imposter Dworski embarks on an all-expense-paid trip to "Easy Street" while posing as the high-powered Barnes. Meanwhile, Spencer's life is turned upside down as he hunts through the jungles of Los Angeles for his beloved book. When these oddball opposites finally meet, it's a comedic collision you won't soon forget.

An amusing farce with Jim Belushi in a role that highlights his ample comic abilities. An all-around enjoyable movie, definitely worth a look.

I totally agree with some of the reviewers. This movie is great story-wise and acting-wise, but as a DVD, it is poor.
First of all, WHY ARE THERE STILL FULL SCREEN DVDs?
Is it for those TV morons?
When you go to the theater, you see it in WIDESCREEN!!!
Why not put BOTH versions on a DVD so everybody will be pleased.
I bought 'Roxanne' and 'Taking Care Of Business' together.
Roxanne offers full & widescreen formats for the same price.
I know that this is a 'budget' DVD, but I think that DISNEY is rather cheap on this one. No extra or choice of language whatsoever.
Like I said, Great movie but very disappointing DVD, even though it's still much better than VHS.

Jimmy Dworski (James Belushi at the best) is a happy go convict, who is soon getting out of Prison, since he win two tickets to see the World Series. But his boos warden (Hector Elizondo) says no because is a day before he`s gets out. Jimmy escapes to see the game and his friends convicts faked a kidapping so Jimmy could see the game. While Spencer Barnes (Charles Grodin) is having the worst time of his life, when his boss asked him to work for the weekend in Los Angeles. Then when Spencer arrive in the airport of L.A., Accidentally he left his money and credit cards in a book. But Jimmy has found the book but Jimmy has to do everything what Spencer has to do on that day. While in the world of Spencer everything is happening for better to worse.

James Belushi and Charles Gordin delievers good comic performances. Sharply written by Jill Mazursky & Jeffery Abrams. Directed by Arthur Miller (Outrageous Foutune). Watch for actor:Ken Foree (George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead) as a convict and Look also for Actors:John De Lancie & Gates McFadden from Star Trek:The Next Generation. An fast paced entertaining comedy. Grade:B+.

This has been one of our favorite comedies - it is a shame it is no longer available. I hope that it is someday re-released on DVD, as we would add it to our collection!

I bought this dvd cause it's an excellent movie, only to find that it states dolby digital 5.1 but it's only pro logic and also only full screen version as well. disney should be shot.
it only gets 5 stars because it's a good film.

Jimmy Dworski(James Belushi) finally got a life. The life of Spencer Barnes(Charles Grodin). Jimmy,serving time in prison for auto theft manages to get tickets for a Chicago Cubs game. He won them in a radio contest. He was scheduled for release shortly after the game. At 6 AM on a Friday,Jimmy's fellow inmates throw him a farewell party. "FAREWELL JIMMY!",the banner read. "This is an unauthorized festivity!",quipps the warden(Hector Elizondo). The warden makes a deal with Jimmy. Jimmy would be allowed temporary release from prison if the warden who's playing golf,sank the golfball. He misses so Jimmy's wish was denied. "I gotta watch the game. Please don't be an ---hole!",Jimmy tells the warden. Jimmy is forcefully returned to his cell. Jimmy successfully escapes then finds the "file-o-fax" belonging to Spencer in an airport near a payphone. Spencer is an advertising executive who is sent to Los Angeles to get a new account for his company High Quality Foods. Spencer flies to L.A. from Chicago where he lives. Jimmy is from Chicago as well(Belushi himself hails from Wheaton,IL). Spencer's wife Elizabeth(Veronica Hamel) is so upset with him that she leaves him. On the plane,he meets Debbie Lipton(Anne DiSalvo),a high school classmate. Debbie exchanges seats with another passenger so she and Spencer could reminisce. Debbie,now living in L.A.,is a make-up artist and fashion designer. She was in Chicago for a mosturizers' convention. Spencer and Debbie spend some time together. So Jimmy,so happy to be out of his cell,experiences the luxurious L.A. lifestyles. At a business meeting,Jimmy posing as Spencer,meets Diane Connors(Gates McFadden),who runs HQF. HQF is owned by a Japanese man named Sakamoto. Sakamoto later terminates Diane. The only HQF product Jimmy raves about is the potato chips. He says the hot dogs are like rubber,the frosted flakes have half the sugar of Kellogg's,the bread easily rips and the mustard tastes like crap. Diane was shocked at Jimmy's unprofessional attitude. Jimmy scores with Jewel Bentley,whose father Walter is Spencer's boss. Spencer makes it to Walter's Malibu mansion to find Jimmy there. Knowing Jimmy's impersonating Spencer,the two are briefly physically at war. At another HQF meeting,Jimmy confessed to what he did with the real Spencer Barnes alongside him. Spencer quits his job and he and Jimmy go to the Chicago Cubs game. So Elizabeth comes to Malibu to find Jewel there. Elizabeth at first thought Spencer and Jewel were having an affair. They both see on TV at the game,Jimmy catching a home run baseball and Spencer in the audience. Feeling that he's been spotted by his warden,Jimmy leaves the game with Spencer in tow(Jimmy and Spencer are now friends). They go for a cable ride just like Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor did in director Arthur Hiller's previous film,SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL. Jimmy breaks back into prison in drag as his mother with Spencer as a minister. The make-up was applied by Debbie. Jimmy was released at 6 PM Sunday,as scheduled. Sakamoto calls Spencer and wants him and "the other Spencer" to work for another company of his(Sakamoto's). Spencer declines the offer. So Spencer and Jimmy take off in the red Lotus that they drove to Jimmy's prison in. A very funny movie.

James Belushi will likely always live in the shadow of his older brother. Funny thing though, James is the better actor (as opposed to being an outsized comic legend). TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS is a fairly routine fish-out-of-water comedy, but it does feature some good performances (by Charles Grodin, doing that uptight Charles Grodin thing) and Belushi (doing his streetwise, wiseacre Jim Belushi thing), as well as some nice turns by supporting players Veronica Hamel, Anne DeSalvo, Hector Elizondo and the rather fetching--Loryn Locklin. But the film does belong to Belushi. He carries his good-natured car thief role off with aplomb.

So much so, in fact, that you wish it were a better flick. It's not horrible, but it could have been sharper, wittier and a bit less predicable. Of course, plots involving mistakean and/or assumed identities have been around since the ancients. Shakespeare made a career out of 'em. So by the late twentieth century, you really needed a new angle on this old device. TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS's "high concept" is not really much of one: escaped convict Belushi finds the filofax of retentive executive Grodin and winds up assuming the latter's identity for a weekend: a fateful one for both of them, as it turns out.

Well, fateful, but kind of predictable too. You know that when Belushi's Jimmy Dworski character takes on a high powered Japanese executive in a tennis match (a game that his American colleagues fully expect him to "throw"), he will blow his opponent out of the water, and this despite the fact he's never played tennis before and holds his racket like a baseball bat (fittingly, he escaped from prison in order to attend the World Series, in which his beloved Cubbies are playing--this being a fantasy, after all). You also know that said Japanese exec is actually going to be wowed by this brash young (pseudo-)businessman and come to appreciate the latter's straightforwardness, uninhibitedness and overall pizzazz. As will everybody else, of course.

And as hellish as things get for poor Spencer Barnes (Grodin), we know things will work out just fine for him too. Having "lost it all," he'll not only re-gain it plus more, he'll learn valuable life lessons in the process. We just know he'll re-gain the affections of his alienated wife and wind up with a better job than the one he winds up leaving behind. And he WON'T end up like his immediate supervisor: an ad exec suffering apoplexy over "Spencer's" misadventures while attempting to recover from a quadruple bypass.

Good for him. And good for Jimmy, who's released from prison at the film's end and--along with Spencer--ends up with a job offer from the Japanese executive. Happy endings all around--well, except for the big bad female exec who fires "Spencer" rather too quickly upon meeting him for the first time. (Yeah, she's plainly a harpy, and, yeah, you know she's gonna get what's coming to her, but how about giving her more than one scene? You know, establish her and her witchiness a bit before you send her packing?) For the others, it's pretty much win/win/win. For audiences, it's a bit less than that though. This is the definitive "Oh, yeah, it was OK" movie, which is something of a shame, since the actors are so good.

Cubbie fans will love it, though.

This is a hilarious film about a guy who breaks out of jail to watch the Cubs win the world series. On his quest he steals an identity to avoid being caught and a melange of misunderstandings ensue.

This movie was shown in theaters under the title "Filofax," the brand name of the 6-ring planner that was involved.