1989 was a heck of a year for sequels, but one seems to fly under the radar and takes a beating from critics: Fletch Lives, starring Chevy Chase. It’s not fair, if I’m honest. Sure, it’s not as good as the first Fletch, which I would say is one of the best movies of the ‘80s, but it’s way better than the 38% Rotten Tomatoes score it currently holds. Here’s why you should give the sequel another chance.
No, It’s Not As Good As Fletch, But Fletch Lives Still Has Some Memorable Moments
A big reason the original Fletch, released in 1985, was so iconic is how well-suited Chevy Chase was for playing the smart-aleck journalist/detective Irwin R. Fletcher. Chase’s performance in the movie is legendary, creating a character that is still endlessly quoted today. Chase is just as good in Fletch Lives, and that’s a hill I will die on. The script might not be as memorable as the original, but the story is completely ridiculous, in a good way.
Fletch inherits his Aunt Belle’s plantation in southern Mississippi and leaves LA for the Bayou. When he arrives, he basically finds an antebellum situation, and teams up with the property’s lone caretaker, Calculus Entropy, played by the great Cleavon Little of Blazing Saddles fame, to fight off a villainous televangelist played by R. Lee Ermey from taking over Fletch’s family’s land.
It’s not a bad plot at all, and putting Fletch in a fish-out-of-water situation is great. There are memorable scenes taking shots at the KKK, the corrupt local cops, and televised religion that might actually land better today than they did in 1989. It’s a movie I watched a lot, over and over, when I was a kid, as it, like its predecessor, was on cable television all the time.
It doesn’t have an endless stream of amazing quotes like Caddyshack, but I still have lines I quote from it. The scene where Fletch ends up in jail with a character played by Randell “Tex” Cobb is one that you just have to watch to truly appreciate. Still, the movie isn’t held in the same regard as other sequels from the era.
Fletch Lives Came Out In A Banner Year For Sequels
Movie sequels really came into their own in the 1980s. What had once been a pretty rare thing in Hollywood became the norm in that radical decade. The final year of the decade saw a slew of great sequels get released. Back to the Future II, Lethal Weapon 2, Ghostbusters II, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were all in the box office top ten in 1989.
There were also some less-well-received sequels that year, like The Fly II and The Karate Kid Part III, Not to mention releases in some long-running franchises like Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and a new James Bond movie, Licence To Kill. Plus, one of the best Christmas movies ever, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Amidst all of that, Fletch Lives was released in March of that year. It was a moderate success, but nothing like the original, and some of the reviews were so scathing, it pretty much guaranteed that another Fletch movie, which was based on the book series by Gregory Mcdonald, wouldn’t be released. That’s just not fair.