Dragnet

Fun spoof but it's been surpassed in the TV-series film spoof since then. Read full review

Mr. Aykroyd and Mr. Hanks play well together, but the funniest performance in the film is that of Dabney Coleman, as the smut king (who lisps). Somewhat less diverting are the car chases and the time out necessary to explain the throwaway story. Read full review

Dragnet has its share of sharp gags and memorable lines, but for the most part, it’s entertaining but forgettable, a fun romp that assuredly hits all the expected mismatched buddy-cop-movie beats and serves up the subgenre’s clichés straight, rather than subverting or lampooning them. Read full review

Entertaining enough, but a pity they didn't draft in more of the Eisenhower context. Read full review

Director Tom Mankiewicz brings little innovation and no surprises to Dragnet. It simply doesn't come off, and the viewer will be left with an empty feeling, a vacuous notion that somehow the laugh scenes slipped by unnoticed. They were never really there. Read full review

Dragnet tries very hard to parody its 1950s TV series progenitor but winds up more innocuous than inventive. Read full review

There are individual moments to remember with affection, but the plot has miles to go before we sleep. [26 June 1987, p.1]

Hanks is pleasant doing his standard playboy schtick. Aykroyd is even better, showing his ability for mimicry while revealing true feeling as an actor. He can't help it, though, that Friday's stridency grows tiresome. And that's Dragnet's main problem. As funny as the movie is, the excesses weigh it down the longer it runs. [26 June 1987, p.D1]

Tom Hanks displays his usual comic finesse as Friday's rule-bending new sidekick, but it's Aykroyd's movie -- what movie there it. The fact is, ma'am, this Dragnet doesn't add up to much. [13 July 1987, p.60]