Fletch Lives

Universal Pictures | Release Date: March 17, 1989

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

40	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews

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Critic Reviews

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Jay Boyar

Effective as these actors are, it's Chase's breezy performance - with its blend of irony and insouciance - that makes Fletch Lives worth a look. He's what Alan Alda would be if Alda could ever figure out how to adapt his TV persona to the big screen. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Film’s saving grace is its scathing satirical sketches of fictional televangelist preacher Jimmy Lee Farnsworth. Read full review

Juan Carlos Coto

Fletch Lives passes over you like most Chevy Chase movies. You chuckle, maybe laugh, and afterward forget the whole thing. [17 March 1989, p.10]

Mike Clark

Except for one good recurring gag with a brakeless Cadillac, Fletch Lives is best when it's most offensive. What an unprecedented thing to say about a Chevy Chase movie - but it's true. Compared to much of the rest here, Chase's airplane nose-picking is pretty funny. [17 March 1989, p.4D]

Chris Willman

Fletch Lives is the ultimate comedy of condescension, a movie with a hero whose every other line of dialogue is a snide wisecrack directed at a fool. In this meager sequel, as in its popular predecessor, Chevy Chase demolishes every easy target in sight with a quip of the tongue. Some of the lines are funny, but after a while you just want to smack him. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Chase delivers a one-note performance, consisting mainly of predictable comebacks and salacious leers, while the characters who become the targets of his witty rejoinders are weak and silly stereotypes. FLETCH LIVES is a custom-built Chevy Chase vehicle throughout; the other performers are only along for the ride. Read full review

Hal Lipper

Chevy Chase only knows how to play Chevy Chase. Unless he jettisons his smug routine and learns to act, he will always be his and his movies' biggest liability. [17 March 1989, p.6]