There is one Anthony Edwards movie from the 1980s that never seems to get talked about. It’s a movie called Gotcha!, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it. I can’t call it a Gen X classic, because I asked around, and many (most?) of my fellow Gen Xers have never heard of it, either. Even here, at a movie website, it’s like a black hole with the slacker generation. I’m here to tell you, it’s a really fun movie.
It Came As Edwards' Career Was Really Taking Off
Gotcha! is definitely an ‘80s movie that doesn’t get enough love, and that’s a little confounding to me. For starters, as I said, it’s a really fun movie that takes a college student named Jonathan (Edwards) to Europe for a summer vacation, and eventually turns into another ‘80s Cold War movie, but with some great laughs. It has a cast that includes Linda Fiorentino as a sexy Czechoslovakian spy and an appearance from Moe Green himself, Alex Rocco, as Jonathan’s father.
The movie lost money at the box office, and that’s a surprise, because Edwards’ career was really on the rise. The movie came out in 1985, right smack between 1984’s Revenge of the Nerds and a little movie from 1986 called Top Gun, which you may have heard of. He also had a small but important role in another underrated comedy, The Sure Thing, in 1985. Gotcha! was even directed by the same guy who directed Nerds, Jeff Kanew.
For Some Reason, No One Seems To Remember It
I have a good friend who, when you ask him what his favorite movie of all time is, without hesitation, he’ll answer, “Gotcha!”, and I think I might be the only person he knows who loves the movie too. As I mentioned, it has all the ingredients of a great ‘80s comedy, and it came out during the height of the Cold War, with rhetoric from both the East and the West at a pinnacle.
It’s also just a really fun story. A college kid getting caught up in a spy thriller that takes him from Paris to West Berlin, and eventually through Checkpoint Charlie and to the other side of the Berlin Wall and East Berlin. That was the stuff that made my imagination run wild in that era. East Berlin was the great unknown, and it was a little scary. Plus, there is a great moment that features Jonathan disguised as a member of a German punk band so he can sneak across the militarized border.
One reason it may be forgotten is that for years, it wasn’t available on streaming, anywhere. You couldn’t even buy or rent it on demand. Luckily, you can now at least rent it with a Prime subscription. I bought it recently and rewatched it, and it really does hold up, so if you’re looking for a good old-fashioned Cold War comedy thriller, you should check it out.
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