Gotcha! (film)

Gotcha!
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jeff Kanew
Screenplay by	Dan Gordon
Story by	Paul G. Hensler Dan Gordon
Produced by	Paul G. Hensler
Starring	Anthony Edwards Linda Fiorentino
Cinematography	King Baggot
Edited by	Michael A. Stevenson
Music by	Bill Conti
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	May 3, 1985 (1985-05-03)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12.5 million
Box office	$10.8 million

Gotcha! is a 1985 American action comedy film, starring Anthony Edwards and Linda Fiorentino and directed by Jeff Kanew, who also directed Edwards in Revenge of the Nerds in 1984.^[1]

Jonathan Moore (Edwards) is a shy UCLA veterinary student and the reigning champion at "Gotcha", a campus-wide paintball game. While on vacation in Paris, he is seduced by an older woman, the sexy and mysterious Sasha (Fiorentino) who turns out to be an international spy. When he returns home to Los Angeles, there is a strange canister of film in his backpack and a team of KGB agents on his back. Suddenly he is in the middle of a real life-or-death game of "Gotcha".

Plot

UCLA college student Jonathan Moore (Anthony Edwards) is playing a game called "Gotcha" (popular on mid-1980s college campuses as "Assassin" or "Tag"), wherein the players are all assigned a mock "hit" on another player by use of a harmless paintball, dart, or water gun. Moore and his roommate Manolo (Nick Corri) go on a vacation to Paris. After touring some of Paris, Moore meets Sasha Banicek (Linda Fiorentino), a Czechoslovakian girl, in a cafe. Jonathan has sex with Sasha, losing his virginity.

Jonathan decides to leave Manolo (who is heading to Spain) and go with Sasha to West Berlin to spend more time with her. One night, Sasha tells Jonathan that she has to go to East Berlin to pick up a package, as she works as a courier. One night after arriving in East Berlin, Sasha leaves their hotel room and meets a German man, who tells her the location of the pickup of her package; but unknowingly, Sasha is monitored by Vlad, a Soviet agent. The next day, Sasha tells Jonathan that if she gives him a certain message, it means that he must immediately leave East Berlin, and gives him a package with a strudel. A little later, Sasha tells Jonathan to meet her at a butcher shop near their hotel, but Vlad begins to chase after her. She is ordered by the German man to use Jonathan to get the package over to West Berlin, so the next time they are together, she slips an object into his backpack. Later, Sasha is taken by Vlad and East German secret police.

Jonathan goes to Checkpoint Charlie to cross into West Berlin. Sasha is stripped and given a cavity search by the Soviets for possible espionage evidence, but nothing is found on her. Vlad arrives at the border crossing to search for Jonathan, who has crossed the border safely before he could be captured. Once in West Berlin, Jonathan finds out that his hotel room was broken into and robbed of his traveler's checks. Soviet agents eventually find Jonathan in West Berlin at a location Sasha gave him, where he meets a woman who asks for the object Sasha gave him. He gives her the strudel, but she tells him that is not the object, before she is shot by the Soviets. The agents chase Jonathan through a public park. Jumping into a water canal, Jonathan manages to escape and stumbles upon a German punk rock group headed for Hamburg, who offer him a ride to the airport.

After safely making it to the airport, Jonathan finally arrives back home in Los Angeles. Soon, a band of Soviet agents led by Vlad also arrive. Once home, Jonathan stumbles upon the object planted by Sasha, a film canister, in his backpack. Jonathan visits his parents and tells them what happened in Germany, but they do not believe any of it. Jonathan decides to call the FBI, who refuse to help him and tell him to call the CIA for help. He does this, telling them about Sasha and the film. Temporarily arrested for ramming a car, Jonathan returns the next morning to find his apartment broken into and looted.

The CIA tells Jonathan to bring them the photo film canister. At the CIA's Los Angeles headquarters, Jonathan spots Sasha, who looks like she is working there. Jonathan is able to arrange a meeting with Sasha at UCLA and uses Manolo's help to separate her from the CIA agents. Sasha admits that she is Cheryl Brewster, a CIA agent from Pittsburgh, before Vlad and his men appear and chase her and Jonathan throughout the campus. During their flight, Jonathan seizes a tranquilizer gun from the veterinary sciences building and uses it to defeat their pursuers. The Soviets are arrested, the CIA agents thank Jonathan for his help in obtaining the film, and Cheryl/Sasha tells him she wants to continue their relationship.

After they part, Jonathan talks to a pretty student who rebuffed him at the start of the movie, and she coldly turns him down. As she walks away, he aims the tranquilizer pistol and shoots her in the rear.

Cast

Production

Gotcha! was filmed in October 1984,^{[citation needed]} with principal photography in Los Angeles (in and around the UCLA campus), Paris and West Berlin.^[1]

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack album for Gotcha! was released on LP in 1985 on the MCA Records label. It features the theme song "Gotcha!" by British singer Thereza Bazar, which was recorded for the film; however the single did not chart. The album also included songs by Giuffria and Nik Kershaw, among others.^[2] Songs used in the film but not included on the MCA soundtrack album included "Two Tribes" and "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

In 2020 Intrada Records released a limited edition album of Bill Conti's 28 minute long score, two tracks of which were on the 1985 soundtrack album. One cue was re-arranged for the 1985 soundtrack album. None of the pop songs could be licensed for this release.^[3]

Reception

Vincent Canby of The New York Times noting the film "... is a small but elaborately overproduced comedy-melodrama." He went on to deride the lack of flair in the film; "... as devoid of personality as it's possible for a narrative movie to be."^[1] In a similar vein, Leonard Maltin commented that Gotcha! was, "very nearly a good movie, with some sharp dialogue to start but loses its appeal as it loses credibility."^[4] Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4. He described the European sequences as "a well-directed cat-and-mouse game" that lost its way in the final act after returning to the US, with the film's main flaw being a focus on Edwards's character when Fiorentino was far more intriguing: "I'll bet the men who made this movie just assumed it had to be told from his point of view, and never considered hers. Too bad. I think they missed their best chance."^[5]

As of November 2020^[update], Gotcha! had a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 4.95/10.^[6]

In popular culture

Gotcha! later spawned a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System for use with the Zapper light gun called Gotcha! The Sport! (1987). A line of toys based on the game and film was also released.

In the television series Chuck, the name "Sasha Banicek" is used for a character played by guest-star Melinda Clarke in the episode "Chuck vs. The Seduction" that aired on October 6, 2008.^[7]

See also

• List of American films of 1985
• Assassin
• Tag: The Assassination Game

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

• Gotcha! at IMDb
• Gotcha! at the TCM Movie Database
• Gotcha! at Letterboxd
• Gotcha! at AllMovie
• Gotcha! at Box Office Mojo

This page was last edited on 10 April 2024, at 22:36