Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher, Los Angeles journalist, really lives for his profession. As Jane Doe, he publishes articles that have caused several heads to roll in the past. Now, Fletch is at it again: In disguise as a bum, he lives at the beach, researching drugs and their dealing. One day, Fletch is addressed by Alan Stanwyk, a rich man, who asks him, the bum, a favour. For the sum of $50,000, Fletch should kill poor cancer-ridden Mr. Stanwyk with a gun, so that his wife will get the insurance money. What the guy didn't think of was Fletch's real profession. Returning into normal life, Fletch instantly takes up research not only to find out that Mr. Stanwyk is healthy as life itself but he also runs into certain connections between drug dealing at the beach, Alan Stanwyk, his private jet, the police and a very expensive piece of Land in Utah.
Not Chevy Chases best work nor director's Michael Ritchie (see DIGGSTOWN or THE GOLDEN CHILD for that). Usually, the way I rate comedies is by how much they make me laugh and this wasn't that great. Plus, I just didn't believe that Fletch could obtain all of the information he did so easily. Maybe it's the day we live in today where personal and private information is a lot more difficult to obtain than pretending to be someone else poorly. I think most people would have seen through or should have asked his character more questions and they would have nailed him.
