Even in costume Wagner and Powers struggle with doing Laurel and Hardy.
Lots of clichés here. The man plotting it is moving chess pieces. How many times have we seen that? But to muddy the waters they have a chess writer here and a man who went to a masquerade party as a castle. Who does that? It seems an unwieldy sort of costume.
While I'm on the subject, they have a Hawaiian detective Whoo played by one of my favorite actors, the shamefully mis- and underutilized James Shigeta, reduced to saying "Whoo knows," tapping his forehead. Who wrote this thinking it was funny?
Also on the strength is David Leisure, whose big break came playing in comic car commercials. He's wonderfully smarmy. Though I think the best addition to the movie series is Paul Williams playing Max's shady bookie.
Lots of un-p.c. Language in this one which is fine with me. I consider p.c.-ers the new Spanish Inquisition, finding heresy wherever the look for it. But this movie series uses lots of sloppy slow-mo, which looks bad.
The Harts are pretty dim in this one. Jennifer overhears someone plotting a murder. But then, it's s literary weekend. Full of authors. Didn't it occur to her it was a mystery writer plotting out his new story? But then, the things this mystery writer plots tend to come true . . .
So, we have plenty of red herrings on this stew but I didn't find it engaging. Maybe you will.
