User reviews

Blake Edwards once again turned to his bread-and-butter genre, and kept things nice and simple. However, for whatever reason, this downplayed treat was and is often panned by critics left and right. I submit to you that this is because most of us just don't get it.

I'll use the plot portent to tell you what this movie isn't, first of all. Despite appearances, it's not about up-and-coming, wannabe yuppie Walter Davis (Bruce Willis), not really about his blind date of the title with the beautiful and potentially deadly Nadia Gates (Kim Basinger), not about psychotic defense lawyer and jealous ex David Bedford's (John Laroquette) attempts to break the two up and steal back his first love, and not about the punches and rolls with which these people, along with their families and acquaintances, must deal.

It's just my theory, but I think most of us didn't get this movie because it was a humorous commentary on the time during which it was made. This movie is all about the '80s; the yuppie culture, the self-absorption, the repeated attempts of folks to find solace in getting and having things, and our near-tragic couple's struggle to be who they are, even if it doesn't fit with '80s yuppie culture, and embrace what's important. Consider it--during her drunken binge, Nadia assaults everything that could make Walter a yuppie as if it were a well-organized plan. Walter, in turn, tries his hand at the same thing, mostly upon David and car salesman brother Ted (late, great Phil Hartman). Sure the details give a chuckle or two, but there's an almost cerebral humor going on under the surface of the film, right at the core, which pokes fun at a cornerstone of life in the '80s.

This led to the movie's downfall in favor, since the very people at which the movie so heavily pokes fun were probably among the first ones to see it premiere in the '80s. Even if they got it, they probably didn't appreciate the joke. Essemtially, Edwards had spoofed the '80s DURING the '80s. A gutsy move, and witting or unwitting, this gave it a kind of staying power. It really is about more than you think.

So, if you're one of the lonely soldiers who likes the movie, try to view it in this context and see what you think of it. If you hated it, please try to observe this point of view, and again, see what you think. Blind Date is one of the most different comedies to emerge from this decade. No matter where you sit on the quality issue, perhaps it deserves a second look.

The only other Blake Edwards I've seen is "10", but I do prefer this. "Blind Date" isn't wall-to-wall gut-busting, but there are all sorts of little things (touches, gags, what-have-you) that really make this an enjoyable movie. The two leads make for solid comedic actors (Basinger and her million dollar scream makes a great sillyass drunk, Willis playing against type as a high-strung business type . . . and he's hilarious when he loses his sh|t). And at some point along the way, William Daniels strolls in and owns the whole flick. Marvelous stuff.

One scene in particular had me geeking out pretty hard. John Larroquette's office looks out onto the (still under-construction) Fox Plaza, otherwise known as the Nakatomi Building. That was awesome.

7/10

I love this film. This was Bruce Willis' first box office film in a leading role. It's a nice little film that has its funny moments. Blind Date is not Citizen Kane, but it's sure a good film to watch on a day off. When Kim Basinger gets drunk, that's where the funny moments start. She goes from being a sweet southern belle to the date from hell. She embarrasses him at a business dinner, goes ga-ga at a club, gets his car lifted, and drives him to the point of insanity. Meanwhile, ex-boyfriend Larroquette is stalking them around the town driving them nuts. His character isn't given much depth, but he works with it. All in all, it's a funny, innocent film that will make you laugh.

"Walter Davis" (Bruce Willis) is a dedicated, hard-working employee for a company that is pulling out all the stops to impress a possible new client. As a result he desperately needs a new date for the office dinner party. As luck would have it his brother "Ted Davis" (Phil Hartman) just happens to know of someone named "Nadia Gates" (Kim Basinger) who recently arrived in Los Angeles and so Walter takes a chance and calls her on the phone. When he gets to her apartment he is surprised at how attractive she is and wanting to loosen her up a bit he gives her some champagne even though his brother warned him not to give her any alcohol. Big mistake. Anyway, rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a pretty enjoyable comedy for the most. Admittedly there were some slow scenes here and there but after the first 15 minutes or so it really got going. I especially liked Kim Basinger who performed quite well and looked absolutely gorgeous. Be that as it may I rate this movie as above average.

I actually love this movie, it's endearing and silly! Bruce Willis is similar to his Moonlighting character, and Kim Basinger is a charmingly tipsy blonde who takes the uptight Walter out on the Blind Date of his life!

One of my favorite 80's comedies. Many very funny and memorable scenes. It's a fun, light-hearted film about a blind date gone awry. Of course, everything that can happen DOES happen on this particular date, and many laughs are the result. The best scene is when Walter and Nadia go to a restaurant after Nadia has had too much to drink. Apparently, she has some sort of chemical imbalance to liquor, and things go haywire in front of Walter's business associates.

Released in 1987, "Blind Date" stars Bruce Willis as a workaholic who is forced to get a blind date (Kim Basinger) for an important company dinner meeting. Everything goes awry when she has too much to drink. John Larroquette co-stars as the girl's crazy ex and Stephanie Faracy has a small role.

This is a likable farce with quite a few laughs, but not enough to give it a higher rating. Being shot in 1986, everything about it screams mid-80s – the big hair, hideous mullets and music with electronic drums. Plus it's cool seeing Willis when he was young and with a full head of hair. On the negative side, even farces have to stay somewhere within the bounds of plausibility, but "Blind Date" sometimes goes over-the-top goofy, like at the midpoint when the house moves away while hooligans run wild in the neighborhood. Nevertheless, this is worthwhile for some laughs, particularly if you like the cast.

The film runs 95 minutes and was shot in the Los Angeles area.

GRADE: B- or C+ (5.5/10)

Bruce Willis (in his pre-action hero days)is perfect as the hapless Walter Davis who finds his whole life crashing down on him after just one night with his sister-in-law's cousin, Nadia (Kim Basigner). The reliable Blake Edwards is in the director's chair so there are many funny moments in store. A winning romantic comedy.

with some very funny scenes! John Larroquette is very good and I always enjoy William Daniels. The interplay between them is classic. It is mostly physical comedy, which is apparently not funny to everyone, from the looks of the ratings here, but I liked it. I also prefer Bruce Willis doing comedy. And while capable in the role, Kim Basinger is nothing to write home about.

The story moved clumsily along from one idiotic situation to another none of which were really tied together by the end of the movie. Bruce Willis' character changed twice during the movie, but the changes were sudden, and the character never evolved. Kim Basinger's character was like a Dr. Jekyll and Miss Hyde which never really worked, and John Laroquette's character had a limited redundant vocabulary (I'll kill you), and a running gag of driving his car into buildings which really didn't work when you discovered in the latter part of the movie that he was a defense lawyer. These three actors made the movie tolerable, but it would have been much better if the writer and the director had never made the movie to begin with.

I saw this film when it first came out and I laughed out loud at quite a few scenes and thoroughly enjoyed it. Both Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger are excellent and there was obvious comic chemistry between them. There also plenty of great lines and performances from the supporting cast too, especially from John Larroquette (Basinger's psychotically obsessed erstwhile boyfriend). It was a complete mystery to me why it was so panned on release, but reading some of the comments here I am glad to see that this minor gem is finally getting the recognition it deserves. All I'll add is: dobermans, golf balls, moonwalking and an abject lesson in why you should never get your new girlfriend drunk.

This movie is an easy-going one. Light atmosphere, nice gags, good and not-so-good joking all the way, young Kim and Bruce, and fine urban/suburban scenery. It's kind of a very warm family movie that can suit nearly every evening when there is nothing to do (though some humour is rather adult). My opinion is that they could not handle the script better than this.

Don't know how about others, but to me this movie is very neat and quite funny. Though they shouldn't have called the dog "Rambo", while "First Blood" is one of my absolute favourites. How dare they! Solid 7 out of 10. Thanks for attention.

Blake Edwards tries to combine visual and verbal slapstick, and he delivers a few (scattered) laughs, but his direction is too static for this kind of wild comedy. The film is a mildly pleasant misfire, and Willis wasn't yet comfortable enough to be able to carry a movie on his own. There is a funny little performance by Daniels, who plays a judge.

BLIND DATE (1987)*** Bruce Willis, Kim Basinger, John Larroquette, William Daniels, Phil Hartman. Willis in his first film during his "Moonlighting" hey-day is faced with the blind date from hell Basinger, a bombshell who "loses control" with one drink of alcohol, causing a night of slap-stick heavy consequences. Larroquette is a riot as her zealously jealous pinhead ex hellbent on destroying Willis. Best bit: Larroquette's car destruction. Directed with flair by ace Blake Edwards.

My rating for this movie is the clearest 7 out of 10. It's just too good entertainment though it's just too bad. The first point is much stronger.

Surprising that John Larroquette can make a nice psycho. I won't bother discussing whether his character is believable or not. But you can laugh very much because of him. Not in the very first scene he appears, but in all the later. It only gets better. The situations are absolutely absurd, but you can't help enjoying them. (Why should you?)

Nor do I want to discuss the credibility of Kim Basinger's character. But she is just too wonderful, as she is always. When her character starts to fall out of line, she makes me feel a small and bizarre deal of joy, she can really make you laugh in some scenes and she also works out real emotion in some scenes - in a movie of this kind. Apparently there are people who think of her as a dumb blonde (!) whose job is nothing but being beautiful or something like that. I can't understand this, she's actually a real good actress. She doesn't play a complex or somewhat character here, but it's her who manages to make much fun of it. She's successful!

So everything in the movie works. The madness of the plot, the showdown-like action scenes in that big and crazy house, and that one thing with the brandy... don't ask me why it works. And Bruce Willis...well he's not bad... but he can't really be but Bruce Willis, that tough, blood-smeared guy in his muscle-shirt, can he?

No, actually I liked him more in "Mortal Thoughts", "Death Becomes Her" and "Nobody's Fool" than I did in this one.

Walter Davis (Bruce Willis) is required to bring a date to a company function. A relative (Phil Hartman) know for finding weird blind dates seems to have located the perfect date Nadia Gates (Kim Basinger;) the only caveat is that she is unstable when liberated. Walter was warned. Naturally the warning must be an exaggeration as we all get a little tipsy. Nope it was right on the money. Nadia who also gives warning goes from polite to helpful to very helpful. To top this off she is being doggedly followed by a psychotic cop ex- boyfriend (John Larroquette.) This is just for starters.

Filmmaking legend Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany's) is the man behind the camera. He brings a lot of class and experience to what could have been a generic romantic comedy. His widescreen compositions and long, moving camera takes add a touch of sophistication. Many scenes are done in one long take, lending a theatrical edge to the humor. Whilst Willis and Basinger are the main cast, a big nod must go to John Larroquette who plays the maniac David. He provides almost all the laughs. There is also a starring role for William Daniels the guy who voiced KITT from Knight Rider. And he swears, which is interesting.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Walter Davis (Bruce Willis) is overworked with no personal life. His work friend Denny is a slimball womanizer. They have a new big traditional Japanese client. His boss Harry Gruen (George Coe) require everybody with first class dates to a dinner with the new client. His brother Ted (Phil Hartman) sets him up with his wife's cousin Nadia Gates (Kim Basinger) as a blind date. He's warned not to get her drunk or else she'll get out of control. The date goes well even after they run into her ex-boyfriend David Bedford (John Larroquette). For some reason, he gives her some alcohol and away she goes.

Director Blake Edwards is running on fumes. Most importantly, I don't buy Bruce Willis as this character. This character is suppose to be a workaholic office drone. Kim Basinger is bad at drunk acting which is a real art. There has to be a class for that. Everything about this is badly manufactured. None of it is terribly funny. The slapstick and the ridiculous setups don't work. I don't understand why he gives her a drink in the first place. The setup should be that she accidentally takes a sip. The bright side is that I don't actually hate these characters. I just don't necessarily care about them.

I'd give this a six or seven. The first half of the movie is an absolute riot, with both Kim Basinger and Bruce Willis doing a great job with physical comedy. However, the second half drags despite a near film-stealing performance by William Daniels, as tart as ever. As mentioned in an earlier review, the continuity of the story stumbles in several places, most notably when the two main characters declare that they never want to see each other and, without benefit of any developing scenes, suddenly can't live without each other. Looks like part of the film got left on the cutting room floor. Unfortunately, this is a consistent aspect of Blake Edwards' films (see Skin Deep, which is almost unintelligible). This film is no exception.

Still, if it comes up on cable (pay channels only), you could do a lot worse than Blind Date.

Bruce Willis made this film in the middle of his stint in the hugely popular TV Show Moonlighting, and it's very much in keeping with the fun side of that particular show. I remember watching this at the cinema many years ago with my then new girlfriend, and I remember laughing heartily as Bruce prats about falling over things and being thrust into ridiculous situations caused by the (then) luscious Kim Basinger. Viewing it now 20 years later I still have a soft spot for it, but it plays out more as a time capsule oddity in view of Willis's subsequent career. He was not very far away from making action genre template Die Hard, and that is the context in which to view this early comedic effort.

The plot revolves around Walter Davis (Willis), who needs a date for a very important business dinner, his brother sets him up on a blind date with his wife's cousin Nadia (Basinger) with the express warning of not getting her drunk as she goes wild when taking too much booze. Naturally things go from chaos to bigger chaos as Nadia promptly gets drunk and tears Walter's world to shreds. Some fun set pieces and tidy humour dialogue keep the proceedings jovial enough, but a running gag with one of Nadia's ex boyfriends turning up quickly becomes annoying, and the standard plot gag of Nadia ruining everything also becomes tiresome.

It's got it's moments but just not enough to lift the film above average, the two leads do well enough to keep the mood going, but ultimately the film for me is straight down the middle with a rating of 5/10.

Bruce Willis plays a workaholic Walter Davis, whose brother Ted (Phil Hartman) sets him up with this gorgeous woman Nadia Gates (Kim Basinger).There's one thing about Nadia you should know, though.If she has even a little bit of alcohol, she loses control and becomes wild. The legendary director Blake Edwards directed Blind Date in 1987.It has a brilliant cast.Bruce and Kim shine together at the time they were both oh so young.Bruce turned 50 on Saturday and you could say he now has the legend value.In this movie he takes the lead for the first time. The next year, in 1988, he had an action classic called Die Hard coming. Next year there should be coming Die Hard 4.0, so can't wait to see that.Other actors do a great job too.There are John Larroquette as David Bedford, Nadia's ex, who's doing an excellent job and William Daniels, who's known as the voice of KITT in Knight Rider and George Feeny in Boy Meets World is marvelous.Phil Hartman, who is sadly gone now after his wife shot him in 1998, is wonderful.There certainly is a cast to remember.I remember the first time I saw this movie back in 1994.I was the biggest Bruce Willis fan at the time and I enjoyed this movie very much.These days it doesn't work quite as good, but it's still pretty enjoyable flick.It offers some great comedic moments that bring a grin on your face.

Bruce's baby starring lead, and what an odd film to start off his career, 3 weeks before Fred Dryer came out with his baby starring lead in the middle eastern action pic, showing his Death Before Dishonor, but enough talk about Fred. Blind Date is an adventurous and freshly plotted take on the Blind Date. Original it is as, Willis, good as workaholic, Walter, should of known better to let his date (who does warn him) drink ailment, and he was mislead by his slimy brother (Hartman). Basinger as the hot pretty thing, Nadia, who was so impressive as an actress in these 80's films, and still maintains her great acting chops, gives new meaning to "losing control". Her ex, Laroquette who only multiplies Willis's misfortune, loses control of another kind. He's a rampant psycho, and as we discover later, horrifyingly, a lawyer, and he loses control of his car a few times too, 3 infact. not watching ahead of the paint store, or chicken barn he's about to crash into n crashes into. Laroquette here, was nauseating, and he, too like Basinger were better acting forces than Willis, as was others. What I really didn't like, funnily enough, was the last twenty minutes, in contrast, to what preceded it. On the whole, Blind Date, is such zany fun, though kind of lost it's way, after the eventful night before. Still, you can't ignore this one.