If they'd stuck to the style of the beginning, this pastiche on the old TV cop series of the Fifties might have been a gem. It's still fair old-fashioned entertainment, but it gives in too soon to a plot that looks like a throwoff from the Our Man Flint or Matt Helm series. Dan Aykroyd is the modern-day nephew of the now-deceased Joe Friday, immortalised on TV by Jack Webb; like his uncle, he goes strictly by the book - like, ma'am, he just wants the facts. Tom Hanks completes the star pairing as Friday's new partner, a maverick who gradually assumes some of Friday's identity, as the latter becomes involved in investigating pagan murders, by a sect led by a sadly come-down Christopher Plummer, that's out to control the city. Aykroyd is suitably stolid, throwing his lighter moments into amusing relief, in what was his best work before Driving Miss Daisy. Director Tom Mankiewicz, who should have taken this performance as his keystone, has been quoted as saying 'I believe good comedy should have a base in realism.' Right you are Tom: a pity you didn't apply the maxim here.

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