Don't Forget To Love, part 3 of 24

Welcome to the Single-Minded Movie Blog advent calendar. Between the 1st and the 24th of December every day will bring you a short post about a film or a TV-show you shouldn't forget to love.

Stakeout (1987)

This actually came out the same year as Lethal Weapon. That was back when John Badham made real movies, when Richard Dreyfuss could still play the lead, and Madeleine Stowe still had her own lips. The combination of hardcore action movie and buddy comedy - that made Lethal Weapon such a hit - works its magic here too.

The banter between Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez, the pranks between the stakeout night shift and the day shift, plus a few outright slapstick moments, is combined with a sweet and gentle love story between Dreyfuss and Stowe. Meanwhile the ex-boyfriend, a genuinely menacing Aidan Quinn, moves ever closer, representing a real, undeniable threat.

It's not Shakespeare or Strindberg, but make no mistake, it takes skill to create a film that can do all these things, without turning into a mess. Oh, and there's a scene where Madeleine Stowe steps out of the shower naked.

Never forget to love it.