Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd) is a straight and by-the-book cop working at Robbery Homicide in the LAPD at the same job as his uncle Joe did 20 years ago. His partner Frank quits to go goat farming. His new partner is the wacky Pep Streebek (Tom Hanks). There is a rash of strange crimes by a mysterious group called PAGAN. The partners investigate stolen animals at the zoo, a shipment of Jerry Caesar (Dabney Coleman)'s girlie magazines set on fire, and stolen toxic chemicals. The investigation leads to a giant villain named Emil Muzz (Jack O'Halloran). They discover a PAGAN gathering where they are about to sacrifice the virgin Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul). She pulls the mask off of the leader and sees the face of Reverend Jonathan Whirley (Christopher Plummer). Captain Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) relents and calls in commissioner Jane Kirkpatrick (Elizabeth Ashley) but the site has been cleaned up. Nobody believes the the guys.

The Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks pairing should be a lot more funnier. I'm not sure why it doesn't click that well. Hanks has a few fun moments. Aykroyd is doing the straight man. They should be hilarious but there are only a few chuckles. The outrageous silly crime spree is fitting for this but it wears out its welcome after awhile. Maybe Tom Mankiewicz just doesn't have the skills to give life to the jokes.

While their guns may not be naked and their police academy days long over, the similarities go way beyond the Los Angeles setting. There must be parallels of L.A. out there somewhere to explain the different heads of the various L.A.P.D. heads, in this case the breathy Elizabeth Ashley who has her hands full with detectives Dan Ackroyd and Tom Hanks. Ackroyd plays the nephew of the late Sgt. Joe Friday as evidenced by a picture of Jack Webb on his desk while his boss is none other than Harry Morgan, repeating his role from the second T.V. version. The case is a lot more complex, almost to the point of absurdity, and while there are laughs there, they aren't in regards to the Indiana Jones style rip-off plot.

While the laughs are there, the plot takes some eye-rolling to tolerate. Then, there's that cast supporting Ackroyd, Hanks and Morgan: in addition to Ashley, there's Dabney Coleman as a Hugh Hefner like girlie magazine owner, Alexandra Paul as the virginal damsel in distress, and Christopher Plummer as numero uno villain, a la Ricardo Montalban and Robert Goulet in the first two "Naked Gun" movies. "You've got balls as big as church bells", Coleman tells Plummer in a lisping southern accent, just an example of the Shakespearean dialog. Plummer is forced to speak in diabolical tones that remind me of Dr. Smith from "Lost in Space" while Ashley is forced to dress like a drag queen funeral crasher while coming off as the Leona Helmsley of law enforcement.

Ackroyd is amusing with his Jack Webb impression while Hanks seems to be playing a white version of Eddie Murphy's "Beverly Hills Cop". The two leads briefly loose the film to the hysterically funny Kathleen Freeman who will have you in hysterics as a foul mouthed witness. Veteran soap and stage actress Lenka Peterson, as Ackroyd's grandmother, is simply beautiful in her brief appearance, reminding me of Gloria Stuart ("Titanic"). Sometimes this seems to struggle for real laughs, resorting to typical '80s T&A to get word of mouth going. Having seen this in its theatrical run, I recall that I found it somewhat tedious even then, the immaturity level even mind-boggling to me at 24 years old. If this was a representation of what real L.A. police were like, that city would have been in ashes after the riots.

It's Saturday, November 6. 9:21 a.m. I've just watched "Dragnet."

A lot of old television shows have been made into movies. Most of them, frankly, have been disappointments. I have to say that the movie version of "Dragnet" is one of the better ones. Based on the cast, it should be. I'm not sure you could do any better than casting Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks in the lead roles, respectively, of Sgt. Joe Friday (supposedly the great-nephew of the Joe Friday from the series) and Tom Hanks as his new partner Pep Streebek. Both played their roles perfectly. Aykroyd was a great satirical take on Jack Webb's character, and Hanks was the perfect balance. The supporting cast - with names like Christopher Plummer and Dabney Coleman and Harry Morgan (reprising his character of Gannon from a 1969 "Dragnet" movie, who's now the police captain) - also made this worth watching.

The story has Friday and Streebek investigating some type of pagan cult that's been causing havoc on the streets of the city. Their undercover encounter with the cult at one of its gatherings was hilarious. Overall, mind you, this isn't an outrageously funny movie. It's more humorous than anything, with appeal mostly to those who've seen the original series. If you've never seen the original series a lot of the subtle humour (which revolves around Aykroyd's parody of Webb's character) will be lost. However, for those who do know the original series, it's a fun nostalgia trip with a good cast.