10 Movie Sequels That Got A Raw Deal

Director Michael Ritchie was famous for knowing how to control Chevy Chase. The actor, known for improvising and generally just being difficult, was already gaining notoriety in Hollywood after leaving SNL rather discourteously to seek individual success. Ritchie offered a deal while shooting Fletch, arguably Chase's signature 80s role: Do one take as scripted, and I'll film all the improv you want.

One can imagine the stack of film Fletch's editor had to sift through when putting together an Assembly Cut, but Ritchie's work managed to perfectly balance Chase's appeal with a crackerjack mystery.

The character was not an original, but from a series of novels from Gregory MacDonald. Irwin Maurice Fletcher, of the novels, is funny, but in radically different ways from Chase. The one crossover from the novels beyond the basic plot and characters is the lead's quick wit that served the first film so well.

Fletch Lives was an affront to fans of the novel series. Not only was not an adaptation of one of the many novels (this writer's favourite: Fletch Won), but an original work that abandoned any of the books' mythology. If other characters from the books appeared, they did so briefly to serve narrative purpose, only to be written out early.

The question of how much you enjoy it depends on how much mileage you get out of Chase and a reasonably decent mystery for a comic film.