This film is remembered well from when I was 14. It's another film that got hidden away from the mainstream 21st century movie world. Just one of the guys is another example of that, and both that and this film I have never found on DVD in any stores. Too many people find them both B movies, and B movies from that era don't make it to the 21st century like the A movies do. Examples of B movies from 80s: the two I already mentioned, Frog, My stepmother was an alien, The invisible kid, The boy who could fly, Killer klowns from outer space, walk like a man, and others. Examples of 80s A movies: Back to the future, Ferris Bueller, The breakfast club, Weird science, Sixteen candles, Big, Rain man, Batman, Twins, and many others.
Opportunity knocks was in my opinion a very good film with con man Dana Carvey, and is less talked about than the much inferior, more stupid Dana Carry con man film 2002's Master of disguise. Dana and partner Todd Graff are con partners who are basically still on the lower end of the ladder but wishing to climb up it. They owe $750 to big guy Pinky (another ironic gangster name, common thing in these kind of films). Pinky works for big mob boss Sal (James Tolkan, Mr Strickland from Back to future films ). They really land onto Sal's hit list after stealing his car, abandoning it and allowing it to get vandlelised, plus 60 grand in cash being stolen from trunk. Dana and Todd, now with Sal having bullets with their names on them, flee and end up breaking into a nice upper middle class house whos owner David is on a three month vacation to India. Along the way are several comical skits from Dana including (a couple more India references) an Indian accent with an attitude, another Indian accent with Leprosy, a gas/ furnace repair man scam, and a jump in front of a car scam, all for chump change. Dana wants to move up in the world, and with aid from his retired big league con man uncle, he gets his chance in the big leagues himself. He takes the nice house of David and poses as his old college buddy Johnathan since Dana overhears how David's real buddy Johnathan who was gonna house sit dropped out last minute to take some big money making job. There "Johnathan" meets David's parents Milt (Robert Loggia) and his wife Mona. Things really take off from there and Dana really starts living it up with his new false yuppie lifestyle with everyone in Dave's family being none the wiser to his scheme. That includes beauty Ann who really falls for his so called educated, worldly, witty, big business man position in life. I would not necessarily say that David's family is dumb for falling for his charade since he really pulls it off quite convincingly.
There are some very good scenes and a few dumb ones while Dana is mascarading as Johnathan. The good scenes involve Dana/"Johnathan" going to Milt and Mona's country club for lunch while Dana gets to work with some very amusing lines (the Chatuea la fete wine scene, the comment to the host "where does one go to drain the lizard?", Dana to Milt after the waiter pours his wine: "is he gonna come by and burp me too?", Dana to Milt after Milt starts talking heavy business (that Johnathan would know about but not Dana): "I think we're boring the ladies". Mona: "Thank you Johnathan".). More good scenes and lines come while Dana/ "Johnathan" is at Milt's office such as the conversation with the Japanese man about the Malcolm blowers, the "George Bush" scene at the stadium bathroom, the barmitzva, the entire plot with Sal getting set up by Dana and his uncle posing as government building commissioner, and some of the scenes while he's getting romantically attached with Ann.
The couple of dumb scenes are: the scene with Dana/"Johnathan" in the company bathroom telling everyone that the bathroom is the place where people come up with the best business ideas, and then the way Milt and everyone cheer him for that. Seriously? The other very bad scene, the worst one is Dana/ "Johnathan" singing "Born to be wild" at a club as "Wildman". The way he sang it, the way he danced, especially that erotic crawl on the ground towards the audience, and the way the audience including the guys were screaming and reaching their arms out at him like the girls did at Elvis concerts. Are you serious!? It was embarrassingly awful to watch. And also the way everyone called him Wild man and Pinky seeing him and trying to come after him. Awful, the whole scene. This paragraph here is the reason I subtracted points from my review. But the other 7 points are from how well the rest of the film was.
Opportunity knocks was in my opinion a very good film with con man Dana Carvey, and is less talked about than the much inferior, more stupid Dana Carry con man film 2002's Master of disguise. Dana and partner Todd Graff are con partners who are basically still on the lower end of the ladder but wishing to climb up it. They owe $750 to big guy Pinky (another ironic gangster name, common thing in these kind of films). Pinky works for big mob boss Sal (James Tolkan, Mr Strickland from Back to future films ). They really land onto Sal's hit list after stealing his car, abandoning it and allowing it to get vandlelised, plus 60 grand in cash being stolen from trunk. Dana and Todd, now with Sal having bullets with their names on them, flee and end up breaking into a nice upper middle class house whos owner David is on a three month vacation to India. Along the way are several comical skits from Dana including (a couple more India references) an Indian accent with an attitude, another Indian accent with Leprosy, a gas/ furnace repair man scam, and a jump in front of a car scam, all for chump change. Dana wants to move up in the world, and with aid from his retired big league con man uncle, he gets his chance in the big leagues himself. He takes the nice house of David and poses as his old college buddy Johnathan since Dana overhears how David's real buddy Johnathan who was gonna house sit dropped out last minute to take some big money making job. There "Johnathan" meets David's parents Milt (Robert Loggia) and his wife Mona. Things really take off from there and Dana really starts living it up with his new false yuppie lifestyle with everyone in Dave's family being none the wiser to his scheme. That includes beauty Ann who really falls for his so called educated, worldly, witty, big business man position in life. I would not necessarily say that David's family is dumb for falling for his charade since he really pulls it off quite convincingly.
There are some very good scenes and a few dumb ones while Dana is mascarading as Johnathan. The good scenes involve Dana/"Johnathan" going to Milt and Mona's country club for lunch while Dana gets to work with some very amusing lines (the Chatuea la fete wine scene, the comment to the host "where does one go to drain the lizard?", Dana to Milt after the waiter pours his wine: "is he gonna come by and burp me too?", Dana to Milt after Milt starts talking heavy business (that Johnathan would know about but not Dana): "I think we're boring the ladies". Mona: "Thank you Johnathan".). More good scenes and lines come while Dana/ "Johnathan" is at Milt's office such as the conversation with the Japanese man about the Malcolm blowers, the "George Bush" scene at the stadium bathroom, the barmitzva, the entire plot with Sal getting set up by Dana and his uncle posing as government building commissioner, and some of the scenes while he's getting romantically attached with Ann.
The couple of dumb scenes are: the scene with Dana/"Johnathan" in the company bathroom telling everyone that the bathroom is the place where people come up with the best business ideas, and then the way Milt and everyone cheer him for that. Seriously? The other very bad scene, the worst one is Dana/ "Johnathan" singing "Born to be wild" at a club as "Wildman". The way he sang it, the way he danced, especially that erotic crawl on the ground towards the audience, and the way the audience including the guys were screaming and reaching their arms out at him like the girls did at Elvis concerts. Are you serious!? It was embarrassingly awful to watch. And also the way everyone called him Wild man and Pinky seeing him and trying to come after him. Awful, the whole scene. This paragraph here is the reason I subtracted points from my review. But the other 7 points are from how well the rest of the film was.