Touchstone Plus-Or-Minus: Off Beat

In the 1980s, cops in the movies weren’t there just to serve and protect. They were also expected to be hilarious. Two of the biggest hits of 1984 were Police Academy, with Steve Guttenberg leading a mob of misfit recruits, and Beverly Hills Cop starring Eddie Murphy. Before you knew it, nearly every comedian and comic actor in Hollywood was picking up a gun and a shield. So theoretically, you can understand why Touchstone would want to make Off Beat, a comedy starring Judge Reinhold, one of the breakout stars of Beverly Hills Cop, as a sweet-natured doofus pretending to be a cop. Unfortunately, whatever potential the movie might have had didn’t quite make it to the screen.

To the surprise of probably no one, there is not a whole lot of behind-the-scenes information about Off Beat out there. I wish there was because a lot of very interesting and talented people worked on this, so there’s got to be some kind of story there, right?