Opportunity Knocks (film)

Opportunity Knocks
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed byDonald Petrie
Written byMitchel Katlin
Nat Bernstein
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySteven Poster
Edited byVirginia Katz
Marion Rothman
Music byMiles Goodman
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • March 30, 1990 (1990-03-30)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13 million
Box office$11,359,129

Opportunity Knocks is a 1990 American comedy film starring Dana Carvey. It was directed by Donald Petrie.

Synopsis

Con men Eddie Farrell and Lou Pesquino need cash fast and pretend to be repair men sent to fix a gas leak. The con fails, but they escape.

Eddie and Lou find an empty house that they decide to burglarize. When they learn from a message on the answering machine that the owner is out of the country and the man who was going to house-sit can't make it, they spend the night.

The next day, Eddie and Lou are on the run from thugs sent by local gangster Sal Nichols who mistakenly thinks they stole a briefcase containing $60,000. After they find themselves separated, Eddie takes refuge in the empty house.

In the morning, Eddie walks out of the shower and meets Mona Malkin, whose son owns the house. She assumes Eddie is the house-sitter. Eddie plays along, meeting Mona's businessman husband Milt, who offers him a job.

Eddie decides to run a "love con" on Milt's daughter Annie in order to gain access to Milt's money. However, Lou is captured by Nichols.

Eddie and his aunt Connie and uncle Max conspire to get Nichols off their backs for good. Along the way, Eddie falls in love with Annie.

Cast

Reception

Box office

The film was not a success and earned $11 million against a production budget of $13 million.[1] The film's original teaser trailer involved Carvey's Saturday Night Live character The Church Lady, though she does not appear in the film.[2]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a score of 11% based on reviews from 9 critics.[3]

Soundtrack

The song "Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World" by Johnny Clegg is featured over the end credits.

References

  1. ^ "'Turtles' Take: $50.9 Million in Two Weeks : Box office: The kids movie featuring the wise-cracking quartet of terrapins is close to setting a record for an independent film". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  2. ^ "The Church Lady is only teasing you, moviegoers". Tampa Bay Times. 1990-03-11. Archived from the original on 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
  3. ^ "Opportunity Knocks". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 2024-09-19. Retrieved 2018-09-07.