Blind Date (DVD)

Just laughter

Blind Date
Cast: Bruce Willis, Kim Basinger, John Larroquette, William Daniels
Music: Henry Mancini
Cinematography: Harry Stradling Jr
Editing: Robert Pregament
Written by Dale Launer
Directed by Blake Edwards
Prime Pictures

Some 18 years since its release, Blind Date looks a trifle too dated, and Bruce Willis somehow looks totally ill at ease in a full-length comedy role that forces him to fall from trees, jump into swimming pools, hide under beds, and try wisecracking even as he drives one ramshackle of a car.
There isn't much of a premise for the film. Kim Basinger as Nadia Gates is Walter Davis' (Willis) blind date he is forced to tag along to a crucial company party. The girl has a problem though. A few drops of beverage and she goes wild. The party turns out to be a disaster; Walter loses his job, and to top it all, there is John Larroquette, the insane former lover of Nadia following him.
The absurd turn of events that night lands Walter in jail, and lo, Larroquette saves him through guile and cunning. His reward: Marry Nadia. Walter tries hard to scuttle the big day, and how he accomplishes it with a little help with beverage-filled chocolates makes the rest of the film.
Blind Date has its share of laughter; and those moments are genuinely funny. Only they are too sparse for comfort.
Die-hard Willis fans are in for a disappointment but they could be consoled by the brilliant comic timing of Larroquette. He is the relief.