This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Lack of good storyline.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Lauren is a woman with rich parents who dreams of making it as an actress, Sandy is street smart with the mouth to match. One day Lauren is in a lobby when loud mouthed, crude Sandy comes in and fakes her way into an extension on her phone bill. Lauren later meets Michael who is the dreamboat she's always wanted after swearing off actors. Later we find that Sandy is also involved with Michael. They both find out about each other when they go to the morgue with Michael's "body" and notice...THAT"S NOT MICHAEL! And to make matters worse, people are pursuing them as they go from place to place with one goal in mind: Find Michael and make him choose. So who will suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in this case? A great film, refreshingly funny and a great classic buddy comedy of the 80s. Bette Midler and Shelly Long shine brightly in this film. The adventure flows naturally and really feels real enough

Eclectic director Arthur Hiller gives us another movie from his "odd-couple-up-to-their-neck-in-adventure" oeuvre with Outrageous Fortune. The film has obvious similarities to Hiller's earlier hit Silver Streak, and is a clear forerunner to his See No Evil Hear No Evil. In fact, the concept of ordinary characters being caught up in international intrigue found considerable favour during the '70s and '80s – besides the three Arthur Hiller films already mentioned, there's also the likes of Hanky Panky, The Man With One Red Shoe, High Anxiety and Jumpin' Jack Flash (to name but a few).Sandy Brozinsky (Bette Midler) and Lauren Ames (Shelley Long) are members of a New York acting class. They are as opposite as can be – Sandy loud, vulgar and brash; Lauren bookish, tender and sweet. Without knowing it they are both in love with the same man, Michael Sanders (Peter Coyote). When he is seemingly killed in a mysterious explosion, the two distraught lovers discover the truth about each other… and later, when asked to identify his remains, they realise that the body in the morgue is not the Michael Sanders they've shared a bed with for the past few weeks. Thrown together by chance, Sandy and Lauren embark on a cross country odyssey to track down their mystery man. Soon they are up to their necks in international espionage as it becomes clear they are not the only ones searching for Michael Sanders – indeed, the CIA and the KGB want him just as much as they do! The film is put together very slickly, with a fast-moving plot and plenty of snappy one-liners. At this point in her career, Midler was on a hot streak in a series of smash-hit comedies (Down And Out In Beverly Hills and Ruthless People being two of the biggest). Her character here is either flat-out hilarious or horribly annoying, depending on your taste in humour. Long plays it straighter and comes across very likably as the sweeter of the two hoodwinked lovers. Once the plot twists unravel themself, the film loses steam and in its final quarter becomes a disappointingly routine chase movie like any other. But up to that point, Outrageous Fortune is a lot of fun, a feminist variation of all those buddy-buddy flicks so typical of movies from the era. It has energy, vulgarity and attitude - much like its two female protagonists – and if you're looking for an entertainingly easy way to kill 100 minutes, you could do a lot worse.

Bette Midler and Shelley Long star in "Outrageous Fortune," a 1987 comedy also starring Robert Prosky, Peter Coyote, John Schuck, George Carlin and the almost unrecognizable Anthony Heald.Lauren (Long) and Sandy (Midler) are two women taking the same acting class with the brilliant, Stanislavsky-like Korzenowski (Prosky). What they don't know is that they are dating the same man, Michael (Coyote). When he's killed in a bombing, both women wind up at the morgue, and after taking a good look at the body's southern regions, realize it's not their boyfriend. Once they set out to find him, they find that the KGB and the CIA are after them, and they can't tell the good guys from the bad.This is a fun movie, with Midler a scream as a burlesque queen and Long as the uptight, Diane Chambers-like aspiring serious actress. George Carlin plays an Indian who helps them, and he's very funny.There is a lot of running in this film, up hills, leaping across cliffs, etc., as the women try to escape whomever is chasing them at the moment.A very popular film from the '80s, which was Bette Midler's movie heyday. She is a wonderful comedienne and dramatic actress - it's a shame that Hollywood's ageism caused her film career to dry up. Well, also some poor choices such as turning down Sister Act. Long did not make it to true movie stardom, but she is good here. Directed by Arthur Hiller.

This film is a pretty good example of turning the "buddy" movie into a film about two women who discover a common friendship. Shelley Long is a woman who has spent years studying for a stage acting career. As pointed out in another review on this thread, her character her is like "Diane Chambers" in CHEERS, except that Long is not lording her superior education over everyone. She does make one exception. She is trying to get into a course led by one of the great actors of this generation (Robert Prosky, in a clever role - he uses several accents), who is a Russian stage star - a "Stanislavsky" type. Prosky is quite selective about who comes in. He chooses Long because of her impressive resume. But he also allows in Bette Midler, who is ... well a hooker.Bette wants to better herself, and she'd like to be an actress. But she doesn't have the background or the money (Long has to borrow it from her parents). She gets in (it is more than hinted she sold some of her wares to Prosky). He looks amused as he decides to include her in the course.He is an intensive acting genius, and we see him demonstrate how to be realistic in many details (such as dying on stage). He is also insisting that they all take good notes, but leave their notebooks with him to be returned the following week. A hard taskmaster, he probably does know much about acting.In the meantime both Long and Midler meet Peter Coyote, and he is dating both without knowing of each other's connection. This is good, as Long and Midler dislike each other (Long looking down on this pretentious hooker, Midler hating this overbearing overachiever). Then, one day, Long is accompanying Coyote out for dinner. He enters a shop, and it suddenly explodes. Long (in deep mourning) goes to the morgue. Shortly Midler shows up, and after a brief screaming fit between them, they discover that the corpse simply can't be Coyote - it's lacking a certain piece of evidence that it is.Midler and Long decide to join forces to find out what happened to Coyote. They can't find any assistance from the police (who have an open and shut accidental death). But soon they are being pursued by Federal agents led by John Schuck. They manage to shake him off, and slowly follow the few clues they find to realize they have to cross the country to follow their lover...and to force him to choose between them.Eventually they do find Coyote, only to find another less pleasant side to him. And they find that half the world seems to be pursuing them as well.The film has great moments in it, such as Long using Prosky's training to fool some people, and Long and Midler playing Eastern Europeans trying to board a plane (the right plane) at an airport. Then there is George Carlin, who plays an American Indian with the attitudes of...well George Carlin, God bless him. The film is also interesting as Long and Midler, once their cooperation grows and they find what Coyote is like, discover that they really like each other more than they thought. Look at several scenes after the middle of the film where the ladies start helping each other with grooming tips. I suggest that this film, with THELMA AND LOUIS, finally cemented the idea that a "buddy" film did not need two men to be the "buddies". And both films showed that such lady "buddy" films could be great entertainment.