Con men Eddie and Lou owe a lot of money to mobster Sal. In a desperate attempt, they decide to randomly rob an empty mansion at night. However, once inside, they hear two messages on the answering machine: one, that its owner, David, has left it to the house sitter Jonathan while on a trip; two, that Jonathan has called in to say he cannot make it. Eddie and Lou thus stay in the mansion. When David's parents, Mona and Milt show up, Eddie randomly introduces himself as Jonathan, and thus gets dragged to parties and business meetings. When he proposes a business idea of adds on toilet doors, Milt starts to adore him, whereas his daughter Annie falls in love with the fake Jonathan. When Sal shows up again, Eddie tricks him into thinking he got a demolishing job from an official, and thus Sal gets arrested when he demolishes a building. Eddie finally admits he lied to all, but Annie still decides to stay with him.
Comedian Dana Carvey's foray into film world was met with lukewarm reception, since his "kick-off" comedy of mistaken identity "Opportunity Knocks" is an easily watchable, but also bland and meagre flick that did not do justice to its main star's talents. It starts off good, with several funny jokes—one of the best is the set-up where Eddie and Lou, out of desperation, break into a mansion to rob it at night, but suddenly hear two messages on the answering machine: the one where the owner, David, says he is out on a trip and that he left everything to his house-sitter Jonathan; and the other right afterward, in which Jonathan calls to say he cannot make it. There is an immediate jump cut to Eddie and Lou enjoying playing pool and drinking in the mansion the next day, marveling at their serendipity. Another good sequence establishes Eddie's uncle, Max: after a conversation in the exterior, Eddie wants do depart, but says this to Max: "Before I go, can I have my wallet back?" Max then snickers and returns his wallet, but after a while, this time he stops Eddie: "Can I have my watch back?" This amusing double-theft mirrors a little bit a similar situation in Lubitsch's "Trouble in Paradise", which also helped establish these characters who constantly trick each other. Unfortunately, some 35 minutes into the film, the storyline runs out of steam and settles for a timid, unmemorable and dull entertainment with too much "empty walk". A lot of jokes are tried, but they are without a truly sate punchline or a point. The sequence where Eddie improvises talking Japanese when he encounters a Japanese in front of Milt, is forced, whereas the subplot in which mobster Sal is so naive he falls for a Eddie's trick who smuggled Max pretending to be a building commissioner who leaves the office to make a big deal outside, in a crowded hallway, is unconvincing. The screenplay needed better jokes to keep up the viewers' interest to the end, though it does end on a rather satisfying conclusion thanks to a charming little ending.
Grade:+
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