SnoopyStyle Petty criminal Bernie LaPlante (Dustin Hoffman) gets convicted. Before sentencing, his lawyer (Susie Cusack) gets his bail continued and advises him to reconnect with his son Joey to look good for probation. That's after he steals money from her purse. His ex-wife Evelyn (Joan Cusack) hates him. He tells his kid tall tales and teaches him to look out for one's self. His car breaks down and he encounters a crashed plane in a stormy night. In an unusual move, he risks his life to rescue everybody including hard-driving reporter Gale Gayley (Geena Davis). He drives off leaving behind a shoe. Gale and the news director (Chevy Chase) use the shoe to search for her hero. Only Bernie had given the other half of the pair to homeless John Bubber (Andy Garcia). John brings in the shoe and becomes an overnight media sensation with a million dollar reward.This is an old fashion screwball in many ways. People talk fast. Even the cynicism has an old fashion flavor. Chevy Chase is an old-timey news guy. Geena Davis is a fun broad. Mostly, it's all about Dustin Hoffman. He is able to play the cynical Bernie with grumpy joy. There are good laughs and it's got good heart. It's old fashion in a way that isn't cheesy.

david-sarkies Interesting little movie this is. On the top it doesn't seem to be that much, but when one begins to look deeper one sees that this movie is very scathing of the media and the way they turn people into celebrities, even though they did nothing to deserve it. The major theme of this movie is that of appearance and reality - what is real, and if television says it does that mean that it is true? And are those heroes we see on television really heroes or are they just foolish people who were damn lucky? Bernie Le-Plant (Dustin Hoffman) is the typical everyday cretin. He has just been convicted of receiving stolen goods and he is to be sentenced in six days. During the trial he steals a heap of money off of his lawyer, who is only a court-appointed lawyer that he does not like, and then goes off to make himself look good in the eyes of society by seeing his son. While going to get his son, a plane crashes in front of him, and because he cannot drive over the bridge as there is a burning plane in the way, he rather reluctantly goes and opens the door, after removing his $100 shoes. After letting the people out, a kid asks him to find his dad, so rather reluctantly Bernie goes into the plane and saves those trapped in there, but there is no Fletcher, as he has already escaped. While rescuing a journalist, he decides to steal her purse. The twist evolves when he loses one shoe and gives the other to a vagrant, John Bubba (Andy Garcia), who lives out of a truck. Bubba is a nice and honest guy, but when the television station offers a million dollars to the person who rescued the people from the plane, Bubba cannot resist and takes the shoe and claims the prize. Unlike Cinderella, Bubba is not the real princess, yet he turns out to be the most deserving one. Now that they have their hero, the media sets about turning him into a god. Everybody loves him and literally hangs of every word he says. Everybody by the real hero, Bernie Le-Plant. The thing is that Le-Plant is not the hero type - Bubba visits hospitals and give people hope, while Le-Plant just simply wanders around stealing credit-cards and landing up in jail. Though Bubba is not the real hero, he conforms to the people's idea of a hero and thus finds himself trapped in the role. He tries to get out by trying to speak the truth but nobody really wants to listen to him - he is the hero and nothing is going to change their minds about it. The most interesting aspect of the movie occurs at the climax where Bubba is standing on the ledge of a building wanting to jump off. He is fed up with living a lie and Le-Plant is haunting his dreams. He knows Le-Plant is the real hero and the guilt of his lie is tearing him apart. Le-Plant gets out onto the ledge to save Bubba, and they begin to talk, but as they talk, the media slowly begin to twist things around - what began as Bubba wanting to jump and Le-Plant talking him down, becomes Le-Plant wanting to jump and Bubba saving him. Bubba is the hero figure and the media want to milk it for as much as they can. By the time they are back into the building, everybody has forgotten that it was actually Bubba out on the ledge originally wanting to jump. The movie shows us a very cold and indifferent side of the media. The quote about suicidees is not trying to talk them down - that does not make a good news story - but not catching them least they pull you over as well. The journalist comes slowly to see this side of the media as the person whom she has come close to - Bubba - is now the target of the media's sensationalism. Her cameraman still does not understand, and simply wants to see somebody making a red mark on the ground. As the news stations buzz with activity at the action occurring on the skyscraper - the talk is not about bringing them down, but digging up information regarding the people on the ledge. When another station discovers who Bernie Le-Plant is and slowly manipulates the story around to suit them, the executive has a fit as they did not get the information first. As what was said in Wag the Dog, a movie with a similar theme, if it is said on television then it must be true - one cannot contradict a story that has been developed by another station, unless the contradiction reveals even more sensational evidence.

parhat In the movie, after receiving an award, Gail Gayle mentions "Life is like an Onion, you peel away and the story becomes different, but when you peel everything away, everything is all a lie" as part of her News acceptance award speech. The speech represents the entire story that is like a modern day Aesop fable. Dustin Hoffman plays small time criminal who accidentally saved the life of 54 people when the plane crash landed in front of him, but someone else took the credit. Our life is basically conditioned to think that people should be given credit where credit is due, in real life, credit isn't given where credit is due. The other problem about events or historical events is that life is like an onion. When you peel them all away, nothing is really there. Things we view as hero may be not we think it is, because of our prejudices in what we view them as a perfect hero. A real hero may have none of that, we humans are full of gray areas, some we are good, some we are not so good. There's not such thing as 100% good guys and 100% bad guys. So if you have to watch this movie, what we know what we see, is not what we think it is. If you should die one day, become a spirit, you will realize that everything we hold dear and true, we're not even close. That's the Aesop of the movie. The best part of the movie is Dustin Hoffman's is at his finest, there's simply not enough screen time for him because he's just so interesting to watch. This is a highly underrated film and if you keep the idea mentioned here in perspective, you will enjoy the movie more. Just peel away your onions!

TheLittleSongbird Some parts may a little slow, and perhaps Accidental Hero(or Hero) is a little too long, but other than that the film is very clever and very brave, and I think underrated as well. It does have a great story concerning a Mystery Samaritan(or "The Angel of Flight 104" as Andy Garcia claims himself to be), very well-constructed and written with a Capra-esquire element to it.Accidental Hero is wonderfully filmed, with great cinematography and the plane crash is well staged. The direction is assured, and the writing is very funny, yet deeply cynical and even pessimistic. The acting is top notch; Dustin Hoffmann shows what a great actor he is as he recalls his Ratso Rizzo role(basically a loser-turned-hero type of character), while Andy Garcia plays a true slime-ball to perfection and Geena Davis and Joan Cusack both convince as the journalist puzzled by the truth and Evelyn. And out of the cameos, Chevvy Chase's gets my vote as the funniest.Overall, an underrated and very good movie. 8/10 Bethany Cox