Theme Song: There’s a lot of music wedged into Under Cover, including songs by TSOL, Belinda Carlisle, The Alarm, Poison, and The Smithereens.
Wednesday Week – Missionary
This song “Missionary” by the band Wednesday Week is one of the better cuts of late-80s “college rock” I’d never heard before.
Synth Jammin’
Additionally, Todd Rundgren is given a “Music By” credit, so I’m assuming he did the above composition. An official soundtrack was released and you can listen to Todd’s contributions here.
Interesting Dated References: Police going undercover in high school as opposed to the modern day in-uniform constant and intimidating presence.
Social Context: Cannon’s never-ending quest to deliver intellectual properties which are knock-offs of popular media from that time, in this case, the television series 21 Jump Street.
Summary: 35-year-old, balding, well-named cop Sheffield Hauser (David Neidorf, Platoon, Hoosiers, Bull Durham) decides he needs to go undercover at a South Carolina high school to avenge the death of the previous narc.
Then for 88 minutes everyone calls him a narc, jokes about his male pattern baldness, and in general doesn’t believe he’s a student. It’s as if the filmmakers miscast the lead and then proceed to make fun of their mistake the entire time. The back of the video box even reads, “ … and some students are suspicious of Shef’s perpetual five o’clock shadow and receding hairline.”
Neidorf certainly signed himself up for some razzing, but he plays the role effectively, brushing off the comments and rebounding by flirting with high school girls. As luck would have it, Jennifer Jason Leigh (Grandview U.S.A.) is also undercover at the same school and together they uncover that the sheriff’s nephew (of course) had everything to do with the murder and the drugs and the sherriff is (also of course) covering up for him.
Then there’s a shootout and the movie ends with the bad guys getting locked up. Under Cover moves along at a good pace and keeps it fun.
Worth Mentioning:
– Dude, Rundgren’s hot-lick synthy nonsense is playing under every single scene, even the ones where other songs are playing.
– David Harris (The Warriors) costars as a wrongly accused friend of Neidorf. There’s an underlying racist current going on in the town and Harris’ character falls victim to it.
– Directed by actor-turned-director John Stockwell (Losin’ It, Christine, Top Gun) who went on to direct the early-00s ocean-fetish films Blue Crush and Into The Blue.
– Jennifer Jason Leigh has a pretty righteous W.A.S.P. shirt on at one point.
Poster and Box Art: The home video art is an effectively-retouched photo that does well to showcase the plot. They even took steps to highlight the thinning hair of the main character, as well as having him hold a gun in front of an algebra book. Classy.
