One film that unfortunately got a grand opening/grand closing a quarter-century ago this month was, the debut film from Jake Kasdan, the son of filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan—which, according to TikTok, unfortunately makes him a “nepo baby.” Actually, several nepo babies worked on this film. Lisa Henson, the daughter of Muppets creator Jim Henson, was one of the producers. Ben Stiller, the son of comedy duo Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller, stars as Steve Arlo.
Zero gets hired to locate the keys of a wealthy Portland businessman , who’s also being blackmailed by an unknown person. Even though Arlo assures the businessman that he’s hiring the world’s greatest detective, Arlo knows that Zero is a freakin’ mess. The movie begins with Arlo talking up Zero’s accomplishments to the businessman, but occasionally cutting away to Arlo in a bar, unloading to a drinking buddy about how much of a self-centered nutcase his boss is.
Zero heads to Portland to investigate the case, often sending Arlo back and forth to L.A. on errands, frustrating both Arlo and his girlfriend . Zero soon discovers that a paramedic named Gloria Sullivan has been doing the blackmailing. As he gets close to her to learn more, the self-proclaimed “greatest observer the world has ever known” soon becomes part of this tangled web.
If this Zero character sounds a bit too much like Sherlock Holmes, that’s because Kasdan based this story on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” where Holmes first meets his notorious adversary Irene Adler. You could say Kasdan was the first to get on the Sherlock train, as adaptations would show up in both film and TV over a decade later.