Spies Like Us

Rating:
Summary: The first step in the operation is to shave the patient
Review: Emmett Fitz-Hume (Dan Aykroyd) and (Chevy Chase) Austin Millbarge are looking for a new life and find it in the CIA. They are so good they are rushed through training. They are dropped off in the desert to perform a mission. Natural adapters they find their skills get them into and out of all situations Hope/Crosby style. Little do they know they are decoys? Speaking of Bob Hope, be sure to notice the key part he plays in this movie.

Will they complete their mission?
Or will they figure out who the decoys are?
Where is the real team?
Is there be something more sinister afoot?
Can you sing "Soul Finger"?



Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, but they need to release it in Widescreen
Review: This is a hilarious movie from the 80s, especially now (considering part of it takes place among Afghani warlords back when the US was supporting the Taliban against the Soviets). Its combination of sweet one-liners and the cynical anti-nuclear proliferation story will make it a "keeper" for years to come. "Spies" picks up where Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" left off, and throws in a couple of sexy ladies for good measure. It takes an appropriate jab at (then) President Reagan by showing one of his cheesy musicals.

One of my favorite parts is when Aykroyd and Chase get dropped into Pakistan in a huge container filled with chips and beer (their "spy" supplies). Another is when the Soviet/American negotiations are really a game of Risk/Trivial Pursuit!

This movie should be released in a widescreen edition as soon as possible because "pan and scan" ruins the director's carefully arranged scene compositions.

Listen for Paul McCartney's rousing theme at the end of the movie called (what-else) "Spies Like Us".

Rating:
Summary: A fun and entertaining 90 minutes
Review: This movie definitely doesn't rank as Chevy Chase's or Dan Akroyd's best film, but it holds its own. There are some great bits, and classic Chase physical comedy. The plot is predictable, but there are some fun ideas about Government hideaways and secrecy. I picked this up in a bargain bin for $5, and don't regret it. It takes me back to my childhood, when I watched this movie a hundred times in a month, as it was the only VHS tape I owned.

Rating:
Summary: Ain't nobody but spies like us!
Review: That's what the title song by Paul McCartney declares at the end of the credits. And despite the space satellites in the opening scene, the sign on one of them reading, "American Weather Station. Of No Military Value" hints at the comedic nature ahead. Spies Like Us is typical 80's comedy, entertaining, leaning mostly on lines by Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd's deadpan reaction. An 80's version of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's Road pictures, as has been said of it, is indeed accurate.

After Emmett Fitzhugh (Chevy Chase), a member of the diplomatic press corps cheats at a foreign service exam, unwittingly drawing in Austin Millbarge (Dan Aykroyd), a codebreaker and technical expert, they are recruited as GLG agents for a secret mission which leads them to Pakistan and eventually into Tadzhikistan, then part of the Soviet Union. What they don't know is that they are the decoys while some other GLG agents are the ones actually carrying out the operation. While the training sequences seem to be run-of-the-mill stuff, it's mostly the lines that get the laughs.

However, the part where they are mistaken for doctors in Pakistan is one of the funnier scenes, particularly Fitzhugh's attempt to get the pretty blonde Dr. Boyer (Donna Dixon) to himself without marchlow present.

As in Ghostbusters Dan Aykroyd plays the straight and smarter man, and is fortunate to be paired with one of the best funny men of the 80's, Chevy Chase. And okay, so Chase gets paired with the blonde in the movie, but did you see the girl Aykroyd ends up with? A big ROWR to Vanessa Angel! Chevy Chase has the great funny lines and a lot of the gags revolve around him. When a grenade is tossed at he and Aykroyd, he catches it and asks his partner, "What's this?" Aykroyd panics and says, "You don't want it!" Aykroyd later hears the Bar-Kays' song "Soul Finger" coming from the forest. After identifying the song, Chase says, "They really must be desperate for gigs."

Roots of this comedy include SDI, the arms race, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a general from the Jack D. Ripper academy of crazed warmongers, General Slime, played by Steve Forrest, who in one line says that naively wishing for peace leads to aggressive war. Maybe he should have heard Millbarge's quote on nuclear weapons: "Do you know what those things can do? Suck the paint off your house and give your family a permanent orange afro."

And speaking of guest stars and cameos, I list Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, 1950's special effects designer Ray Harryhausen, 7,14,21,28, and 35UP director Michael Apted, political thriller director Costa Gavras as a Tadzhiki guard, and Bob Hope, who has a funny line at Fitzhugh and Millbarge's expense.

Director John Landis's stamp is on here, e.g. Animal House, Trading Places, and after this movie, The Three Amigos and Coming To America. While I like this movie, I kind wonder how Harold Ramis would have directed this. And this movie makes me want to check out the Bar-Kays and "Soul Finger".

Rating:
Summary: Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd, it has to be funny!!!
Review: *******SPOILERS*******
This film is absolutely hilarious and stars Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd as two bumbling government employees who think that they have been sent on an extremely important mission, when really they have been sent as decoys to distract the enemy from the real spies. But when one of the real spies is killed Chase and Aykroyd must team up with the remaining spy, Karen Boyer (Donna Dixon) to complete the mission. The two spies even meet a few girls on the way and the whole things adds up to equal a great comedy! Very funny little spy movie.

Rating:
Summary: Back when Chevy Chase was funny, but bad DVD
Review: It's simple, a five star movie with a one star DVD rating. That's three stars!!!

This movie is a CLASSIC and is very funny. This is classic Chevy Chase long before he did that terrible television show. Dan Aykroyd is fantastic as well. They just don't make movies like this anymore.

The DVD isn't worth it. No special features, the picture quality is sub-par, and the sound didn't sound as good as it could. I kept thinking I was watching a VHS the entire time. If that version is cheaper, then get it on VHS instead.