Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Wuchak As the title implies, "Spies Like Us" (1985) is a globe-trotting spy comedy with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. There's a host of peripheral stars, like William Prince and the always excellent Bernie Casey, not to mention a cameo by none other than Bob Hope.This is a fun movie and it's great to see Chase and Aykroyd when they were so young, the latter with a quintessential 80's haircut. The best highlights are the awesome globe-spanning locations and the two female co-stars, Donna Dixon and Vanessa Angel, but not enough is done with 'em. The film's just not funny enough and it's hard to believe the producers went to such great expense, but failed to hire writers who knew how to do comedy. We're left with a fun, but throwaway flick; even Hope's cameo is a waste of celluloid. The film runs 102 minutes and was shot in Norway, Morocco, California and England. GRADE: C

mark.waltz The two Saturday Night Live original cast vets must have thought that their presence alone would save this hideous piece of dreck where the jokes are more out of "Scooby Doo" than "Animal House". The veteran character actors in the film play their parts totally serious, which works for them, but when they are surrounded by the idiotic foolishness of the two leads, you feel sorry for them, not the leading stars.This isn't the type of film that an audience goes into expecting something that would make Ian Fleming jealous. Dealing with a nuclear bomb hidden in the woods by the Russians (played here with a Boris and Natasaha mentality), the agency that Dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase work for send them in as decoys so the real spies can find the rocket. But fate intervenes, and these two numbskull's might just be the ones to save the world. But who will save the 100 minutes you waste shaking your head at this idiotic mess? I wasn't expecting a screenplay of Orson Welles proportions, but when you are making a comedy for adults, the jokes need to rise above the mentality of a fifth grader. Even in the popular slob comedies of the early 1980's ("Caddyshack", "Stripes", etc.), there was heart and innocence in the humor, but here it is simple stupidity, and an insult to the audience to even try and buy what the filmmakers are trying to sell. I like the two actors, and fondly remember Donna Dixon from "Bosom Buddies", but in the past, they have been given much better material. Sadly, this makes "The Three Stooges in Outer Space" look like a genius in comparison.

TxMike I had never seen this movie, which came out the same year as the landmark "Back to the Future", but found it now on a DVD from the library, along with the 3 Austin Powers movies.The story is told in a style which reminds me of movies like "Airplane" and "Austin Powers", a parody of spy and action movies made only for comic relief. While I enjoyed much of it, overall it comes across as very stale today.Chevy Chase is Emmett Fitz-Hume and Dan Aykroyd is Austin Millbarge. Both are government employees, and quite different personalities. They only meet when they are taking a test for a possible promotion, and each is chosen to work with the other in a two man spy team with an assignment in Russia.The ruse here is this, they are chosen to be the incompetent, decoy team to allow the real spy team to work undetected. And for the most part they are incompetent. However in the end they are the ones who save the day, and avoid all-out global nuclear war.SPOILERS: In the snowy wilderness of Russia they come upon a nuclear ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) carrying a nuclear warhead. They are fooled into believing they are to capture and disarm it, but in fact a rogue general back in the states wants to send it to the USA, in a misguided attempt to revive fervor in nuclear defense. As the missile is headed for New York, Millbarge manages to figure out a way to divert it, and all is saved. Plus he gets the pretty girl.

Shawn Watson I first saw Spies Like Us when I was a kid, when Chevy Chase was my favourite actor. I must have seen it about fifty times since then and I am almost word-perfect on the script. However, I've never owned the DVD since Warner have never released it in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Thankfully it is currently available in HD on the PlayStation network.Emmett Fitz-Hume and Austin Millbarge (Chase and Aykroyd) are two lowly government workers who are suddenly promoted to the elite GLG-20 spy status after they are caught cheating on a test. What they don't know is that they are just decoys to draw heat away from the real spies and are promptly dumped straight into enemy territory.Chase and Aykroyd have great chemistry together and I'm surprised they didn't work together much after this (although they did hook up for The Couch Trip, Caddyshack 2 and Nothing But Trouble). There's loads of fun to had in watching them bumble from one zany situation from the next. And, as this is a Landis film, there are director cameos all over the place. Keep a lookout for Terry Gilliam, Martin Brest, Joel Coen, Sam Raimi etc.Despite the fanbase, Warner have never showed this film any respect or given special treatment of any kind when it comes to the home video market. As I already said, as of yet the only DVD available is the fullscreen version from 1998. Even the HD version I watched was from a very murky print and has terrible sound. If Warner make a Blu Ray from this master it's still not worth buying.Give it a rent unless a proper remaster is done. Which is unlikely.