Psycho's Movie Reviews #349: SPY HARD (1996)

Spy Hard is a 1996 American spy parody film starring Leslie Nielsen (who also executive produced) and Nicollette Sheridan, parodying James Bond and other action films. The introduction to the film is sung by comedy artist "Weird Al" Yankovic, and it was the first film to be written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer who later went on to co-write Scary Movie and write and direct parody films such as Date Movie, Disaster Movie, and Meet the Spartans. The film's title is a parody of Die Hard. The film was directed by Rick Friedberg who produced with Doug Draizin and Jeffrey Konvitz.

The film was released by Buena Vista Pictures under its Hollywood Pictures banner on May 24, 1996, receiving negative reviews from critics. While many praised Nielsen's acting and its humour, most found the script, story, and its direction disappointing. The film eventually grossed $26 million against a production budget of $18 million.

Plot

Secret agent WD-40 Dick Steele (Leslie Nielsen) has his work cut out for him. Along with the mysterious and lovely Veronique Ukrinsky, Agent 3.14 (Nicollette Sheridan), he must rescue the kidnapped Barbara Dahl and stop the evil genius, a General named Rancor (Andy Griffith), from seizing control of the entire world.

Rancor was wounded in an earlier encounter and no longer has arms. However, he can "arm" himself by attaching robotic limbs with various weapons attached. Steele is approached by an old friend, agent Steven Bishop (Robert Guillaume), who unsuccessfully tries to recruit him out of retirement. However, when a news report Steele is watching reveals that Bishop has been killed, Steele returns to the agency. Steele given his new assignment by The Director (Charles Durning), who also is testing out a variety of elaborate disguises. At headquarters, Steele encounters an old agency nemesis, Norm Coleman (Barry Bostwick), and flirts with the Director's adoring secretary, referred to as Miss Cheevus (Marcia Gay Harden).

On the job, Steele is assisted by an agent named Kabul (John Ales), who gives him rides in a never-ending variety of specially designed cars. They seek help from McLuckey (Mason Gamble), a blond child left home alone, who is very good at fending off intruders. Steele resists the temptations of a dangerous woman (Talisa Soto) he finds waiting for him in bed. But he does work very closely with Agent 3.14, whose father, Professor Ukrinsky (Elya Baskin), is also being held captive by Rancor.

Everything comes to an explosive conclusion at the General's remote fortress, where Steele rescues both Barbara Dahl (Stephanie Romanov) and Miss Cheevus and launches a literally disarmed Rancor into outer space, saving mankind.

Production

Title Sequence

"Weird Al" Yankovic sings the title song and directed the title sequence. It is a parody of title sequences from the James Bond films designed by Maurice Binder, specifically 1965's Thunderball, complete with multiple coloured backgrounds, silhouetted figures, women dancing with guns, and "wavy" text. Additionally, an urban legend states that during the recording of the theme to Thunderball, Tom Jones held the song's final note long enough to pass out. Yankovic holds it so long that his head explodes. Originally, Yankovic had planned to loop the note to the required length, but in the studio, he discovered he was able to hold the note long enough that no looping was required. The sequence was later included on "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection, although, for legal reasons, all credits and titles had to be taken out, excluding that of the film and of Yankovic himself.

{This is such a good song, the intro let alone the rest of them is amazing... AND IT'S WEIRD AL... WEIRD AL!!!!}

Release/Reception/Box Office

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 7% based on 41 reviews, and an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Leslie Nielsen's comic gifts are undisputed, but Spy Hard's lazy script and slapdash direction fail to take advantage of them." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 25 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavourable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.

James Berardinelli of ReelViews wrote: "Director Rick Friedberg has crafted a dreadfully unfunny comedy that takes Naked Gun-like sketches and rehashes them without a whit of style or energy. For movie-after-movie, Leslie Nielsen has milked this same personality, and it's starting to wear very thin. As affable as the actor is, there's just nothing left in this caricature. However, while Spy Hard might have worked better with, say, Roger Moore in the title role (his 007 was a parody towards the end, anyway), Nielsen's performance is only a small part of a massively-flawed production. Hard is the operative word here, because, even at just eighty-one minutes, this movie is unbelievably difficult to sit through."

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote: "Spy Hard is never funnier than during its opening credit sequence in which "Weird Al" Yankovic bellows his parody of the brassy theme song from Goldfinger, while obese cartoon silhouettes swim across the screen. Instead of building sustained comic set pieces, it takes a machine-gun approach to humour. Without looking at where it's aiming, it opens fire and sprays comic bullets in all directions, trusting that a few will hit the bull's-eye. A few do, but many more don't. Around the halfway point, Spy Hard begins to run out of ideas and becomes a series of crude, rambunctious parodies of other films. When Spy Hard abruptly ends after only 81 minutes, you sense that it has used up every last round of available ammunition. It was simply exhausted and couldn't move another inch."

Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "It's done in the style of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker Naked Gun series, but although the style is there, the jokes aren't. Spy Hard relies on silly slapstick, take-offs of recent films and the shock effect of celebrity cameos. But all that exertion doesn't add up to more than a handful of laughs. The story is too weak to work even as a clothesline for gags. Spy Hard eschews a coherent story and instead just strings together movie take-offs. Nielsen, with his expert deadpan and sense of comic timing, creates the illusion of humour – for about 15 minutes. Thanks to him, what could have been an unbearable experience becomes merely empty. Still, he can't work miracles, and nothing short of a miracle could have made Spy Hard worth seeing."

Stephen Hunter of The Baltimore Sun gave the film a negative review, writing that the film is "more of a parody of a parody than a parody" and in particular criticizing director Rick Friedberg, asking, "was this poor guy ever funny?"

Marcia Gay Harden wasn't a fan of the film itself as well:

"Ugh. I hated doing that movie. Laughs. It was, I thought, going to be an opportunity to have a lot of fun, but it was just chaos and, uh, not so much fun. And not so funny. I mean, Leslie Nielsen was great, but it was really his show, and it was just… very chaotic. Behind schedule, over budget. People mention her to me, but I've never really seen the movie. All I know is that she was supposed to be sexy, and I don't know if she even was." — Marcia Gay Harden

{BUT SCREW THEM, THEY OBVIOUSLY DON'T LIKE SILLY, SLAPSTICK, CARTOONY HUMOUR IN THEIR FILMS!!!}

The film opened at #3 with $10,448,420 behind Mission: Impossible's opening weekend and Twister's third. It eventually grossed $26,960,191 at the box office.

Budget $18 million

Box office $27 million

My Review

Okay, this isn't the most intellectual comedy ever made. Okay, it really is a stupid comedy--I'll have to break down and admit it. It's even stupider than the NAKED GUN movies or HOT SHOTS--I'll even admit that. However, despite it being so doggone stupid, it did make me laugh and that IS important. Plus, while this film isn't great by any stretch, it is (thank goodness) a lot better than some of the truly awful comedies starring Leslie Nielsen--such as REPOSSESSED--which I nominate as one of the most unfunny films in history! The bottom line is if you need a laugh, this film will get it unless you are dead or a lawyer.

Sometimes we don't need serious films. And this one you certainly don't take seriously but that's how you enjoy it more. It's one of those films that wasn't made to be serious... that's what makes it all the more hilarious.

Written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer(talentless hacks as far as I am concerned) and directed by Rick Friedberg, even with the major flaws Spy Hard is not a bad movie. I will admit I was expecting it to be a lot worse, you see Friedberg and Seltzer directed Disaster Movie and Epic Movie which are two of the worst movies ever made, Meet the Spartans which fares little better and Date Movie and Vampires Suck while lame was the best of the lot (I have to re watch the Scary Movie flicks). So I was expecting something unwatchable.

So I was surprised at how moderately entertaining Spy Hard was. It does have its problems I agree. The story is predictable and rather rushed in the pace not helped by its scant length. The direction is also not the best, sometimes it is efficient but at other times it is patchy. But the worst part of Spy Hard is the juvenile and often unfunny dialogue which shows Friedberg and Seltzer's weaknesses for writing as well as directing.

That said, despite the bad dialogue at times, there are some funny sight gags and the references to the spy genre weren't too obvious and fun to spot. The film doesn't look like direct-to-video fodder either, which is a good thing. The editing mayn't be the best, but when it comes to the sets, costumes, gadgetry and some of the photography it is pretty spot on. The soundtrack is reminiscent in style to a James Bond outing such as For Your Eyes Only, and while I am not a fan of that particular score the music was fun to listen to here and I liked its style. The acting compared to any of the films Friedberg and Seltzer directed is pretty good, Leslie Nielson is great when funny and he is rather here with a fun enough character. This performance is far from his best such as Airplane and Naked Gun, but at least he didn't embarrass himself as badly as he did when he did 2001:A Space Travesty. Charles Durning and Nicolette Sheridan are decent too and there are some interesting cameos from Robert Culp and Fabio.

Overall, surprisingly watchable compared to the clap-trap I was expecting. 7.3/10

{Oh and just one more thing. I swear that this movie walked so Sister Act could run. Seriously, this film came out before Sister Act, and there's a scene with a choir of nuns that Nielson makes sing 'Shout' which was also a song in Sister Act, during the credits scene... It's kinda one of the best scenes in the film}