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Spy Hard

Spy Hard (1996)

May. 24,1996
|
5.3
|
PG-13
| Action Comedy

The evil Gen. Rancor has his sights set on world domination, and only one man can stop him: Dick Steele, also known as Agent WD-40. Rancor needs to obtain a computer circuit for the missile that he is planning to fire, so Steele teams up with Veronique Ukrinsky, a KGB agent whose father designed the chip. Together they try to locate the evil mastermind's headquarters, where Veronique's father and several other hostages are being held.

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GamerTab
1996/05/24

That was an excellent one.

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GazerRise
1996/05/25

Fantastic!

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MusicChat
1996/05/26

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

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Plustown
1996/05/27

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

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OllieSuave-007
1996/05/28

This is one of a large handful of spoof films starring Leslie Nielson. This time, Nielson is spy Agent Dick Steele, WD-40 and is on a mission to save the world from General Rancor (Andy Griffith), who wants to destroy the world with a missile that can only be assessed with a special computer trip kept hidden by its inventor, Professor Ukrinsky (Elya Baskin), who wants to use the computer trip for more peaceful purposes. Along the way, Steele teams up with Ukrinsky's daughter, KGB agent Veronique Ukrinsky, Agent 3.14.As with any Nielson spoofs, there are non-stop laughs from start to finish that will have you horse-laughing and holding your stomaches. Slapstick humor is abundance here, from bumping into sliding glass doors to rolling down a street on an ambulance stretcher. However, the slapstick humor is done tastefully in a way that is doesn't get borderline annoying (i.e., forced comedy).The characters are calm and serious in their demeanor, especially Nielson, believing that they are really out on a classified mission, which gives this spoof the perfect balance of sensitivity and comedy. Actors in some other spoofs like Epic Movie and Meet the Spartans know they are appearing in a spoof movie, so they forced themselves to act stupid and go overboard on the slapstick comedy. As a result, this gives the audience a tasteless film.It is fun to see this movie reference many other movies including Jurassic Park, Home Alone, True Lies, Sister Act and the James Bond films. The nuns using machine guns, 'Weird Al' Yankovic's James Bond-like opening song sequence and Dick Steele riding a Marines fighter jet are some of my favorite parts, as well as seeing Dick Steele's sidekick Kabul (John Ales) drive up in a different car in each of his different scenes.While entertaining, this movie is a little the short side, clocking at 81 minutes, which doesn't give much room for plot and character development and more laughs. Therefore, I felt the story was a little rushed-through. But, other than that, this is an enjoyable movie with some of Nielson's finest moments.Grade B

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shominy-491-652355
1996/05/29

"Spy Hard" is non-stop belly laughs from beginning to end! There is so much to love about this comedy! (Besides "Dracula, Dead and Loving It," this is our favorite film starring Leslie Nelsen!) This is one of the few comedies we watch again and again and we always seem to catch something we've never noticed before! Charles Durning and Barry Boswick co-star and are hilarious! (Barry's New England accent is beyond funny!) Wonderful Andy Griffith as the evil enemy is fantastic! He is ever-so creepy - and funny! John Ales (as Kabul) is great! The story and editing is clever and fast-paced. There isn't a dull moment in the entire movie! P.S. Check out Agent WD-40's (Leslie Nielsen) great wall of photos in his living room; he is pictured as working security with many famous and historical people! Just another hilarious moment in this awesome comedy! P.P.S. LOVE Weird Al's theme - what a great way to open and close this classic comedy! Weird Al has the PERFECT sense of humor to set the stage for this hilarious film!

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DICK STEEL
1996/05/30

If the names Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer don't ring a bell, perhaps their directorial efforts for films such as Vampires Suck, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans, Epic Movie and Date Movie may be more familiar with just how consistently bad they were, following a rote formula of making fun of genre film franchises that somehow wasn't really funny, with more misses than hits with their gags. That formula also states to chalk up a long list of impersonators and to lampoon everything that's pop culture at the moment, and to string a series of bad gags to make up what's essentially some semblance of a story, not.But it wasn't all that bad to begin with. Early in their career they're responsible for writing the Scary Movie franchise, and made their debut with writing Spy Hard, a film that starred the late Leslie Nielsen, and I suppose back then there was enough budget for the filmmakers to hire bona fide stars such as Ray Charles, Hulk Hogan, the male model Fabio, Mr T and even the late Pat Morita of Karate Kid's Mr Miyagi fame, before the flops spell out the hiring of impersonators (no offense to the profession) since I would believe the stars wouldn't want to go touch these productions with a ten foot pole given a regressing track record.I've always associated Leslie Nielsen with his better known Naked Gun series, and while his brand of comedy had gone beyond detective Frank Drebin, somehow Nielsen is quite the enigma, and becomes a character in his own right no matter what role he gets to play. Cue the signature blank stares, the innuendos and the physical slapstick comedy that he's perfected, that you'll know you're in for a hoot no matter how bad the story is. Here his Agent WD-40 aka Dick Steele (OK, so here's the cat out of the bag for friends who wonder why "Dick Steel" was a handle I used - dropping the last "e" in Steele for more "bite" during my online gaming days) is the quintessential spoof-Bond, with mysterious charisma and suave to win over the femme fatales, and gets the job done with questionable, unorthodox methods.Yes, I suppose one of the easiest way to spoof a film or a franchise is to set the sights on James Bond. After all, we have Johnny English and Austin Powers to come after this, so there's plenty of room actually for more of such wannabes who have their equivalent of a theme song, here performed in hilarious fashion and easily one of the best sequences here with a Weird Al Yankovic contribution full of inane lyrics, and keep a close eye on those gyrating silhouettes!Like all "comedic" films by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer to follow this, Spy Hard is the precursor to their idea that comedy stems from poking fun at the box office successes of the time, and in the mid 90s, we get spoofs here from films such as Jan de Bont's Speed, Spielberg's Jurassic Park, Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Cameron's True Lies, Wolfgang Petersen's In the Line of Fire and even Sister Act which allowed for some nuns with guns moments. While it's part of the fun spotting, or rather identify all the blatant spoof attempts, this soon wears out their welcome and like their follow up films, it seems that lessons aren't learnt from spoof fatigue. Simply put the story here dwells on Agent WD-40 stopping his arch nemesis General Rancor (Andy Griffith, or TV's Matlock), but its relentless buffoonery didn't quite survive past the halfway mark where jokes consistently fell flat and were unfunny.Still, the best thing about the film is to watch Leslie Nielsen at his element with yet another Nielsen-isque performance, and for fans around the world, he will definitely be missed as one of the unlikeliest comedians of our generation. Rest in peace, and thank you for the memories.

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Sandcooler
1996/05/31

Often this movie just really feels like they gave Leslie Nielsen a rough outline of the plot and yelled "action". Nielsen is the usual Frank Drebin stereotype, but his deadpan delivery routine only works when the line's actually funny. That's rarely the case. The writers try to copy "Naked Gun", but can never really get it right and get stuck in their own dialogues. Here and there they manage to show some creativity, but for the most part they just resort to lame obvious jokes you see coming from miles away. You can feel them struggling, and that's never good. Even more bothersome than the amount of groan-inducing jokes is the boredom though. This movie has very few interesting things going on. Only some funny loose parodies like the ones on "Home Alone" and "Sister Act" made me keep watching. It's not the worst parody there is, it's not completely void of laughs, but it's still barely worth the rental fee.

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