The Wrecking Crew (1968)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Good concept, poorly executed.

Best movie ever!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

As l'd wrote before Dean Martin wasn't a better choice to be Matt Helm,he was old and already wrinkled for the role,instead all Matt's girls are gorgeous and no make sense whatever the reason,worst he enforce to sing along disfiguring the main score in twist sounds,in this final movie who shines are Sharon Tate and Elke Sommer, she were a very close scenes in those marvelous bodies in sexy walking and exciting legs,a plenty of action leaves the picture somehow acceptable and annoys no one,so l figure out that those girls saved the whole picture of total disaster just for a bad miscasting of leading Role!!Resume:First watch: 1992 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 6

....but not necessarily the best. That title still goes to "Murderers' Row", in my opinion. "The Wrecking Crew" is probably the best-produced of the series (then again, after the embarrassing climactic chase of "The Ambushers", the only way was up), and in Elke Sommer it has the sexiest bad girl since Daliah Lavi of "The Silencers". It also has the second best villain in the sophisticated Nigel Green (re-teaming with Sommer after "Deadlier Than The Male") - Karl Malden remains the best. But director Phil Karlson makes the same mistake as in "The Silencers" - he lets several scenes play out too long. However, my biggest problem with this movie has to do with Sharon Tate. Not with the actress - who is beautiful, likable and energetic - but with her character. She is very inconsistently written, alternating between clumsy and competent, sometimes in the same scene. And what's worse, Matt Helm is obnoxiously condescending towards her - I much preferred his equal partnership with Janice Rule in "The Ambushers". This film has gained some fame for having Bruce Lee involved in the staging of the fight scenes: truth be told, they are still quite ungraceful, though at least Dean Martin has added more kicks to his repertoire. My favorite scene is easily the fight between major babes Sharon Tate and Nancy Kwan - unfortunately it is spoiled by a few too many interruptions. ** out of 4.

the wrecking crew was the last of Dino's Matt helm flicks. i always thought as bad as some people thought this was, I felt the ambushers was worst. Granted Dean was a little long in the tooth for this role but it wasn't as bad as say, Cannonball Run, where it was obvious he was only doing it for his own reasons. I always thought Dean after seeing this film felt he couldn't do the role anymore. i thought that was why he didn't do the ravagers which had been announced as the next Matt Helm movie. I only tonight discovered in an IMDb mini bio that he was so distraught after Sharon Tate's death he refused to do the role any longer. as a dean martin fan i enjoyed his film and singing career.

The final film in the 'Matt Helm' ( Dean Martin ) franchise saw a few interesting changes. The spy fad was all but over, so it was decided to make 'The Wrecking Crew' more of a caper movie akin to 'The Italian Job'. It opens with the hijacking in Denmark of a train carrying one billion dollars in gold bullion. It is panic time on the world's money markets, so I.C.E. sends for its best agent ( guess who ). The only lead is a beautiful gypsy dancer named Lola Medina ( Tina Louise ), ex-girlfriend of Count Massimo Contini, a multi-millionaire dreaming of becoming a multi-billionaire. Lola claims that Contini is behind the heist. Equipped with a do-it-yourself helicopter, a camera that bellows incapacitating gas, and explosive handkerchiefs, Matt flies out to Copenhagen, knowing that MacDonald has broken his cover...After a run of two ( outrageous ) movies scripted by Herbert Baker and directed by Henry Levin, crime novelist William McGivern and director Phil Karlson ( who launched the series five years earlier with 'The Silencers' ) brought Matt down to Earth. Out went 'BIG O', 'Lovey Kravezit', and the sci-fi paraphernalia. Donald Hamilton's book was unfilmable - set in Sweden, it had Matt on a manhunt to find a killer named 'Caselius' - so the movie was replotted. Unfortunately, the new story was not much better, lacking in excitement and wit. It was also riddled with longueurs ( such as the Lola/Linka/Yu-Rang seduction scenes ). The Bruce Lee-supervised karate fights look suspiciously like an attempt to cash in on 'Our Man Flint'. The excellent Nigel Green was evil genius 'Carl Petersen' in 'Deadlier Than The Male' ( 1966 ), which starred Richard Johnson as 'Bulldog Drummond'. But Contini is nowhere near as interesting, and does little apart from issue threats and stare at television screens ( one of his henchmen is a young Chuck Norris ).As for Dino, by this time, he was looking more than a little heavy and tired, despite his sun tan and trendy suits. He moves and speaks so slowly at times you think he's impersonating Frankenstein's monster. When Freya ( Sharon Tate ) accidentally bumps into Matt's car, we get: FREYA: Mr.Helm, our cars are stuck. MATT: What? FREYA: We're stuck. MATT: We're stuck? FREYA: Yes. MATT: Good! FREYA: Is that all you've got to say? And with that, she walks off in a huff. Hard to believe someone got paid for writing such drivel. Nancy Kwan's 'Yu-Rang' should have been excised from the script and Elke Sommer's ( 'Irma Eckman' in 'Deadlier Than The Male' ) 'Linka Karensky' beefed up to become the movie's main femme fatale. Of the women only Sharon Tate makes an impression as accident-prone British agent 'Freya Carlson', while John Larch shines in his few scenes as MacDonald. Nice to see him getting in a punch or two.Hugo Montenegro's sub-Bacharach score grates dreadfully, particularly the la-la-la-la-la cue heard whenever Tate goofs. The opening theme contains the ( politically incorrect ) refrain: 'Ah-so, ah-so, vedy vedy nice!'. Oh boy! On the plus side, the film is beautifully photographed by Sam Leavitt ( who had earlier worked on 'Murderers' Row' ), and has some impressive helicopter action. I liked the scene in 'The House Of Seven Joys' club when Matt's table and seat suddenly spins around, taking him to Contini's lair. It preempts a similar scene in 'Live & Let Die' four years later. Dean was booked for one more romp - 'The Ravagers' - but hung up his camera and gun for good after this. 'Matt Helm' would next be seen on television, in a short-lived series starring Tony Franciosa.Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson Family soon after completing the film. 'The Wrecking Crew' was both a sad epitaph to her career and the Matt Helm series.