Agency - Botschaft des Bösen

A mysterious millionaire buys an ad agency and begins to replace its employees with his own people, who don't appear to be advertising types at all. A copywriter begins to suspect that the man isn't interested in selling products, as much as he is in inserting his own sinister political beliefs into the commercials the agency runs on television in order to subliminally brainwash an unsuspecting public into supporting the causes and candidates he wants. When the copywriter confides his suspicions to a friend and soon afterwards is mysteriously killed, his friend begins his own investigation.

Could have been a really good movie in more capable hands. As it is, it is rather slow and interest wanes mid way.

Robert Mitchum is barely in it. It's really a lee Majors movie. Valerie Perinne had already lost her looks and is not a particilarly good actress.

Silly action yarn about the new boss at an ad agency (Robert Mitchum) who wants to plant subliminal messages in commercials, with political intent. Inoffensive enough, but to call this more than a time-passer would be kind. Music is sometimes too over-the-top for the subject of the shot.

A person with dubious background purchases an ad agency. There he meticulously replaces the long-standing staff with his own. He buys targeted ad space.

We have already figured out what has happened and what is going to happen so the only thing left is to watch the movie for the particular acting and maybe some twists and details. (Fat chance)

This has all the qualities of the 1960s ... oops, 1980s television program. This movie has everything from cheap sets to stilted statements. The only redeeming feature is looking at the old tiny cars and something called a VCR.

They did think to include Valerie Perrine who is a lot more interesting in Steambath ) TV adaptation of Bruce Jay Friedman's off-Broadway play.

Lee Majors and Saul Rubinek work for the same advertising agency, headed by Robert Mitchum, but all is not as it appears at the office. Saul has a conspiracy theory of subliminal messaging and political tampering through the ads. Lee starts to believe him, and during one scene he shows his sweetie pie Valerie Perrine how they doctor up the print advertisement of an alcohol label to include skull images in the ice cubes. That's the best scene in the movie, because everything else is either boring or typical.

Lots of 1970s movies are pretty bad, and films made in 1980 sometimes bleed into the terrible previous decade. The Agency has that '70s aura to it, like it's a watered down Network, made by a lousy television channel. I'm not trying to be mean, but after seeing thousands and thousands of movies, there's no sense recommending others watch the bad ones.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. the opening scene features an advertisement that takes place in a nightclub with strobe lights and odd camera angles, and it might make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

AGENCY is another of those Canadian-made pictures posing as an American film, replete with big-name U.S. actors, and featuring Montreal unconvincingly standing in for Washington, D.C.

With a premise that is more intriguing and timely now than ever - subliminal messages in TV ads - one would have wished for a sincere, thoughtful approach. Instead, the wretched script is awash with bad dialogue and, in the second half, silly corporate intrigue scenes involving Lee Majors slinking about the ad agency at night, trying to get to the bottom of boss Robert Mitchum's nefarious political machinations. Mitchum's henchmen are so laughable-looking and inept that they appear to have been recruited straight from a Pink Panther film. Parts of the film border on outright comedy.

Still, the film is not completely without merit. The first half is promising; Majors makes an affable protagonist; Saul Rubinek is quite good as the harried eccentric who first discovers Mitchum's conspiracy (although his open contempt of his boss makes his continued employment at the agency another implausible factor). Valerie Perrine, however, appears in an entirely disposable role as the obligatory concerned wife.

Finally, all production elements are professional, and AGENCY at least turns out to be a diverting, if daft and disappointing, thriller. I was not bored.