Emboscada a Matt Helm

Superspy Matt Helm is back in action.

My God! What a great UNDER-RATED movie! Where do I start? The opening theme song and the images that go with it get ten out of ten. Then after we are finished with the cool theme music we cut to the spaceship...with some cool Hugo Montenergo music playing over the spaceship footage. From this point I am hooked on this fun very 1960s movie! Dean Martin, Kurt Kasznar (pre-Land of the Giants) and Albert Salmi are outstanding!

The only thing I have against the film is the train-track scene where it is a bit too obvious that the actors are actually in the studio and not out on location at all.

I have seen all the 60s Matt Helm movies and they are all great. The Ambushers is my favourite of the bunch as it has more of a science fiction element than the others. It is too bad these films don't seem to get the expected TV reruns these days (atleast in my country of Australia) but I am guessing the sexist nature of them might bother some? But they are a product of the time so it is not something we should be upset about today. After all, 60s 007 movies still get screenings around the clock and nobody complains about them.

Frankly, I am not too big on Dean Martin as a singer so he will always be Matt Helm to me. I wonder how he would feel about that? The Ambushers is a must see!

This film is a funny spoof of the James Bond series. Dean Martin is hilarious as the stereotypical spy with a drink in one hand and a sexy girl in the other. All the people who call this series a rip off of James Bond are missing the point. I especially loved Kurt Kaznar, playing the despicable character he would play so well in his most famous role on Land of the Giants as Alexander Fitzhugh. Also, Janice Rule is more than just window dressing. She plays the femme fetale role to the hilt and she shows a great flair for comedy in this film. The Matt Helm series was intended to be a parody of that series and did a great job of it.

I'd like to know more about the people writing negative reviews of a movie like this: how old are they? were they even alive during the 60s? This movie is a product of a different age. It was a simpler time. You could get away with making movies that had this kind of production values, script and, yes - allusions to rape in an action-comedy notwithstanding - moral values (I'm not saying they're high, they're just an indicator of the time).

Do you watch Charlie Chaplin or Laurel & Hardy and complain about the cinematography? You're watching a movie from the 60s guys - it's a time capsule. It can teach you about what life was like then, because at the time the Matt Helm movies were all completely acceptable and even successful.

I dread to think how you lot would handle a 'Carry On' film - yet they were some of the most successful movies ever made in England. You'd probably brand them sexist, vulgar, childish and uninventive though...duh!

The third Matt Helm film - and easily the weakest up to this point. Though Maltin's BOMB rating seems a bit harsh - it IS watchable, after all - it's hard not to notice the drop-off in quality from its predecessor, "Murderers' Row". The villains are nobodies, the gadgets are not as cool as before (levitating gun < delayed / reverse firing gun), the climactic vehicular chase has worse rear projection than the Abbott and Costello movies, and the entire enterprise is slow, unexciting and drab. Bright spot: Janice Rule, who is the smartest Matt Helm assistant so far, and also closer to Dean Martin's age than Ann Margret or Stella Stevens, which makes their (professional and romantic) partnership more believable. Senta Berger has an interesting character, in the sense that you are not sure for a long time whose side she is working for, but ultimately she is underused. The movie's two best bits actually come at the very start (the catchy title song), and the very end (a funny Frank Sinatra gag). *1/2 out of 4.

Some think this is the worst. I say it is the best. A must see Austin Powers fans. Matt Helm inspired the rotating round bed. This movie had the gun in the bra (Fembots) and the Arab assassin. Co-star Janic Rule was great as a fellow agent. The dialog was like Steed and Miss Peale. Better than the past Helm females that were comic relief. The story was put together well, a bit silly about a flying saucer that only women can operate, but the plot line was solid. Not much filler action or girl scenes. Great location shot and the jazzed Mexican background music fit just right. Good action scene in the beer factory. The lifting machines used to lift kegs may have inspired the fight in the Alien film. A fun film.