Royce

A so-called "spy spoof" that has James Belushi playing Agent Royce, who is called out of duty after the Cold War and sent on a new mission by his boss, played by Peter Boyle (who was in another James Belushi movie called "Red Heat," also starring Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Not very funny, and as much as I enjoy watching James Belushi do his thing in comedies, he doesn't work as a leading man in a spy caper. Watching him tote a gun and rescue hostages is sort of sad.

This is not very funny and is a poor imitation of "True Lies," released the same year.

Royce is part of a secret group within the US government that is disbanded. The members of the group turn to crime and swear revenge on the senator that disbanded the group, however Royce chooses not to join them but instead sets out to find their plan and stop them.

I taped this as it was described as a spoof, however it was immediately apparent that I had been sold a dud! The film isn't really funny at any point, even if it has a sort of lackadaisical relaxed humour to it that makes it have the air of a comedy if not the laughs. Looking at the plot and delivery I can see that it never wanted to be a spoof, more an amiable action movie on a tvm budget. The scenes are mostly watchable despite the fact that the low production values of the film show in almost every regard. The script is clichéd and the action rather stilted and A-Team-like, but it is still watchable.

The main reason the film is just about watchable is that Belushi is quite amiable in the lead role. His character is dumb and I think he knows it - however he doesn't take it too seriously and is enjoyable despite everything else. Ferrer is good as the main villain, doing essentially what he normally does in second-rate films. Boyle has a minor, insignificant role and doesn't make much difference. Jefferson is quite cute but is just one big `female sidekick' stereotype.

Overall this is a pretty poor film that will annoy most of those who tune it to watch it. It must be said that a film who's main selling point is James Belushi is in real trouble and that is the case here. It's watchable if you are really looking for something that can be on in the background while you do chores in another room but as entertainment for 90 minutes? Forget about it!

Jim Belushi is usually a pretty watchable actor. He's easygoing, and has an everyman quality that is actually sort of endearing. He's usually pretty convincing as a harried cop, a department store Santa Claus, or even a con-artist on parole. But a secret agent? Nahhh. In trying to make Belushi come across as a highly trained, lethal James Bond clone, the picture winds up making him look like an overweight, underachieving Ralph Kramden clone. The lame plot has Belushi's top-secret unit being disbanded, and several of its members turning renegade and plotting to steal nuclear weapons to sell to drug dealers, and Belushi has to stop them (for some reason this plan is revealed fairly early in the picture; you know that Belushi is going to succeed at stopping them, which pretty much kills whatever suspense there might have been). A good supporting cast (Miguel Ferrer, Peter Boyle) and a few bursts of action towards the end of the picture don't really help it much. The script is flat, the direction is workmanlike but nothing more, the location shooting in Eastern Europe is depressing (apparently the entire region looks like the industrial section of Jersey City), and there's really little suspense, style, or anything else that might break the monotony. Belushi is kind of fun to watch, but that's not enough of a reason to spend a couple of bucks to rent this picture. Don't bother.