काँडोरमन

Think of Batman meets Inspector gadget!

Even for '81 this movie can bring you along for thrill ride. Beautiful women, neat gadgets and one of the best car chases. The main musical theme is easy to remember and consist of a one word lyric "CONDORMAN!". Yet "Condorman" is so ignorant that he doesn't realize the peril he puts himself into. He's a cartoonist for goodness sake!

Wonderfully cheezy in today's standards!

This film reminds me of the first 'flick' our entire family went to see. Oh and the last. Condorman will only be a good film for those who remember times gone by. This is a very watchable family film but don't expect major laughs, especially with Michael Crawford's (Ooooh Betty) poor American accent. This was Disneys alternative to Superman with a splash of James Bond, and quite simply it was anything but. Please watch it so you can see how much storyboards, acting and special effects have progressed. If you like Porsche's chasing a gypsy waggon, then this is for you. If you are going to analyse this film for its kit-ch humour, and the directors/studio's desperation to get a film out for Summer, don't bother, however it is a way of introducing a spy film to your 3 year old.

Ratings are almost entirely about perspective. Is this really an 8 star movie? Of course not. But it also depends on which version of me you ask.

5 year old me in 1981 - 10 stars!!!!!!! 40something year old me in 2019 - Eh, 6 stars seems fair. Average rating - 8*

Condorman was easily one of my 5 favorite movies as a young child. I watched it so many times I wore out a few VHS tapes. There isn't a lot about the movie that really holds up and I gotta imagine that if you showed it to a child today, they'd probably lose interest in it fairly quickly. Some of the humor is very dated and wouldn't make any sense to anyone who wasn't actually alive at the time. And the special effects, which looked totally real to 5 year old me, are painfully bad to 40+ year old me and would probably be terrible to the eyes of anyone who has grown up only knowing CGI. That said, it was then and still is now, a really fun movie that stays in its lane and doesn't try to be anything more than what it is.

If you're looking for something to engage your 5-10 year old kid, there's a sliiiiiight chance this might do it for them, but chances are the only people who would really enjoy this movie today are people who saw it when it was released. Grab some popcorn and a side order of childhood nostalgia and enjoy.

I saw this on VHS rental in the early 80's and remember it with massive fondness. Over here in the UK the film has been deleted from VHS for over a decade so my chance to see this film again was nil.

So along came DVD, I had no player and this was only available in the US. I bought a player that could play all regions and imported me a copy, and when it bounced through the letterbox to the floor I was like a kid at Christmas.

This is the story of an American comic book artist drawing his books from Paris. His best friend, and flat mate, is a CIA office clerk. When a job comes up for a civilian to carry out, Woody is recruited. After the success of the first mission, all be it by pure luck, Woody is requested by a KGB agent to help her defect.

Now this film is still one of my favourites at the age of 30. And that's not seeing through rose tinted glasses anymore. This film is funny and you really wanna see the good guys win. The gadgets blow James Bond away and I dare anybody who doesn't wanna own a old wagon that converts to a car, or a massive condorman suit that helps you fly.

Now for the bad bits. The film doesn't relate to today's audience with the cold war long since dead and the Russians our friends and allies now. Michael Crawford will always be Condorman to me, but his American accent is very poor. The films print looks lifeless with no colour and the music still lives in 80's ville. Also the plot is very loose, why they went across the alps and through small villages when they could of got on a plane and been in the US in a few hours is never explained. But please do not let this put you off. This is a gem of a movie that still makes me wanna be Condorman. So Speilberg you ever make a remake of this count me in...........

Being a superhero flick made by Walt Disney Productions, one couldn’t expect the violent thrills associated with the genre – but, then, neither was it the kiddie-oriented fare I was dreading. In fact, it’s more espionage stuff (the narrative occurs in a variety of European locations) in clear imitation of the James Bond extravaganzas, complete with multi-purpose car, than outright fantasy (the hero is a mild-mannered cartoonist and the “Condorman” outfit emerges to be decidedly quaint, getting very little mileage into the bargain!).

Still, it’s engaging and pleasant-looking for what it is – though the simplistic “Condorman” theme wouldn’t rank among famed composer Henry Mancini’s most memorable pieces. The cast enters gleefully into the absurd spirit of the thing: Michael Crawford as the unlikely hero; Barbara Carrera as a luscious defecting Russian agent (she would eventually feature in the “Odd Bond Out” of that series i.e. NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN [1983]); Oliver Reed, a bit glum but at least non-hammy as the chief villain; James Hampton as Crawford’s C.I.A. agent pal; Jean-Pierre Kalfon as Reed’s top henchman, a one-eyed menace; and Dana Elcar as the C.I.A. operative who unwittingly puts “Condorman” on the map.

Typically, we get a number of disguises (at one point, both Crawford and Hampton don the garbs of Arab sheiks!), chases (on land and sea) and stunts (directed by the ubiquitous Remy Julienne) – not to mention romance (Crawford, of course, falls for Carrera and models his fictional “Laser Lady” character on her!). Incidentally, while we’re obviously not treated to an action prologue here like in the Bond films, we’re given an animated sequence instead – which is a nice way of acknowledging the film’s comic-strip aspect. Finally, I wouldn’t say that CONDORMAN is hilarious…but it does contain one good in-joke – a crack by Hampton that “not everyone in the C.I.A. is Robert Redford”, clearly a reference (and a very apt one given the title!) to that star’s own espionage venture THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975).