Agent zéro zéro

From the same mold as the "Naked Gun" series, "Spy Hard" stars everyone's favorite bumbling hero Leslie Nielson as a not-so-secret agent, WD-40, who stumbles his way through another slampooning chaotic comic story. Sniping at everything from "Speed" to "Home Alone" and built around the James Bond flicks, "Spy Hard" features lots of babes and bunches of bit part celebs with nonstop gags and off-the-wall humor. Only for those who are into wacky for the sake of wacky. (C+)

I don't see how anyone can not like this just a little bit. Sure it's not the greatest film in the world, but it still does justice to the spoof genre, which so many films have tried to do but failed (think Scary Movie (the 1st one, not the other 2, they were decent)).

It's not as good as the Naked Gun trilogy or Airplane, and it does recycle a few gags from there (Scary Movie 3 did this). They do this so that people who haven't seen the other films still get a variety of jokes from the other films.

The opening sequence is one of the best opening sequences I have seen in ages. They should definitely do more films like this film. 9/10.

The dopey, deadpan character sculptured by Leslie Nielsen is back in a "James Bond-esque" comedy as agent WD 40. There are more gag misfires in this movie, than a parking lot full of dead batteries. However, he's such a likeable guy, you can make it over the hump.

Unfortunately, with the exit of the mad geniuses (The Zucker Bros. & Jim Abrahms), there's little here in this script to wave the pom-poms about. It's all been done too many times before.

Of honourable mention is a priceless, very quick cameo with Pat Morita, which is an absolute gem. There are other assorted scenarios that came off well, too. See it if you must on a rainy Sunday, but this is pretty old, borrowed and blue.

I've seen a few of Leslie Nielsen's spoof movies that were, indeed, funny for the most part such as his role as Dracula or in the takeoff of The Fugitive. However, this one - a parody of the James Bond film - just didn't have the quality or quantity of belly laughs, or laughs at all. It relies too much on slapstick and tired, overused jokes. To be fair, there are some funny scenes and parodies of other films but just not enough of them. The best part of the movie may have been the opening credits, which was an excellent takeoff on the memorable Bond openings.

I also thought they overdid the irreverence on the convent scene. It's typical Hollywood in which nuns and priests are portrayed as the opposite of what they are supposed to be (nuns with machine guns and disrespectful language??! Let's not overdo the satire.)

Well, at least it wasn't boring and it's wasn't overly long at just 81 minutes.

Although I am a big Leslie Nielsen fan, you don't have to even know who he is to laugh hysterically at this one. First of all, I love the feel of this movie. The Secret Service headquarters is just full of secret crannies where weirdos are hiding. Especially the director's office. You always find something goofy hidden in there. In addition to Nielsen's trademark spotlight-stealing sight gags, there are many subtle insults, including the use of the Disney Animation Studio façade as the establishing exterior shot of the Agency headquarters (you can see the Seven Dwarfs in the architecture), and the fact that Agent 3.14, in addition to her number being pi, speaks with a huge French accent, even though she's Russian. I particularly love the character of Coleman. I always laugh when he sees the Rancor tape and utters a Bostonese "Gooed Gwad!". The characters are great in this. There is Steele's trusty sidekick Kabul (who has a different car in every scene), and Andy Griffith is an excellent villain. One of the best parts of this movie is Weird Al Yankovic's opening title song (spoofing Thunderball's).

For goodness' sakes, rent it if you haven't seen it yet. WATCH FOR THOSE CAMEOS!