Voitheia o Vengos, faneros praktor '000'

I have nothing against the first Austin Powers film, but I have to say that with less budget ,tools and location ,Thanasis Vegos made some of the best spy comedies of all time with this one and its sequel.

Simply put everything from the slapstick, to the one-liners and the events that take place all are amazing directed and put of film for future generation to laugh their asses out.

Vegos was by far the best comedian in the film industry of Greece and here he is at his prime. This one of these films that has to be analyzed in film schools in order to teach how to make a comedy.

If you consider yourself a master of the comedy genre then you have to watch this film asap!

It is a great pity that this comedy will not be watched by other than Greek speaking audiences. I have watched most of what are considered to be the greatest comedies of all time in the history of the cinema. I can say that without any doubt this is the finest and funniest of them all. It is the only movie that has me crying from laughing each and every time I watch it. I know it by heart, as I have seen it countless times, and it never gets boring, it never wears off!

Theough it has elements of the Marx Brothers anarchic humor, and physical gags in the tradition of Chaplin, Keaton, Langton etc, it is an extremely original comedy, well ahead of it's time, being pythonesque two years before the Python were even created. It is very sad that he isn't so famous as they are...

Veggos is a genius and here is the movie that proves it!

Around the same time Mel Brooks started his career as a writer and director of "anarchic" comedies, Thanasis Vengos did pretty much the same thing in Greece with this spy movie parody. This film has the same feel with Brooks' best efforts, as well as the Abrahams-Zuker-Arahams comedies,which arrived a full decade later. Despite some misfires, there is a barrage of ingenious jokes, as well as a general surreal atmosphere that make this a winner. The film can also be read as an underground satire of the police state that was Greece in the 60's and which led to the 7-year junta in 1967. A year later Vengos reconfirmed his innovative spirit by releasing a sequel- a long time before they became fashionable.

Thanassis Vengos is one of the best Greek comedians of all times. Of course you have to be Greek to have watched this movie and this a great pity because an English speaking Vengos would be considered one of the great comedians of international cinema.

In this movie he directs and plays the main character as he did in six other movies, all very unique. The movie itself is a James Bond parody and the gags are continuous and hilarious. Vengos -and his assistant, MAP 31- deliver the gags of movies like Naked Gun did 30 years earlier, using basic technology. The result is still amazing and poses a challenge for younger Greek comedians to follow.

Overall, a comedy not to be missed.

Perhaps the only Greek entry (along with its 1969 sequel) in the James Bond Spoof sweepstakes, this is one of the better ones from any country. Producer-director-star Thanassis Vengos is not very well-known outside Greece, but he should be: his brand of humor is more advanced and stands the test of time better than such European contemporaries as Louis De Funes or Franco and Ciccio. In fact, the surrealistic school of comedy he represents may be unparalleled in Greek cinema. This film cannot keep its momentum from flagging at times (the first of the three "graduation" missions goes on too long), but it offers several laugh-out-loud monents, and its best sections can be watched more than once; the "training" scenes at the start can almost compare with similar ones in Woody Allen's "Bananas"! The cartoonish sound effects are particularly amusing. In a too-small role, Ria Deloutsi (Dora) will have you exclaiming "Sophia Loren....who?". **1/2 out of 4.