SPY HARD (1996)
A film review by Chris Casino
** out of **** (fair for cable, but don't go out of your way for it)
Cast: Leslie Nielsen (Dick Steele), Nicholette Sheridan (Veronique Urinksy), Charles Durning (the Director), Barry Bostwick (Norman Coleman), Mason Gamble (McCluckey), Andy Griffith (General Rancor).
Crew: Directed by Rick Friedberg, Written by Rick Friedberg, Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzner & Dick Chudnow. Produced by Rick Friedberg, Dick Chudnow, & Leslie Nielsen.
The problem with this mediocre spoof of spy movies (which should've been much better considering how good it's star is at this kind of stuff) is so simple, and that makes me think the person who gave it the green light must have an I.Q. lower than Forrest Gump not to realize it. And I'll get to that in a minute.
Special Agent Dick Steele (Nielsen, who rises above the material, as he is his usual funny self here) lost his girlfriend fifteen years ago to his longtime nemesis, General Rancor (Griffith, who is totally pathetic!) in a parody of CLIFFHANGER, which caused him to retire. Fifteen years later, Rancor is still alive and armless. He's preparing to blow up the world (or something like that, I only saw this once, give me a break, will you?) with a prototype bomb invented by special agent 3.14 (Sheridan)'s father, and Steele is called back into duty.
Anyway, the problem with this movie is, the people who made the movie are amateurs when it comes to the parody field (they never even did a film!), and you can tell because they try to copy the Zucker Bros. and Jim Abrahams and think they can get away with it. As a result, the occasional misfired joke that is inevitably found in a Zucker Bros. film every now and then is all over the place in this movie.
I'm not blaming any of this on Leslie Nielsen, however. You always have to call him when you want a parody leading man done correctly because people like Armand Assante (FATAL INSTINCT) and Emillo Estevez (LOADED WEAPON ONE) don't even compare to him. He's good at this kind of stuff, and he's always funny. Here is no exception. In fact, he's the best part of this movie. If not for him, this movie might've been worse than FATAL INSTINCT, if that is at all possible.
Avoid this, please. If you want to see a funny spy movie spoof, stick to AUSTIN POWERS.
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