Untitled Document
The Good Shepherd presents
a realistic view of the Central Intelligence Agency, but sometimes it is
difficult to take the world of spying seriously. Movies have often taken a
lighthearted poke at spies. James Bond movies are borderline spoofs, and
their success opened the floodgates of lunacy in the ’60s. Check the
bottom of the barrel for The Fat Spy (1966), with Jack E. Leonard, Phyllis Diller, and Jayne
Mansfield; The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966), starring the comedy team of Allen and Rossi; and Operation Kid Brother (1967),
with real-life kid brother Neil Connery. The deadly serious The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) inspired the brilliant title variation The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966). The attempt
at an American Bond with the Matt Helm series, starring the lifeless Dean
Martin, wasn’t much better. Our Man
Flint (1966) and In
Like Flint (1967), with James Coburn in the
title role, were far more successful in this endeavor. Those two films were
good, but Coburn topped them with the satire The
President’s Analyst (1967). Apparently
that’s one job you can’t quit, which makes him the target for
government assassins. This great cult film wonderfully reflected its
tumultuous decade, but the subject is ripe for a contemporary treatment.
The espionage heyday died down a bit after the ’60s, and bad spy
spoofs appeared more sporadically. S*P*Y*S (1974) reunited Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland from M*A*S*H (1970) and shamelessly ripped off its
title. Spies Like Us (1985), with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd from Saturday Night Live, is another star
pairing that never rose above its gimmick. Sneakers (1992) is one
of those movies with an eclectic cast that should have failed. Instead, it
is witty and exciting. Robert Redford leads a group of security experts
(Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix) who get in way over their
heads with a stolen security system. Confessions
of a Dangerous Mind (2002) purports to be a
true story, but only the most gullible would believe it. Chuck Barris, the
creator of the humiliation-game-show format (The
Newlywed Game), claims to have been
moonlighting as a CIA assassin while hosting The
Gong Show. George Clooney made the odd
decision to debut as director with this bizarre story, but the result is
surprisingly good. Considering the difficulty the current administration
has with intelligence, maybe this story is believable.
New on DVD this Tuesday (Jan. 9): The Illusionist, Crank, Bandidas, Idiocracy, Color
of the Cross, and Quinceañera.
This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2007.
