1985 espionage comedy, dir. John Landis, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase:
IMDb. The covert operation
needs some expendable noisemakers to distract attention from the real
agents, and here are two guys who just got caught cheating on the
exam…
I watched this again because I think it may have been one of the
inspirations for Ishtar: an homage to the Road To… films, set
largely in the desert, and with a modern espionage element as the plot
driver. And it's not a great film for the ages, but it's definitely
rather better.
There's a strong Saturday Night Live feel here. John Landis had made
Trading Places with Aykroyd; Chase had recently made Fletch and
National Lampoon's European Vacation. These people know what they're
doing. I've always found Aykroyd more appealing as an actor than
Chase, but they both get a fair bit to do here.
I was also impressed by the secondary characters: William Prince and
Bruce Davison as the CIA types playing for whichever side seems to be
in the ascendant, and Steve Forrest and Tom Hatten as the generals who
are the real villains of the piece, all have the look and style just
right.
There are also many celebrity cameos, including Ray Harryhausen, Frank
Oz, Terry Gilliam, Sam Raimi… this is obviously a film with enough
significant people that they could call up friends and have a
reasonable chance of getting them to join in.
Bits work better than others, of course. For me the scenes at the
medical mission are a bit of a mis-step. But it would be unreasonable
to point out that Nuclear Missiles Don't Work Like That, because the
point of the film is not to say "this could happen", it's to show off
these actors doing their comic (and occasionally dramatic) thing
against the background of a world that is set up to allow them to
succeed.
It's never great but it's usually fun. This is the sort of disposable
summer film that Ishtar should have been.
I talk about this film further on
Ribbon of Memes.