Spies Like Us

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That old guy but not the pupet show, 26 October 2005
9/10
Author: Peter Bartel from Brunswick

This film should have totally won an Academy Oscar Awards, especially for that old fella whose trying to get Dayne Akroy and Chevvy Chase. Git 'em! Remember when he's all like I'm gonna go down into that underground torpedo thing and the other guy's like yeah, if you wanna see the other bad guy or whatever you hafta "Won't you gentlemen have a Pepsi? " And he and that other old dude are in that drive-thru movies from the olden days and he looks at that other guy and "Won't you gentlemen step inside and have a Pepsi?" And the way he says "Pepsi?" where his voice kinda gets higher at the end? I kinda liked that part. Then he sees some Rusian watch. And they go to a lame pupet show.

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 01:12 (twenty years ago)

Dayne Akroy!

Kim (Kim), Monday, 14 November 2005 01:18 (twenty years ago)

OO OO WHAT DO YOU DO / NO ONE CAN DANCE LIK EYOU

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 14 November 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

git 'em!

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

to be perfectly honest that kind of reads like one of my reviews

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 14 November 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

Dr. strangelove meets hope and crosby, 23 May 2002
9/10
Author: lionz85 from toronto

Spies like us is truly one of the great comedies ever filmed a wonderous pleasure for film goers. The hijinks of chase and ackroyd is truly hilarious and bittersweet. We know they are pawns of the military industrial complex and the overt pressure of the military establishment and we idenify with both their vulnerability and the thankless task of their role as part of the economy subsidization of the u.s. military after ww2 for we also feel the thankless task of our role in the post ww2 build up and cold war hysteria. When we meet up with the Russians we also feel their vulnerabilty and thanklessness for their part in the total reduxtion of socialism to subsidize the military.

Spies like us truly ranks as one of the great black comedies of all time. It kind of reminded me of what Dr. strangelove would feel like if it we're a bob hope and bing crosby road movie in cinerama. One laments though that there isnt a big dance and song number, it attains a certain heft but doesnt shine as bright as it could this could have been one of the truly stinging satires of the 1980's trickle down economics of Ayn Rand theory you feel like they should be singing on the way through the adventures. One is reminded of the great Sean Connery singing scenes in Darby o'gill and the little people and on the fiddle. There are so many opprotunies missed but in the end the payoff is high and its one heck of a ride on the way to the ultimate subversion of the military.

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 01:37 (twenty years ago)

That's like something spit out by an essay generator that runs on film reviews from local weeklies* and all long-forgotten grad school dissertations...
(*haha, NOT a jab at slocki!)

rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 14 November 2005 02:01 (twenty years ago)

oh, but with intelligence level set between -1 and +2. Maybe it runs on pickled onions too, I don't know.

rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 14 November 2005 02:04 (twenty years ago)

Weird. I was thinking about Spies Like Us this weekend. I like it when the camel gurgles at Chevy Chase.

Also, awesome use of Soul Finger by the Bar Kays.

MESTEMA (davidcorp), Monday, 14 November 2005 13:03 (twenty years ago)

Sam Raimi & Joel Coen were the drive-in guards! B.B. King & director Michael Apted were the "Why don't you gentlement have a pepsi" guy! Terry Gilliam was in the cast!

kingfish cold slither (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 14 November 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

yeah wasn't Gilliam in the doctor scene in the tents?

Ste (Fuzzy), Monday, 14 November 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090056/

The blonde american chick spy showed up as "the Mystery Lady" that Garth falls in love with in the first Wayne's World flick! Ray Harryhausen was one of the doctors, as was the cinematographer on the "Thriller" vid!

Matt Frewer's in this movie!

kingfish cold slither (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 14 November 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

This was on, like, all weekend on A&E, and all I saw of it was the "Won't you gentlemen step inside and have a Pepsi?" scene. TWICE.

Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 14 November 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

the footage of austin and emmitt cheating on the exam is obviously not from the security cameras in the ceiling!

Theorry Henry (Enrique), Monday, 14 November 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

a&e huh

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 14 November 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

i had my tv on a&e all weekend. i was too lazy to change the station.

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

no i mean it's funny that a&e showed spies like us!!

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

I suppose it is art and entertainment.

I vaguely remember the blowing-up-the-TV/MTV joke.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

AT least something about Spies Like Us is funny?

(when this movie came out, I loved it, but I was probably ten, and, like Ghostbusters, took it as straight-action)

Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

haha, me too. i thought ghostbusters was a straight-up horror movie!

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

i was terrified by the marshmallow man

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

It's the Batman Factor, no? (Batman as in Adam West version)

Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

DOCTOR?
DOCTOR.
DOCTOR?
DOCTOR.

Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

oh god that scene

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

oh come on, this movie is fucking classic for that nostalgic 80's cold war feeling

file it under "not necessarily the news" and "real genius"

cutty (mcutt), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

otm

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

More great cameos in this... Costa-Gavras, Derek Meddings, and LA Television guy Tom Hatten

Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 14 November 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

Funny to see a thread about this because I watched "Wrong Is Right" a couple weeks ago got to thinking about 80s-era Cold War black comedies.

Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 14 November 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone mentioned Frank Oz yet? He's the guy leading the training class or something like that...

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 November 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

http://www.quartzcity.net/blog/blogpics/wrong_is_right.jpg

Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 14 November 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)

http://www.thezreview.co.uk/posters/posterimages/d/dealofthecentury.jpg

Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 14 November 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)

good old william friedkin.

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

and bud yorkin!

stockholm cindy is in your extended network (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 14 November 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

bob hope is in spies like us, too.

cutty (mcutt), Monday, 14 November 2005 20:36 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...
An argument here:

Also, to anyone who's ever worked in the Pentagon, State Department, or intelligence community, Spies Like Us is mandatory viewing, like Office Space is for cubicle trolls.

Er, TOMBOT to thread?

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

loving this.

ian, Monday, 12 April 2010 05:26 (fifteen years ago)


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