S.P.Y.S (2 outta 5 stars)
Pretty lame spy "spoof" that put a kibosh on the possibility of Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould becoming the greatest comedy team of the '70s. The guys are both great comic actors and they have loads of screen chemistry together. If you don't care much for either of these actors you will probably hate this movie... and if you are a big, big fan of either one of them... well, you probably still won't think much of it. Playing a pair of maverick secret agents forced to work together, they start out complaining and bickering but over the course of their adventure (some overly-complicated plot about assassinations, missing diamonds and foreign agents) they begin to get chummy. Sutherland and Gould have charisma to burn but the lousy, nearly joke-free script doesn't give them much to work with. I suppose if this has been a big box office hit they could have continued the franchise and gone on to bigger and better movies together... but, this tanked with audiences and I don't think they two have worked together since. Anyway, I have to add that I have always absolutely loved the last scene of the movie... as our two defeated heroes, in full-out charming rascal mode, skip off down a lonely road together and start singing:
Oh, we don't know what's comin' tomorrow, Maybe it's trouble and sorrow, But we'll travel the road Sharin' our load Side by side
You take it, brother! Through all kinds of weatherrrrr! Did You hear that, Lord? Whether the sky should fall Whether the skyyyyy should fallllll Just as long as we're together It doesn't matter at all...
Great wrap-up... too bad about the first 85 minutes.
Pretty lame spy "spoof" that put a kibosh on the possibility of Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould becoming the greatest comedy team of the '70s. The guys are both great comic actors and they have loads of screen chemistry together. If you don't care much for either of these actors you will probably hate this movie... and if you are a big, big fan of either one of them... well, you probably still won't think much of it. Playing a pair of maverick secret agents forced to work together, they start out complaining and bickering but over the course of their adventure (some overly-complicated plot about assassinations, missing diamonds and foreign agents) they begin to get chummy. Sutherland and Gould have charisma to burn but the lousy, nearly joke-free script doesn't give them much to work with. I suppose if this has been a big box office hit they could have continued the franchise and gone on to bigger and better movies together... but, this tanked with audiences and I don't think they two have worked together since. Anyway, I have to add that I have always absolutely loved the last scene of the movie... as our two defeated heroes, in full-out charming rascal mode, skip off down a lonely road together and start singing:
Oh, we don't know what's comin' tomorrow, Maybe it's trouble and sorrow, But we'll travel the road Sharin' our load Side by side
You take it, brother! Through all kinds of weatherrrrr! Did You hear that, Lord? Whether the sky should fall Whether the skyyyyy should fallllll Just as long as we're together It doesn't matter at all...
Great wrap-up... too bad about the first 85 minutes.