Spies Like Us (1985)

Yet another bad movie in a lengthy string of losers for all three of the principals involved here: director John Landis and stars Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase. Chase and Aykroyd play a pair of bumbling would-be CIA agents who are spotted cheating on the entrance exam. So the CIA decides to use them as bait in a mission to flummox the Russians. Lots of pointless slapstick and mugging, but Landis hasn't made a genuinely funny film since Trading Places. Aykroyd and Chase seem smug and self-satisfied (don't they always?), as though they can rest forever on laurels earned during the 1975 season of Saturday Night Live. Look for a gaggle of film directors (Terry Gilliam, Joel Coen, Costa-Gavras) in cameo roles: that's the closest this film comes to cleverness. --Marshall Fine Amazon.com

Needs To Be In Widescreen

Great film, funny comedy with Donna Dixon eye candy.

Already own this version and have been waiting for a widescreen release for years.

Hopefully they'll be released on Bluray before too long. I can wait.
June 24, 2008

Cool Film

this was one of the first DVD's I ever owned. only wish it was in true 16x9 and in Hi-Def Blu-Ray. maybe in time it will be on Blu-Ray. WB has not done a Remastering (1998 Pan&Scan Only Verson as of 4/2008) of this great funny film that stars the Beautiful Donna Dixon who IMHO would look GREAT IN Hi-Def!! :) April 11, 2008

Classic Cold War Comedy

Whether you grew up during the Cold War or afterwards, you'll love this comedic reminiscence of the Reagan era. In my opinion, this is Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd at their finest. Basically they're low level government employees who get caught cheating on departmental exams. The CIA needs two decoys for an important spy operation, so they are chosen, and eventually end up in Pakistan and the Soviet Union.

I own close to 300 movies and this movie is near the top of my favorite all time movies. Enjoy! February 15, 2008

Intelligence insulting

I was extremely disappointed with this film. It's a terrible shame because I love Dan Akroyd! It just wasn't funny at all. At some points I was bored to the point of wanting to go to sleep. Chase and Akroyd's characters never reached the potential they seemed to have at the beginning of the film, and the attempts at humor were ridiculous (in a bad way). I'm not sure how this has 4 stars here on amazon. I generally love comedies and am rarely ever disappointed with a movie, but that's exactly what happened with this one. Surely pass this one up. August 6, 2007

"We mock what we don't understand"

How unique to see a movie in which Dan Aykroyd looks short!

There's nothing terribly wrong with "Spies Like Us". The plot is perfectly sound as the basis for a comedy, and Chase and Aykroyd do their best with the material. The problem is that it's just not that funny. There are only a handful of the laugh-out-loud moments that should serve as justification for the whole enterprise.

Another problem is that Chase's character is so hopelessly incompetent that he makes no contribution to the characters' mission whatsoever. Aykroyd's character could have done the whole thing by himself. This characteristic is not shared by "Ghostbusters" or even "The Blues Brothers", in which all the leading characters have particular technical and/or social skills that are essential to the success of the team. As an Aykroyd fan I'm always happy to see him playing courageous and competent characters, but Austin Millbarge is arguably **too** perfect; he doesn't have any of the kind of peculiarities that Aykroyd can get his teeth into as an actor, like Ray Stantz's childlike nature in "Ghostbusters" or Mother's outrageous conspiracy theories in "Sneakers". May 24, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...