This little film sure tries hard to be silly.
Unfortunately, most hits strike wide of funny bone
central. It's a Marx brother's script with a Stan
Laurel where a Groucho should have been.
Breaking onto the screen with "Secret Agent Man"
rocking the sound track, the mood is set for a 1960's
spy spoof. Mild-mannered schoolteacher Allen Quimp
stumbles into spy mode in an attempt to quell his
hounding spouse who has much higher aspirations for
him than grammar. Sigourney Weaver does an average
job of playing her Olive Oyl role with a bit of a
sting, "Everything would be better if you just, I
don't know, died."
Early on, Quimp bumps into, and haphazardly aids
in the defection of, a famous Russian gymnast very
well played by Ryan Phillippe for about 3 minutes
before he defects from the film, "You want to leave
Russia just when you're winning the space race?" This
event Forest Gumps Quimp into actual assignments with
the CIA. Eventually, Quimp finds himself smack dab in
the middle of the Bay of Pigs, Cuba.
I'm not quite sure why this film misses, it moves
well and has high energy; perhaps it's the casting.
I'd have recruited Paul Giamatti from "Duets" for the lead and
Shelly Duvall as the pushy wife. Perhaps Jon Favreau
or someone really dangerous like Harvey Keitel (or
even Denis Leary) could have nailed the crazed "kill
communism" soldier role.
Leary is fine as an intermediary agent, "I've only
started one sentence since you've been in town and
you've been correcting it ever since!"
Good lines like that get buried in throwaways
like, "Just because you're a revolutionary, doesn't
mean you have to be revolting."
Lots of energy and movement, unfortunately little
amusement.
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