Spies Like Us (1985)

One of the best comedy duo's ever!!! Chase & Aykroyd are perfect together & absolutely hilarious, love Chevy Chase & love Dan Aykroyd so much these guys are true comedy legends & it shows in this feelgood fun filled adventure as those 2 goofballs are sent on a spy mission & it's so much fun just so funny & the test scene & bootcamp training are absolutely hilarious comedy scenes!!! A cheer you up Happy fun comedy with 2 of the greats together having a great time & it shows on screen!!! Love this film & grew up watching it

The essence of "Spies like us" is best captured in the scene where candidates take the exam for secret service. The two dead-beats, Chase's and Aykroyd's characters, approach it completely unprepared, save for the cheat-sheets and attitude. Their charade is painfully obvious to the exam supervisor, they know it's obvious yet carry on with it to the bitter end. When I saw this flick again, 30 years after I loved it as a kid, I felt like that supervisor: "Are they for real? Do they really think they can get away with it?". He wasn't impressed with their attempt at passing the exam, I wasn't impressed with their lazy attempt at comedy.Indeed, the key people involved don't appear they're even trying. There were four screenwriters in this and they still managed to underwrite the script. There are too few jokes, and many of them are just too dumb. Not funny, dumb. Like that whole training sequence, for instance. As if they put in all they had, and it was barely enough so they couldn't afford to throw the rubbish out.Then there are stars of the flick. Chevy Chase goes with his usual devil-may-care routine which is okay when script leaves him something to subvert. When he has nothing to do, he is unfunny. He is just squirming there, like a dog that waits to be taken out for a walk. On the other hand, Dan Aykroyd, who co-wrote the screenplay, acts all too smugly, winking at the audience that he's in on all the jokes. His delivery in the "doctor... doctor... doctor..." scene is a perfect example of ruining a gag you're supposed to deliver in a sincere, deadpan fashion. But Aykroyd doesn't want to be perceived as dumb by the audience. That's his problem in other films, too.John Landis topped them all by putting so little effort in the directing, I wonder if he was there at all. In that period his mind was probably more on trying to get cleared of that triple manslaughter charge than on putting together a funny film. Either that or he was too full of himself to care. After all he had so many hits under his belt already, "Trading Places" included. Nothing of his talent is visible here. Pedestrian camera angles, shots that could use a lot of trimming and giving too much freedom to principal cast. Many times I felt I was watching outtakes, when camera was left just rolling and nobody yelled "cut". Hell, almost every scene with Chase and Aykroyd looked like an outtake. The film plods most of the running time, picking up tempo only towards the end somewhat.All in all, too bad, because the rest of the cast have done their job and the premise had potential. The idea of two wannabe spies sent to USSR to serve as a decoy for two real spies on an important Cold War mission, where the wannabes end up saving the day instead of the pros, works both as a spoof of the genre and as a pure slapstick comedy. Ironically, you'll find more laughs and slapstick in the films they spoofed.

The two Saturday Night Live original cast vets must have thought that their presence alone would save this hideous piece of dreck where the jokes are more out of "Scooby Doo" than "Animal House". The veteran character actors in the film play their parts totally serious, which works for them, but when they are surrounded by the idiotic foolishness of the two leads, you feel sorry for them, not the leading stars.This isn't the type of film that an audience goes into expecting something that would make Ian Fleming jealous. Dealing with a nuclear bomb hidden in the woods by the Russians (played here with a Boris and Natasaha mentality), the agency that Dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase work for send them in as decoys so the real spies can find the rocket. But fate intervenes, and these two numbskull's might just be the ones to save the world. But who will save the 100 minutes you waste shaking your head at this idiotic mess? I wasn't expecting a screenplay of Orson Welles proportions, but when you are making a comedy for adults, the jokes need to rise above the mentality of a fifth grader. Even in the popular slob comedies of the early 1980's ("Caddyshack", "Stripes", etc.), there was heart and innocence in the humor, but here it is simple stupidity, and an insult to the audience to even try and buy what the filmmakers are trying to sell. I like the two actors, and fondly remember Donna Dixon from "Bosom Buddies", but in the past, they have been given much better material. Sadly, this makes "The Three Stooges in Outer Space" look like a genius in comparison.

Spies Like Us is a good movie with a well written storyline and a great comedic cast.I am a huge fan of both Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd,but this movie had a lot of more potential than what it delivers,the story was interesting and definitely was an easy set up for some great laughs.The chemistry between Chase and Aykroyd is the highlight and certainly what made this movie a lot better,there are many scenes that had me laughing but it didn't keep me interested all the way through.Has its moments and is definitely worth a watch if you see it on television,but don't bother going out of your way to see Spies Like Us. Two bungling bureaucrats are chosen by the CIA for a top secret mission,unaware that they are only decoys.Best Performance: Chevy Chase