Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Spy Hard (1996)

Director: Rick Friedberg

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Nielsen is the Agency's star operatve Dick Steele (codename: WD-40). Intrepid, debonair, yet surprisingly accident-prone, Steele leaves a trail of destruction in his wake. When his beloved fellow agent Victoria Dahl falls to her death from a cliff as Steele puts paid to the ambitions of his nemesis General Rancor (Griffith), WD-40 feels it's time to hang up his badge. Fifteen years on, and Rancor's back, unarmed limb-wise, though he does have a very large rocket and he's threatening to use it unless he gets the final microchip that'll bring him world domination. Bond may be the main target, but Spy Hard is hardly frugal with its references. After the Naked Guns, and Wayne's Worlds, this Hollywood spoofery is becoming almost a genre in itself. Like Hot Shots! there's the same mistaken belief that simply tagging other films will be intrinsically funny: Nielsen running into a convent dressed as a nun and conducting the sisters through 'Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head' does not a great Sister Act parody make.

Author: NB 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.