SPYS

Finely written espionage spoofery, with the finesse of a classic Hollywood comedy. Very classy, very assured, with exactly the right degree of underlying blackness: international relations come down to an openly acknowledged credo of a corpse for a corpse, a Russian defects for the promise of a Thunderbird, CIA torturers take time out to join in a chorus of 'America, America' with the tortured. SPYS takes post-Watergate disillusionment as read, and goes on to outdo MASH, the humour moving with ease from the verbal to the visual to the situational and back. Sutherland and Gould counterpoint each other superbly (Sutherland in particular performing excellently, like a zanier Cary Grant). Kershner directs with utter skill, enabling even the most notoriously cameo-ridden actor to rise to unexpected heights.