Spy Hard

Plot synopsis:
Secret agent WD-40 Dick Steele (Leslie Nielsen) has his work cut out for him. Along with the mysterious and lovely Veronique Ukrinsky, Agent 3.14 (Nicollette Sheridan), he must rescue the kidnapped Barbara Dahl and stop the evil genius, a General named Rancor (Andy Griffith), from seizing control of the entire world.
Rancor was wounded in an earlier encounter and no longer has arms. However, he can "arm" himself by attaching robotic limbs with various weapons attached. Steele is talked out of retirement by an old friend, agent Steven Bishop (Robert Guillaume), and given his new assignment by The Director (Charles Durning), who also is testing out a variety of elaborate disguises. At headquarters, Steele encounters an old agency nemesis, Norm Coleman (Barry Bostwick), and flirts with the Director's adoring secretary, referred to as Miss Cheevus (Marcia Gay Harden).
On the job, Steele is assisted by an agent named Kabul (John Ales), who gives him rides in a never-ending variety of specially designed cars. They seek help from McLuckey (Mason Gamble), a blond child, Home Alone, who is very good at fending off intruders. Steele resists the temptations of a dangerous woman (Talisa Soto) he finds waiting for him in bed. But he does work very closely with Agent 3.14, whose father, Professor Ukrinsky (Elya Baskin), is also being held captive by Rancor.
Everything comes to an explosive conclusion at the General's remote fortress, where Steele rescues both Barbara Dahl (Stephanie Romanov) and Miss Cheevus and launches a literally disarmed Rancor into outer space, saving mankind.

Tags: cult, comic, violence, flashback

Review:
I've seen that this film has got mostly bad reviews on this website, and i heard that at the time of this movies release, it didn't do well in the box office and was also poorly received, in my opinion though, they are ALL wrong!This is a great film, you can clearly see that it tries to live up to the great heights of the Naked Gun series, and it has a real go at it, but seriously, what will ever beat The Naked Gun, in comedy anyway...?There are lots of good gags in the film but i'm not going to spoil it for you, just buy the DVD (VHS if your old fashioned!) and find them out for yourself, it will be worth it believe me!I would recommend this to any Leslie Neilson fan (like me!) or anyone needing a good laugh....8/10.
From the same mold as the "Naked Gun" series, "Spy Hard" stars everyone's favorite bumbling hero Leslie Nielson as a not-so-secret agent, WD-40, who stumbles his way through another slampooning  chaotic comic story.
One of the best parts of this movie is Weird Al Yankovic's opening title song (spoofing Thunderball's).For goodness' sakes, rent it if you haven't seen it yet.
Sure it's not the greatest film in the world, but it still does justice to the spoof genre, which so many films have tried to do but failed (think Scary Movie (the 1st one, not the other 2, they were decent)).It's not as good as the Naked Gun trilogy or Airplane, and it does recycle a few gags from there (Scary Movie 3 did this).
I've seen a few of Leslie Nielsen's spoof movies that were, indeed, funny for the most part such as his role as Dracula or in the takeoff of The Fugitive.
But if you're looking for a funnier film with Nielsen, than rent another one like dracula or any of the naked gun movies, airplane is always good too..
The amusement and fun result to be for finding out the numerous cinematic references that successively appear , such as : the credits title of ¨James Bond¨ movie , ¨In the line of fire¨ (Nielsen playing Clint Eastwood lookalike), ¨Pulp Fiction¨ (like Travolta), ¨Sister Act¨(performing a nun , Woopy Goldberg alike), ¨Speed¨ , ¨True Lies¨, ¨Die Hard¨, ¨Home Alone¨ , ¨Dennis the Menace¨ (where acts the same kid , Mason Gamble) and ¨Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid¨ in which acting Paul Newman-alike and riding his bicycle , he plays a bewildering scene under Burt Bacharach music with smile to roar with laughter .
Leslie Nielson and Andy Griffith.'Spy hard' is basically Naked Gun 4 with different character names and less laughs.
It is a great shame, because Leslie Nielsen has made some great films, none better that Flying High(Airplane) and The Naked Gun. There are no redeeming features in this movie at all so if you see it on a shelf in a video store, do yourself a favour and keep walking..
Dick Steele, Agent WD-40 (Leslie Nielsen) is assigned by his director (Charles Durning), to stop the evil General Rancor (Andy Griffith) from destroying the world.
WD-40 believed Rancor was dead and he teams up with the hot KGB agent Veronique Ukrinsky (Nicollette Sheridan) to find Rancor and save the world.The brainless "Spy Hard" is another spoof with Leslie Nielsen in the lead role in the same style of "Naked Gun".
I am a huge Leslie Nielsen Fan, I find his deadpan delivery hilarious, and count The Naked Gun Trilogy among my Favourite Movies, but this Hit and mostly miss spoof, is pretty dire in comparison.The Zucker Brothers & Pat Proft are sorely missed here as this was written by Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer the two responsible for raping my senses with some dire spoofs namely Date Movie, Epic Movie & Disaster Movie - Having seen most of their slapdash spoofs I have to say that 'Spy Hard' is their best, though that's not saying a great deal, I actually remember watching this at my local theater when it first came at the tender age of 11 or 12 and at the time I remember thinking this was great, my taste in the quality of Films has improved in the years since.This is effectively a Bond Movie spoof capitalising on the fact that Bond made a comeback the year before, but this is pretty dire stuff and the only reason to watch this is for Nielen's performance but this is really below him.There isn't really a coherent plot it's just a slapdash effort spoofing other films including Home Alone & Speed (1994) which has Ray Charles driving a bus, yes I get it he's blind...funny stuff, NOT!
Agent Dick Steele (Leslie Nielsen) must partner up with Agent Veronique Ukrinsky (Nicollette Sheridan) to stop General Rancor (Andy Griffith) from destroying the world with a nuclear missile hidden in his secret base.
This at first appeared to be a spoof of James Bond, but in actuality it spoofs a lot of different movies; this could probably have worked, but unfortunately, most of the gags are not very funny.
this movie is billed as a spoof/comedy,but it's not really funny.there are 1 or 2 mildly amusing moments,but mostly it's just silly,without being funny.this movie would work as an actual spy movie,except that you have the expectation that you will laugh.it's gonna be hard to get the required 10 lines of text in here,but i'll try.i think the problem is the filmmakers tried too hard to get laughs.sometimes you can go too far with a joke and it ends up as flat as a pancake.so the movie isn't really funny,but it does have 1 redeeming feature.that is the casting of Andy Griffith(TV's Matlock and the Andy Griffith show) as a maniacal nut case who plans to either destroy the world or rule it.Griffith is great in this movie.he has so much fun in the role.Barry Bostwick is also good for some comic relief.but overall,the movie is not good.the most i can squeeze out for "Spy Hard" is a 4/10.
Not as good as the Naked Gun movies, but worth a watch if you find Leslie Nielsen funny..
Leslie Nielsen is at his best in the Naked Gun films, but still Spy Hard is worth a watch due to the many scenes of spoof and if you find Nielsen funny and entertaining give this a view..
Not Good At All. Leslie will never be as funny as he was years ago,it would take a miracle,the reason being he is accepting all these ridiculous scripts,just because hes in it doesnt mean it will change anything.Spy Hard has a very few funny scenes,and i find this film very similar to Nielsons other unfunny films like "DRACULA DEAD & LOVING IT" & "WRONGFULLY ACCUSED".I always wished their would be another Naked Gun,that is the only way Nielson can get his spoof fame back,now he is the same as any other star like Charlie Sheen in a spoof movie.
But the worst part of Spy Hard is the juvenile and often unfunny dialogue which shows Friedberg and Seltzer's weaknesses for writing as well as directing.That said, despite the bad dialogue at times, there are some funny sight gags and the references to the spy genre weren't too obvious and fun to spot.
The acting compared to any of the films Friedberg and Seltzer directed is pretty good, Leslie Nielson is great when funny and he is rather here with a fun enough character.
In the case of Spy Hard, a parody of James Bond movies (as well as many others), the result is very uneven.
That song was what lead me to watch "Spy Hard", seeing its sequence from this movie in "'Weird Al' Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection".
So, "Spy Hard" isn't the worst film that Friedberg and Seltzer had something to do with (it might even be the best!), but it's still not worth it, if you ask me, and I know many would agree, since it has such a low rating.
This James Bond spoof never accomplishes much and resorts to typical Leslie Nielson fare, with half-hearted laughs, and not enough to name the film "great," just like "Wrongfully Accused" and "Dracula: Dead and Loving It."
Early in their career they're responsible for writing the Scary Movie franchise, and made their debut with writing Spy Hard, a film that starred the late Leslie Nielsen, and I suppose back then there was enough budget for the filmmakers to hire bona fide stars such as Ray Charles, Hulk Hogan, the male model Fabio, Mr T and even the late Pat Morita of Karate Kid's Mr Miyagi fame, before the flops spell out the hiring of impersonators (no offense to the profession) since I would believe the stars wouldn't want to go touch these productions with a ten foot pole given a regressing track record.I've always associated Leslie Nielsen with his better known Naked Gun series, and while his brand of comedy had gone beyond detective Frank Drebin, somehow Nielsen is quite the enigma, and becomes a character in his own right no matter what role he gets to play.
After all, we have Johnny English and Austin Powers to come after this, so there's plenty of room actually for more of such wannabes who have their equivalent of a theme song, here performed in hilarious fashion and easily one of the best sequences here with a Weird Al Yankovic contribution full of inane lyrics, and keep a close eye on those gyrating silhouettes!Like all "comedic" films by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer to follow this, Spy Hard is the precursor to their idea that comedy stems from poking fun at the box office successes of the time, and in the mid 90s, we get spoofs here from films such as Jan de Bont's Speed, Spielberg's Jurassic Park, Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Cameron's True Lies, Wolfgang Petersen's In the Line of Fire and even Sister Act which allowed for some nuns with guns moments.
Simply put the story here dwells on Agent WD-40 stopping his arch nemesis General Rancor (Andy Griffith, or TV's Matlock), but its relentless buffoonery didn't quite survive past the halfway mark where jokes consistently fell flat and were unfunny.Still, the best thing about the film is to watch Leslie Nielsen at his element with yet another Nielsen-isque performance, and for fans around the world, he will definitely be missed as one of the unlikeliest comedians of our generation.
The humor is forced, not more subtle like in the Naked Gun films, and it's tiresome as to how much they rip off from other movies instead of trying to come up with more original gags..
This spoof film isn't as good as Airplane or The Naked Gun. It's an okay film, not brilliant, not bad.
RELEASED IN 1996 and directed by Rick Friedberg, "Spy Hard" is a spoof of James Bond flicks with Leslie Nielsen as Agent WD-40 and Nicollette Sheridan as Agent 3.14.
If you know Leslie Nielsen's previous spoof/comedy films,you could expect something very funny this time,but,that's not what you get,instead,we get a movie that tries as much as it can to be like "airplane",and mainly "naked gun".It's pretty clear that this movie writers were influenced by the ZAZ team.But,they sure don't know how to handle the style of humor that may had seemed easy on their minds.We do receive nonsense,double-sense,jokes a second and other characteristics that made movies like "Naked Gun","Airplane" and "hot shots!" so great,but,in this one all of these characteristics had been used out of context and not well-used as the movies mentioned.
There's a great cameo from Ray Charles as a blind bus driver in the Speed sketch and Charles Durning contributes a large slice of humour as 'The Director', Steele's boss.Leslie Nielsen, RIP - Spy Hard was not his finest film, not a bad one, but alas, not a very good one, which is down to the material, not the great man himself..
The acting is pretty bad, the jokes aren't funny, so what's left is an annoying James Bond-like thing that is not worth watching.
Plus, while this film isn't great by any stretch, it is (thank goodness) a lot better than some of the truly awful comedies starring Leslie Nielsen--such as REPOSSESSED--which I nominate as one of the most unfunny films in history!
Leslie Nielsen still brings his trademark deadpan sensibilities to the role of special agent Dick Steele, but the rest of the film is weighed down by gags that are way too obvious, character names that serve as an all too desperate attempt to fish laughs from the audience (Dick Steele being a great example, and yes, there are penis jokes associated with that name), and missed opportunities.When I say missed opportunities, I'm talking mainly about Andy Griffith's role as terrorist General Rancor.
Normally, I enjoy the humor of Leslie Nielsen found in the Naked Gun movies.
This is one of the latter.I popped this in because i, like many of the people who watched the Naked gun series (and Airplane and Scary Movies) loved the way the Zucker Abrams director team made incredible comedy with Leslie Nielson.But this movie was directed by entirely different people, who had no qualms about totally ripping off those comic geniuses and what's more egregious- failing to be funny!
Spy Hard is a decent film with an enjoyable but in no way memorable or original,with a good comedic cast.The movie is nothing spectacular and it is easily forgetful,but Leslie Nielsen certainly makes it a lot better,the character was clearly written for him,he was very similar to Frank Drebin from the Naked Gun movies,but certainly didn't have dialogue that was as funny as Drebin has.My favourite part was definitely Weird Al Yankovic's song about the movie in the opening and ending credits,they were both the funniest and the most enjoyable.Its certainly nothing hilarious or an outstanding comedy,but if your a fan of Leslie Nielsen you myth want to watch it just for his sake.Secret agent Dick Steele (Leslie Nielsen) is given a mission to stop General Rancor (Andy Griffith) from destroying the world with a deadly missile..
The movie is pretty funny but it feels to much like Naked Gun, and especialy when Leslie himself is in it.The story didn't feel much worked out and fell like old jokes in it.3 out of 10.
Promiscuous secret agent Leslie Nielsen (as Dick Steele) comes out of retirement and assumes his spy identity as "WD-40" to battle old enemy Andy Griffith (as Rancor), made-up to look like Leonid Brezhnev and aiming to take over the entire free world.
Familiar faces and comic bits keep it fun, through most of the running time.****** Spy Hard (5/24/96) Rick Friedberg ~ Leslie Nielsen, Nicollette Sheridan, John Ales, Andy Griffith.
I don't recollect much of this film simply because Leslie Neilson has been in some much better efforts than this- airplane, the police squad and the naked gun series to name just a few.
I don't recollect much of this film simply because Leslie Neilson has been in some much better efforts than this- airplane, the police squad and the naked gun series to name just a few.
I don't recollect much of this film simply because Leslie Neilson has been in some much better efforts than this- airplane, the police squad and the naked gun series to name just a few.
I don't recollect much of this film simply because Leslie Neilson has been in some much better efforts than this- airplane, the police squad and the naked gun series to name just a few.
I don't recollect much of this film simply because Leslie Neilson has been in some much better efforts than this- airplane, the police squad and the naked gun series to name just a few.
I don't recollect much of this film simply because Leslie Neilson has been in some much better efforts than this- airplane, the police squad and the naked gun series to name just a few.
The nuns using machine guns, 'Weird Al' Yankovic's James Bond-like opening song sequence and Dick Steele riding a Marines fighter jet are some of my favorite parts, as well as seeing Dick Steele's sidekick Kabul (John Ales) drive up in a different car in each of his different scenes.While entertaining, this movie is a little the short side, clocking at 81 minutes, which doesn't give much room for plot and character development and more laughs.
While Spy Hard is nowhere near as funny as the Naked Gun movies, or even as funny as Wrongfully Accused, it has enough laughable moments to make it worth at least some of your money.
Weird Al's theme song is just about the best things about Spy Hard, but there were some other good moments post opening credits.If you want a really good James Bond spoof, Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery is still the ticket.
Well, this leads up to the usual hilarious slapstick comedy in a Leslie Nielsen film.
After watching Weird Al's opening credit sequence, I thought Spy Hard was going to be a great movie.I guess I was wrong.
funny leslie nielsen movie, but it's no naked gun.
spy hard is a decent comedy and has enough laughs but trust me its no classic, but if your a leslie nielsen fan as i am, then it's definitely one for the collection..
Nielsen seems in on the joke here and is never as funny as his Frank Drebin role from The Naked Gun films.
It is indeed a spoof of James Bond films with a few funny moments but Nielsen is far better in The Naked Gun films where characters seem broader.
Leslie Nielsen's spoof of the Bond movies is largely a hit and miss affair.
While in the style of the NAKED GUN films, it's never as funny as that trilogy, unfortunately, although there are still some laughs to be had along the way.