Spies Like Us (1985)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

John Landis

Writers:

Dan Aykroyd (story) &
Dave Thomas (story) ...

Release Date:

6 December 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

With spies like these who needs enemies?

Plot:

Two bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for Nuclear War.

Plot Keywords:

Missile | Spy | Pentagon | CIA | Pakistan

Cast

Chevy Chase	...	Emmett Fitz-Hume
Dan Aykroyd	...	Austin Millbarge
Steve Forrest	...	General Sline
Donna Dixon	...	Karen Boyer
Bruce Davison	...	Ruby
Bernie Casey	...	Colonel Rhumbus
William Prince	...	Keyes
Tom Hatten	...	General Miegs
Frank Oz	...	Test Monitor
Charles McKeown	...	Jerry Hadley
James Daughton	...	Bob Hodges
Jim Staahl	...	Bud Schnelker
Vanessa Angel	...	Russian Rocket Crewperson
Svetlana Plotnikova	...	Russian Rocket Crewperson
Bjarne Thomsen	...	Russian Rocket Crewperson

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 (1986) | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Lancaster, California, USA

Company:

AAR Films

Trivia:

Chevy Chase took the role originally intended for Joe Piscopo.

Goofs:

Plot holes: During the "negotiation" scene all Russians are shown as awarded two times Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union which is a highest Soviet award. Assuming they all where awarded by one for "saving the world" it's unlikely to believe they all committed another deed of the same scale before.

Quotes:

Emmett Fitz-Hume: [trying to buy time by making something up] All right! All right, I'm an American agent!
Russian Interregator #2: And...?
Emmett Fitz-Hume: And? And... uhh... they... they sent me here t-to assassinate your Premier!
Russian Interregator #2: [to the other interregator] I knew it! Pay up, comrade!
Russian Interregator #1: [unimpressed] Let's cut his fingers off anyway.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Family Guy: Spies Reminiscent of Us (#8.3)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

SPIES LIKE US

Vintage Chevy Chase

For Chevy Chase fans, this film displays one of his vintage performances---right up there with a couple of his "Vacation" films and "Fletch." He and Dan Aykroyd form a great comedic duo with great chemistry that will leave you wanting for more.

The setting changes rapidly from DC, to Pakistan, to the former Soviet Union. Chase and Aykroyd are identified as expendable Department of State personnel, and therefore trained as covert agent decoys and tasked with an ultra top-secret mission deep inside Soviet territory. The newly appointed agent/spies don't realize they're decoys, but rather, think they're real agents on a real mission. Good stuff.

Together, their bumbling antics throughout agent training and their top-secret mission are good for steady laughs from beginning to end, as they find themselves playing the "accidental hero" role charged with saving the world.

Very scenic locations, some decent special effects (for the mid-80's), and some serious plot-twists amidst the silly humor enables "Spies Like Us" to hold the viewer's attention in-between comedic situations.