SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

grantss A bit hit-and-miss but works, mostly.Two low-level government employees, Emmitt Fitz-Hume (played by Chevy Chase) and Austin Milbarge (Dan Aykroyd), are chosen for a top- secret CIA mission. They are unsuitable as CIA agents but are deliberately chosen for this reason, as their mission is a decoy one and they are expendable. After being fast-tracked through training they are parachuted into Pakistan where all manner of adventures await them.Quite funny at times, but also very silly at times. Plot is pretty basic and some of the sub-plots are plain stupid. However, for the most part, it works. The main reason for this is Chevy Chase. He gets some great lines and delivers them perfectly. Dan Aykroyd is fine as the straight man but it is Chevy Chase that makes the movie watchable.Another positive is the pace of the movie. It is quite frenetic, so even if a scene is a dead end, it is over quickly and we move onto the next scene. The pace helps to cover up the blemishes.Not a must-see, but there are worse ways to spend 100 or so minutes.

CherryBlossomBoy 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.

namashi_1 'Spies Like Us' is Hilarious! A witty & throughly enjoyable comedy, that has become a cult-classic over the years. And guess what, it deserves to be one! 'Spies like Us' Synopsis: Two bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for Nuclear War.'Spies Like Us' gets it right. The humor, though offensive at times, is spot-on & memorable. Dan Aykroyd, Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel's Screenplay is very funny. John Landis's Direction is satisfactory. Cinematography & Editing are good.Performance-Wise: Chevy Chase & Dan Aykroyd are superb. The comic legends are a riot from start to end. Donna Dixon is decent. Steve Forrest is credible. Bruce Davison & William Prince are ordinary. Bob Hope appears in a cameo.On the whole, 'Spies Like Us' is a true comedy.

sheepmonk2000 This film is not so good. It's definitely watchable mind, but in terms of it been funny, well it fails on all counts. The script is amusing, but it's by no means gut busting. Chevy Chase character is undeniably the funnier out of the two, but like I said only funny to the point of creating a couple of wry smiles here and there. As for the story, well, it feels like old familiar territory and the film itself looks and feels as though it was made on a purse string budget. Some of the dialogue is kind of weak by the supporting cast but the main two leads certainly have the best lines in the film. So all in all, this film ain't that bad but it ain't that good either. 4/10.