Director Report Card: John Landis (1985) Part Two

9. Spies Like Us

Supposedly in the early eighties, while appearing on the talk show “Today,” Dan Aykroyd said he was working on a movie where he and John Belushi would play spies together. Like many projects, this one would be thrown into disarray by Belushi's sudden death. Unlike most of those doomed would-be films, Aykroyd would revive the idea. Another “Saturday Night Live” alum, Chevy Chase, would be slotted into the second lead role. Presumably because he had already made two successful buddy movies with him, John Landis was drafted to direct. I'm guessing Landis was still eager to keep working after the “Twilight Zone” deaths. “Spies Like Us” would roll into theaters a mere nine months after “Into the Night.”

The Cold War continues to simmer. An ICBM launcher rolls through the Soviet mountains. The Defense Intelligence Agency sends a duo of spies behind enemy's line to capture the bomb. However, for the mission to be a success, they need a decoy team to draw attention away from the real deal. Two underachieving agents are recruited for this purpose. The first is Emmett Fitz-Humes, a pencil-pushing slacker. The second is Austin Millbarge, a genius code breaker who is hated by his superiors. Both are selected while at a foreign service exam, where Emmett tries to cheat and Austin is given no time to prepare. Soon, they are dropped overseas into the middle east, with no idea what they are getting themselves into. However, the duo stumbles into a real adventure.

In an interview with Mick Garris, years after the fact, John Landis expressed an one-time desire to make a James Bond movie. I like to think “Spies Like Us” was a chance for the filmmaker to kind of fulfill that dream. The comedy does feature some machine gun shoot-outs and explosions, as well as beautiful enemy agents being bedded. The last third of the movie features high-tech gadgets and big laser beams being bounced around an abandoned movie theater. There's multiple shots of satellites and missiles in orbit around the Earth, which remind me a little bit of “You Only Live Twice.” If nothing else, brief moments like this give you an idea of what a Landis-directed Bond flick might look like.

However, 007 is not the main source of inspiration here. “Spies Like Us” was largely intended as a homage to the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby “Road to...” movies. Bob Hope even stops by for a cameo, knocking a golf ball through a tent, that makes zero sense unless you understand the reference. Those classic comedies would slot Bob and Bing into popular genres of the day, like sailor movies or jungle adventures. It's easy to imagine “Spies Like Us” being “Road to Moscow,” dropping the two into a spy narrative. As in those films, the script is a fairly loose affair, largely built around goofy gags, that sees our heroes traveling across several different countries and locations. The “Road” movies often featured call-outs and references to other Hollywood flicks, which was already something John Landis did anyway.

Throughout John Landis' movies have always been this sense that authority figures, whether those are cops or college deans, are all full of shit. In “Spies Like Us,” that belief is extended to the top officials inside our government agencies. The guys who recruit Emmett and Austin are shifty, lying and manipulating everyone around them to further their own goals. As “Spies Like Us” nears it conclusion, even higher ranking officials reveals themselves as totally willing to bring about the nuclear apocalypse, wiping out million of lives, rather than fess up to the mistakes that have been made.

More than anything else, “Spies Like Us” is a big, goofy gag comedy. This becomes apparent very early on. After parachuting into a secret location, our heroes are confronted by back-flipping ninjas who chop down trees. That's your first clue that this movie is essentially a live action cartoon. A series of silly jokes – involving centrifuge, faces getting stuck that way, planes dropping to the ground, and flame throwers – follow in quick succession. Like “Rambo III,” this is another eighties Hollywood production that sees American heroes teaming up with Afghani freedom fighters. That subplot concludes with an extremely silly sequence of horseback soldiers chasing the guys as they flee in a truck. There's expected bits about mistranslated language and unexpected bits about Russian spies who look like clean-cut guys in cardigans. “Spies Like Us” keeps things silly and loose throughout. By the time our heroes are pretending to be aliens, the audience is totally settled in with its cartoonish tone.

Through it all, “Spies Like Us” does generate laughs fairly consistently. The exam sequence has Chevy Chase cheating in increasingly ridiculous, obvious ways, the absurdity growing as the minutes go by. Once Emmett and Austin's spy adventure begins, the film digs into that old structure of a fish out of water. A set-up, where the guys have to pretend to be surgeons, amusingly has the two attempting to move forward with no clue of what they are doing what hoping not to alert those around them. Once on the Russian side of the border, the heroes end up mingling with the Soviet soldiers in an amusingly off-handed manner. None of these gags are all-time greats but they are reliable chucklers, which count for something.

In 1985, Chevy Chase's career as a bankable leading man hadn't yet flatlined. In fact, Chase was just coming off of “Fletch,” one of his biggest and most iconic hits. As in that film, Chase is playing very much to type here. Emmett is essentially a conman, slacking his way through his job and cheating when he's required to do anything more than that. Throughout, Chase gets chances to deliver multiple sarcastic one-liners. Snide comments about bands, guys having swords, or his discovery of a rock are pretty funny. Chase hadn't yet gotten complacent and was still able to inject some smart-ass energy into his acting, making for a frequently amusing role here.

If Chevy Chase is very much playing a Chevy Chase type, Dan Aykrody is similarly playing to type. Austin is a socially awkward nerd, with occasional burst of genius. Despite his off-beat personality, he still knows how to wiggle his way out of a tight situation. Such as how he stalls for time during that attempted surgery. Like a lot of Aykroyd character, he also inexplicably ends up in bed with a beautiful woman. (In the film, it's softcore princess Vanessa Angel and, in real life, it was co-star Donna Dixon.) Even if Chase gets most of the one-liners, Dan still gets off a couple of solid jokes. Such as the revolving circle of doctors greeting each other or his perfectly deadpan reaction to a question about dickfurs.

It works out that Chase and Aykroyd are playing so closely to type. The audience, familiar with both performers, immediately latch onto their established on-screen personas. This is a good thing because, otherwise, their characters aren't developed much. In fact, “Spies Like Us” never devotes much time to how its duo became friends. For no discernible reason, Austin decides to help Emmett cheat on his exam and, after that, they are best buddies. It feels like some scenes were deleted, that showed the two guys growing closer to each other. Otherwise, this is a buddy movie where the buddies never seem that close. This is far from “Spies Like Us'” only flaw. Like many eighties flick, the hero's flirting plays as nothing but sexual harassment in a modern context. But it's probably the biggest issue.

As is the tradition by now, John Landis pulled together a solid supporting cast for this silly movie. Bernie Casey plays the guys' instructor at boot camp. Casey, super stern with an action hero's capacity for violence, makes for a strong straight man to the goofball heroes. Bruce Davidson is amusingly obnoxious as the agent that cooks up the scheme. The way he dismisses someone as an idiot made me chuckle. Steve Forrest plays General Sline, the military officer perfectly okay with the world ending. Forrest keeps a totally straight face as his character grows increasingly unhinged, a good example of an authority who totally buys into his own bullshit. Dixon is a bit disappointing as Chase's love interest, given little else to do besides look lovely. Landis, of course, includes a number of cameos. Keep an eye open and you'll spot B.B. King, Sam Raimi, Larry Cohen, Terry Giliam, and Ray Harryhausen.

“Spies Like Us” isn't just a movie. It was also a hit single by Paul McCarthney, that went all the way to #7 on the Billboard charts. That McCarthy was hooked into writing the movie's theme song confirms the Bond connection. The song itself is fairly terrible, McCarthney at the doldrums of his eighties output. It features a meandering structure that awkwardly mashes together three different musical styles, including a halting sort of pseudo-rap. There's big chunky synth chords and some of McCarthney's most phoned-in lyrics. Perhaps in an attempt to recreate the success of “Thriller,” Landis would direct a music video too. It features Chase and Aykroyd watching Paul sing and dance in the studio, along with several mildly disturbing shots of the guys ripping away “Mission: Impossible” style hyper realistic latex masks of each other's faces. What I'm saying is it really needed some dancing zombies.

”Spies Like Us” opened to mediocre notices from critics but decent box office, allowing Landis' career to bounce back after “Into the Night's” failure. (I wonder if critics would have reacted differently if the original ending, where the world ended in a “Dr. Strangelove”-style rain of nuclear fire, had been maintained.) Over the years, likely because of countless cable screenings, the movie has acquired a reputation of a minor classic. Among a certain crowd, just dropping a quote from the movie will produce a smile and a nod of recognition. There was even a whole “Family Guy” episode built around referencing the movie. “Spies Like Us” made me laugh several times, which is all you can really ask for from a comedy. None of the jokes linger in the memory very long and it gives the impression of a tossed-off, low effort work from all involved. Go in with low expectations and you'll probably enjoy yourself. [Grade: B-]