CONDORMAN (1981)
Article 4963 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-20-2015
Directed by Charles Jarrott
Featuring Michael Crawford, Oliver Reed, Barbara Carrera
Country: UK
What it is: Superspy parody, “Shopping Cart Movie” division

A comic book writer is mistaken for a secret agent and is assigned to help a beautiful female Russian spy to defect.

It starts out as a lame superhero parody but quickly mutates into a lame superspy parody; you’ll notice that the switch in genre does not change the leading adjective in each description. As a parody, the movie is dreadfully unfunny, and as a superspy action flick, it’s dull and uninspired; the script is particularly weak. You’d think that, this being from Disney, at least the special effects would be impressive, but it doesn’t look like they bothered to expend much effort or pay any attention to this one at all. There’s a few good stunts, a couple of fun gadgets, and one oasis in the acting department with the presence of Oliver Reed as the villain; beyond that, this one is pretty depressing. It sets itself up for a sequel at the end, but understandably, it didn’t come about.