Spies Like Us

The movie that I have chosen to analyze is Spies Like Us, one of the greatest 80’s comedies ever. If you haven’t seen it, rent it or buy it and watch it immediately. I would classify this film as a satirical comedy with lots of Chevy Chase slapstick. Much of the comic situation is narrative as Aykroyd and Chase build a relationship in which plays off the other. Remember when Chase was funny, well until Community; it seems like so long ago. Fortunately his talk show worked out….

This movie is great from top to bottom. Each character has some great lines and the supporting cast really puts in to words what the audience sees as we watch their interaction. Just after the testing center scene, which is filled with gag humor, the General comments that they are,” a couple of absolutely self-involved bullshit artists who got caught cheating on a departmental exam” this is a perfect summation of the prior scene, helping the audience to articulate what they had just seen.

It really is a great satirical comedy on the state of government espionage and deniability. You get a couple of douchers to play the fall guy for the government on a secret mission; all the while putting themselves in to harm’s way under the pretense they are serving their country. Despite all of the situations in which they find themselves, they somehow bumble their way through the mission successfully accomplishing the assignment. The physical humor is fantastic, during their training phase they are put through the rigors of threshold testing which creates some great gag humor, all of which is totally ridiculous and hilarious. The faces they make and the one-liners they spew have really made this a total classic, right up there with Three Amigos, What About Bob?, Caddyshack and Ghostbusters.

The best comedies are definitely the most well-rounded, that have nothing to do with Adam Sandler, which seamlessly involves all aspects of comedy. This movie has gag humor that plays off the observational set-up that was done between the two main characters and the secondary characters, all while poking fun at the issue of our Cold-War beast of a government.