SummaryTwo bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for Nuclear War.
Directed By:John Landis
Written By:Dan Aykroyd, Dave Thomas, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
Spies Like Us
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
22
User score
Generally Favorable
6.9
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Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
22
11% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
89% Negative
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
63
One imagines that fans of Chase and Aykroyd will be mildly pleased with the results. As political humor, though, Spies is an uneasy blend of seriousness and farce--a picture whose antiwar theme seems designed to let its makers cash their paychecks and, at the same time, feel good about themselves. [06 Dec 1985, p.A]
38
Good Landis work looks like a comically heightened reality, and it scores with sharp moments in which the world is ridiculous and being American is possibly just as ridiculous. Spies Like Us, his latest, ranks with his poorest efforts, in which strange people start out in extraordinary situations and the lead characters have a pig-out; pushing for wildness, Landis gets mired in crudity (as in Animal House). [09 Dec 1985]
User score
Generally Favorable
6.9
67% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
29% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Jan 30, 2021
8
Spies Like Us is a great comedy homage to Hope & Crosby without the musical numbers. All the critics that reviewed this as a “political commentary” are morons. Spies Like Us is a classic fish out of water buddy comedy in the vein of Martin & Lewis, Knotts & Conway, Bob & Doug McKenzie, Bill & Ted, and Wayne & Garth. If there was a marijuana element, they would be Cheech & Chong, Jay & Silent Bob or Harold & Kumar. The humor is a little crude, the premise is ridiculous and it’s really funny. It’s not a masterpiece. It’s an 80’s comedy. It holds up better than expected 35 years later. In fact, it’s probably a little better than you remember if you saw the movie when it came out.
Jun 7, 2017
8
Sure, I was a kid in the 80s, but I remember this being one of the funniest movies of the era. "Doctor? Doctor..." These critics seem WAY too humorless here. There are plenty of laughs. And I loved Donna Dixon, of course. She's a nice contrast to the goofiness of the leads.
30
Spies is not very amusing. Though Chase and Aykroyd provide moments, the overall script thinly takes on eccentric espionage and nuclear madness, with nothing new to add.
30
There are seeds of something funny in the film's beginning and in its premise, but they are soon dissipated by so little sustained wit, and so much scenery.
25
Landis never bothers to account for the friendship that springs up spontaneously between these two antipathetic types, but then he never bothers to account for anything in this loose progression of recycled Abbott and Costello riffs and fumbled Strangelovean satire.
20
Sadly, the script is so patchy that most of the genuine laughs are squeezed into the first half; the rest is a rather tacky and confused extended joke about the nuclear arms race, which is tasteless only because it fails to be funny.
10
It's the kind of stuff you come up with when you're not trying very hard, and on Spies Like Us, nobody seems to be trying. And that can be very trying indeed. [09 Dec 1985, p.C3]
Feb 26, 2019
7
To me, this is absolutely one of the best of its time. Full of clever jokes, hilarious gags and great comedic timing, it shows Aykroyd and Chase in their prime. I cant begin to tell you what a comedic gem this film is and its rather sad that not many people are aware of it. This is one that rewards multiple viewings and with each one you will find more and more fun bits throughout. To this day I havent looked at an abandoned drive through theater the same way, you ll know what I mean when you finally watch the film. ****
