2017.73: The Intelligence Men (1965)
…er, not sure exactly what I was doing watching this…. maybe it’s just this time of year, approaching Christmas, when one finds oneself watching all sorts of strange movies that wouldn’t ordinarily have much appeal. That said, I’ve always enjoyed Morecombe and Wise and have all their BBC shows on DVD so maybe the odd thing is that it took me so long to get around to one of their three movies.
The Intelligence Men is a spy spoof, and as it’s from 1965, possibly one of the earliest of that genre, certainly long before Austin Powers and a few years prior to Casino Royale. It isn’t bad either- it suffers from a stodgy, uncomfortable opening twenty minutes that had me fearing the worst but it settles down and actually manages a few good laughs. Naturally it shows its age in some ways, and the humor feels more quaint than cutting-edge (was it ever cutting-edge, even back in 1965?) but all these decades later, that’s part of the charm of comedies such as this, just as with Laurel and Hardy features. A bit like happy-pills of nostalgia for eras that likely never even existed. But there you go, that’s just the magic of movies.
the ghost of 82 
Come on. Where’s that Star Wars review?
I probably won’t see it until New Year- work is bit crazy at the minute. So I’m avoiding all the spoilers. Oddly though I must confess following TFA I’m not particularly excited about it- so no doubt it’ll be fantastic and I’ll be the last to find out.
There’s something that smells wrong in Dagobah when I’m not excited about a new Star Wars film. Finally burned out by too many blockbusters probably.
So okay, get me excited- was it any good?
It seems to have been divisive, so I can’t say which side of the divide you might fall on. To discuss it is to either spoil a lot of the fun or to prime you for not liking it.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. It takes the good things from TFA (characters and visuals) and really runs with them. That’s all I can say at this stage.
Stay spoiler free, for God’s sake.
And I mean STAY SPOILER FREE. If anyone starts talking about it at work, put your fingers in your ears and run away. There are lots of surprises.
Though I’ve just remembered that ROGUE ONE ticked a lot of your boxes, so I’m worried now.
Right, that’s my last comment.
I see where you’re coming from. I gather the film is upsetting old-school Star Wars fans with some of its twists that other fans welcome as a breath of fresh air. As long as they aren’t screwing around with established mythology, i.e. teleporting across the galaxy like in the Star Trek reboots, I’ll be fine with it. But any more stupidity like that planet killer firing across star systems then I’m done with it, just as you are with the Alien films. It’s the danger of bringing back old franchises in an era of really bad writing more keen on pleasing geeks that maintaing internal logic.
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