My Top Ten Favorite Spy Spoof Movies

The first James Bond movie, Dr. No, was released in 1962 and was a worldwide phenomenon. It’s success gave rise to an entire genre of spy spoof and spy comedy movies. Here are my 10 favorites.

1. Knight and Day (2010) – Tom Cruise is a CIA agent who gets mixed up with naive Cameron Diaz. Together they work to protect a young scientist who has invented a revolutionary battery. Great balance of action, drama, comedy, actor-actress chemistry and witty dialogue. I give the movie a A- grade.

2. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) – Loosely based on the 1960s TV series of the same name, the film stars Henry Cavill as American agent Napolean Solo, Armie Hammer as Soviet agent Illya Kuryakin, and Alicia Vikander as the daughter of a kidnapped scientist. This movie is really a drama with some comedic aspects rather than a spoof. I loved the 1960s cars and clothing styles. The movie did not do very well at the box office but I give it a solid B+ grade.

3. Keeping Up with the Joneses (2010) – Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher are dull and conservative suburbanites who suspect their new neighbors, suave and sophisticated Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot, are international spies. They are. Funny adventures ensue. Another movie that I liked (solid B grade) but was a box office loser.

4. Spy (2015) – Frumpy and overweight Melissa McCarthy works at the CIA in the back office, supporting debonair field agent Jude Law. After the identities of most of the field agents are revealed to the bad guys, McCarthy has to swing into action in Europe. Quite crude at times but the movie has some very funny moments. Excellent supporting characters played by Jason Statham and Rose Byrne. My grade is a solid B.

5. Johnny English Reborn (2011) – This is a sequel to Johnny English (2003). Actor Rowan Atkinson is a British MI7 agent. The story involves . . . well, the story’s not important. The movie is a series of pretty funny incidents where Atkinson blunders time and time again, but comes out on top in the end. Actress Rosamund Pike does a nice job in a rare comedy role for her as a behavioral psychologist at MI7. My grade is B-.

6. Our Man Flint (1966) – This spoof was released at the height of the James Bond phenomenon and was a success at the time. This is full satire where actor James Coburn stars as Derek Flint an agent of Z.O.W.I.E. (Zonal Organization for World Intelligence and Espionage). He “encounters” many beautiful women and several mad scientists. The movie doesn’t hold up too well now, but is interesting from a historical-cultural perspective. The movie spawned a sequent “In Like Flint” (1967). My grade is C+.

7. The Silencers (1966) – Dean Martin stars as secret agent Matt Helm. Helm must defeat the evil organization Big O, headed by the sinister Tung-Tze. The plot involves a scheme to destroy an underground atomic bomb test and instigate a nuclear war. Helm has all kinds of wacky gadgets and a colleague Tina, played by beautiful Israeli actress Daliah Lavi. The film was very successful and there were three sequels: Murderers’ Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967), and The Wrecking Crew (1969). My grade is C+.

8. Spy Hard (1996) – Actor Leslie Nielsen plays agent WD-40 Dick Steele. His partner is mysterious and beautiful Veronique Ukrinsky, Agent 3.14 (played by Nicollette Sheridan). They must stop evil genius General Rancor (played by Andy Griffith) from seizing control of the world. This is a movie intended to capitalize on the success of Nielsen’s earlier films: “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” (1988), “The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear” (1991), and “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult” (1994). This movie is not nearly as good as the Naked series but still has quite a few funny scenes. My grade is C+.

9. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) – Gary “Eggsy” Unwin, played by Taron Egerton, is a loser. He is recruited into a secret organization and trained by mentors played by Colin Firth and Mark Strong. Together they defeat a plot by rich, evil genius Samuel L. Jackson to take over the world. This movie got great reviews, but I found it only so-so and give it a C+ grade.

10. True Lies (1994) – Directed and co-produced by James Cameron. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a super secret agent Harry Tasker, unknown to his wife played by Jamie Lee Curtis. Excellent supporting cast includes Tom Arnold, Tia Carrere, and Bill Paxton. Harry stops a terrorist plot to explode a nuclear bomb. Great sequence when Harry flies the AV-8B Harrier II jet. My grade is C+.

Honorable and Dishonorable Mentions

Austin Powers International Man of Mystery (1997) starring Mike Myers tops most lists of best spy spoof movies, but I find the humor childish and basically annoying. That’s the problem with comedy: everyone has different tastes. My grade is C-.

Code Name the Cleaner (2007) starring Cedric the Entertainer got absolutely terrible reviews but I thought it was pretty good and on another day it might have made my top ten. My grade is a C.

A few days ago I watched The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018) starring actresses Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. Directed by someone named Susanna Fogel. Seeing that movie motivated this blog post. This was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. It consists of the two women talking. And talking and talking. And then talking some more. Followed by some talking. In the few scenes where they weren’t talking, they were being incredibly annoying. My grade is a solid F.

Killers (2010) starring Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher. I’m somewhat of a fan of Kutcher’s acting but Heigl turned in one of the worst performances in modern motion picture history. This movie rips the fabric of space and time with its awesome badness. The grade that’s low enough to assign to this movie hasn’t been invented in this particular quantum multiverse so I’ll give it a Q-.