OS 117 - Lost in Rio Review
By David Kempler
Lost and Soon Forgotten
"OS 117 - Lost in Rio" is a follow-up to a series of spy films from the 1950s and 1960s which were based on a series of novels by Jean Bruce. Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath (Jean Dujardin) is a secret agent of the SDECE. Agent OS 117. Michel Hazanavicius's parody is reminiscent of Sean Connery's James Bond, except that he is a total buffoon. Consider him a cross between Bond, Maxwell Smart, and a particularly inept Matt Helm. The comparison to Helm is bolstered by Dean Martin singing on the soundtrack. Turns out that it's not a coincidence. Hazanavicius has mentioned that Martin's Helm was an influence.
In the opening scene, OS 117 is at a ski chalet party, dancing with 30 or so beautiful Asian women. Shortly, a group of Asian thugs walks in, armed to the teeth. OS 117 disposes of them in short order, wisecracking his way through it all. He thinks he is the ultimate in cool but remember we are talking more Maxwell Smart than James Bond.
Soon afterwards, it's back to headquarters for OS 117. His assignment: Travel to Rio to deliver a blackmail payment of 50,000 Francs to Professor Von Zimmel, a Nazi who is in possession of a microfilm list of French sympathizers. In Rio, he teams up with a female Mossad agent, and together they battle Asians and Germans, always in comic book fashion.
The film is designed to look as if it was shot in the 1960s, with choppy editing and camera techniques from that era. Everything screams schlock and tongue-in cheek humor. Sometimes it works. At other times the repeating joke provoke only groans. I really wanted to like it but couldn't manage to maintain my resolve. Eventually it wore me down and made me yearn for the real Maxwell Smart and Matt Helm.
