Editorial Review:

Product Description:
A box-office sensation in France, comic star Jean Dujardin stars as secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a.k.a. OSS 117 who in the tradition of Maxwell Smart and Inspector Clouseau somehow succeeds in spite of his ineptitude. After a fellow agent and close friend is murdered, Hubert is ordered to take his place at the head of a poultry firm in Cairo. This is to be his cover while he investigates Jack's death, monitors the Suez Canal, checks up on the Brits and Soviets, burnishes France's reputation, quells a fundamentalist rebellion and brokers peace in the Middle East.

A blithe and witty send-up not only of spy films of that era and the suave secret agent figure but also neo-colonialism, ethnocentrism and the very idea of Western covert action in the Middle East.

The hero of our story came, like James Bond, from a series of novels. Also like James Bond, several movies have been made about our hero, and again like James Bond, only loosely based on the novels. OSS117, unlike James Bond, is a satire of the genre. Our hero is clueless. He has no idea about Islamic culture. His memories about his best friend ignore his cruelties to his friend. He has no idea that he's homosexual. This movie is very funny.

Average Rating:

Rating: - review of OSS 117
The hero of our story came, like James Bond, from a series of novels. Also like James Bond, several movies have been made about our hero, and again like James Bond, only loosely based on the novels. OSS117, unlike James Bond, is a satire of the genre. Our hero is clueless. He has no idea about Islamic culture. His memories about his best friend ignore his cruelties to his friend. He has no idea that he's homosexual. This movie is very funny.

Rating: - Not very funny
As a fan of French comedy, I got the film based on the reviews. What most of the reviewers state is true, except that the film is not all that funny. The premisses and situations are comedy gold, but the execution is not funny. I think reading about the various situations in the reviews was funnier than watching them in the movie.

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Rating: - OSS117 - Better than Bond
If you want something diferent, something amusing and colourful with plenty of action this is your baby. It is subtly clever with a bit of sex but not too much - a parody on Intelligence that will keep you amused from start to finish.

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Rating: - Nous homme Hubert
"OSS 117: Cairo, Nest Of Spies"
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A blithe, brilliant French satire of Sean Connery/Roger More-era James Bond films. Comic actor Jean Dujardin grinningly portrays 1950's secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a grinning colonial chauvinist utterly incapable of self-reflection or insight, who swaggers and postures his way through the Suez Canal crisis, waving the banner of France as best he knows how. Bond fans with a sense of humor will delight in this film's spot-on recreation and skewering of the stylistic cliches of those films. Although the humor becomes fairly repetitive and single-note towards the end, this is still a very funny, very fun movie. Definitely recommended! (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film reviews)

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Rating: - Totally hilarious...
Not knowing anything about this film when I saw it listed on Sundance Channel, I set it to record. I neglected to catch the year it was made so when I began watching it I thought it was an obscure satire of the 007 films from the same 1960s era (a la In Like Flint etc.). I never did catch on that it was recently made until I looked it up on IMDB midway through, so authentic was the look of the movie, down to the lighting, sets, color, hair styles.

There's no question Jean Dujardin is a first-rate comic who can look handsome & muscular at one moment (the best parodist of Connery-as-Bond I've ever seen) & totally confused & foolish in the next, in perfect company with Clouseau & Maxwell Smart.

I love movies that have me laughing out loud gasping for breath & this was did it limitless times.

Now for Hollywood to adapt it for Will Ferrell & ruin it. ;)

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