OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

...a slick genre parody that sends up '40s and '50s cinema in general, with a particulareye toward deflating the Bond mythos, and showing up him and his ilk as smug assholes.

Jean Dujardin plays the spy with a mix of vacuous suavity and condescension that makes his investigation of the murder of a comrade all the more hilariously inept.

Perhaps I shouldn't have laughed as much I did, but this French spy spoof by Michel Hazanavicius punches out cheeky gags and incorrect humour with the gusto of Zucker/Abrahams or Mike Myers in his Austin Powers heyday.

The plot, with its carefully signposted twists, is just about strong enough to be entertaining in itself and not solely as a platform for the extended joke. The film looks good too...

...this is an unexpected pleasure.