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OSS 117: CAIRO--NEST OF SPIES Send This Review to a Friend
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, this wan imitation of James Bond films, part satire, part action adventure, isn’t funny enough to be of more than passing interest. Jean Dujardin stars as agent OSS 117, and he is all over the place in 1950s Cairo in a screenplay that follows the conventions of a Bond-type thriller even while spoofing the genre.
For one thing, Dujardin isn’t especially charismatic. Any one of the actors who have played Bond through the years has been more compelling. Nor is he an especially good comic actor.
The screenplay, written by Jean-Francois Halin, is inspired by Jean Bruce’s series of OSS 117 novels. There are, of course, the odd moments that strike the funny bone, as when the hero gives a handout to an assumed beggar, who replies that he has a son at a university in New York.
But generally this is pale stuff. A Music Box Films release.
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