This Looks Like a Job for Condorman

Recently a friend on Facebook reminded me of one of my favorite comic book movies---Condorman. I have the VHS, but DVD is out of site with a retail price of $41. However, Condorman is also available through Amazon Instant Video for a sawbuck.

So I hought it and have promised Andrea that I'll only subject her to it at once a year. At that rate, I'll break even on the Rental v. Buy ratio in 5 years.

Condorman is a 1981 Spy Spoof starring Michael Crawford as Woodrow Wilkins, a comic book writer extraordinaire staying with in Paris with a friend and CIA Clerk Harry (James Hampton). Woody is the ideal Disney hero-a dreamer.

He begins the story flying off the Eifel Tower dressed as his greatest Superhero creation Condorman, complete with a homemade pair wings and he nearly drowned on the process, but was saved by Harry.

In turn when the Russians demand that an exchange of secret papers in Istanbul be completed by civilians, Harry sends Woody to do the job. Woody hams it up with hat, trench coat, and sunglasses, and goes to Istanbul where he pretends that he's really a spy. There he meets Natalia, a Russian agent pretending to be a civilian. She's spotted by some Turkish Agent and Woody He ends up taking them on and defeating them in a beautifully comic fight scene. He returns home with vision of Natlia in his head and immediately uses her as a model for his a superheroine named Laser Lady.

Natalia, after a creepy encounter with her boss Krokov (Oliver Reed) decides to defect but she wants an agent codenamed Condorman, which of course is Woody's codename. When Woody finds out its Natalia that wants to defect, he agrees to do it, provided the CIA give him his dream comic book designs for a wide variety of different spy gadgets. Because the defection is important, the CIA agrees, and we're off on an adventure.

Condorman features some great action and comedy and a nice touch of romance. My favorite scene has to be the classic chase scene where Woody and Natalia are chased by a squad of assassins through a Yugoslavian highway. The specially fabricated vehicle looks like a gypsy truck but transforms into a race car armed with a variety of weapons,then at last into a speedboat.

Of course, not all of Condorman's toys work as well. His machine gun cane is clearly beyond his ability to handle, and many scenes he really stumbles through. However, by the end of the movie, Woody has truly become the hero he writes about, as his courage motivated by his love of Natalya leads him to take on amazing odds to beat the bad guys.

Nope, it's not a classic and critics hate it. (Partially because the Russians are the bad guys) but it's one of the most wonderfully entertaining movies that will always be one of my favorites.