Post by kijii on Oct 14, 2018 23:14:31 GMT
What can I say? These are real "groaners"... Yes, they're pretty bad, but I guess one can't be too negatively critical towards them, as they were meant to be spoofs of the James Bond films, and in that sense, they are sometimes pretty clever. Each film also manages to squeeze in a little poke at Dean Martin's fellow Rat-Packer, Frank Sinatra.
The Matt Helm persona also served as part of Mike Myer's inspiration for his Austin Powers films.
The 3rd film in the series, The Ambushers, received this quaint little mention in Wikipedia:
This film is generally considered the weakest of the four Helm films, and is cited in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time by Harry and Michael Medved. The Medveds also cited a review of The Ambushers by critic Judith Crist which stated: "The sole distinction of this vomitous mess is that it just about reaches the nadir of witlessness, smirky sexiness and bad taste - and it's dull, dull, dull to boot."
Do you have a favorite Dean Martin movie?