SPIES LIKE US
"Why don't you gentlemen go inside and have a Pepsi"
The Pepsi line is recited a second time by BB King.
I saw Spies Like Us in middle school with Rocket and Hendry at the Showcase CINEMA! in Woburn, MA. Besides my own kids and maybe my dad, I have seen more movies with these two friends than anyone else.
We had an incredible run of comedies that just the three of us saw in the ’80s. Spy’s Like Us (85), Three Amigos (86), Police Academy 4 (87), and the NAKED GUN (88). The latter was a top 3 movie theater experience for me.
The other 2?
Rocky IV
King Solomon’s Mines*
If you have not seen Spies Like Us, or it’s been a while, watch it this weekend. Watch it with someone tonight or watch it alone with your coffee this weekend.
The film stars Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd at or near their peaks. Ackroyd is coming off Ghostbusters and is out of Belushi’s shadow. Chey Chase, in 1985, was the second biggest comedy star in the world (after Eddie Murphy).
Chevy Chase has turned out to be a world-class asshole, but that does not change the fact that he is one of the funniest actors we have ever had.
My favorite scene is when Emmet Fitz-Hume (Chase) and Austin Milbarge (Aykroyd) bump into each other in the doorway leading into an exam room.
“Nickels’ worth of free advice” for any of my young readers. If you're in a position where you need to cheat on a written exam, sit next to a lefty and hope they studied. Shout out to that big lefty in my psych class at UMASS Dartmouth, Fall of 1993.
Look at the time and effort Fitz-Hume puts into cheating. The manuscript he is chewing on is my favorite gimmick. This scene edges out Fast Times for my favorite test cheating moment of my youth.
What really makes this scene is that the test monitor (Frank Oz) catches on right away, and then we viewers get to see their antics unfold from his vantage point. The scene wraps up with a clever transition of Fitzhume and Milbarge watching a video of themselves. The tape ends with Aykroyd dropping his test on the floor, where Chase has his tongue sticking out as he frantically copies it.
Great scene!! And it’s my 2nd-favorite Frank Oz cameo (Blues Brothers).
The film was directed by the legendary comedy director, John Landis (Animal House). This movie moves really fast, and while it’s a comedy, it’s also a big espionage political thriller. It loses some steam when it moves to Russia, but the film never loses my attention.
We meet Colonel Rhumbus, “Boys, it would be a shame to kill you now,” when Fitz-Hume and Milbarge go to combat training for their upcoming mission. Former NFL RB and 1st round pick Bernie Casey plays Colonel Rhumbus. He followed Jim Brown from the NFL into acting, and he is the primary reason the NERDS! at Adams College got into Lambda Lambda Lambda.
Casey has a great line to close I’m Gonna Get You Sucka, “Every hero needs his theme music.”
The one thing that I never liked about this film was that Chevy got the girl. Chevy’s ego is so big that he has to get the girl, even when the girl is his co-star’s wife.
I met Donna Dixon on the sitcom Bosom Buddies. She was the love interest of Peter Scolari’s roommate. For me, Dixon was the second-best-looking person on television behind Loni Anderson. That was until the lovely Miss Elizabeth started showing up on my TV on Saturday mornings.
Dixon and Aykroyd were married in April of 1983 (two full years before this film came out), but Chase is the one who gets to flirt and make out with her? He even did the “no feeling at all” bit on her! He cuckolded Aykroyd and stuck into a 90-minute brilliant comedy!
Let Dan chase his wife and set up Chevy with the nameless Russian hottie. I think it was during the end credits that, for the first time, I thought, ‘Is Chevy Chase an asshole?’
Favorite Quotes:
“Maybe your dick is not so dumb.” - Milbarge
“Got me through high school.” - Fitz-Hume
“Every minute that you don’t tell me why you are here, I cut off a finger.”
“Mine or yours?” - Fitz-Hume
“I was going to install the Disney Channel for free.” - Milbarge
“Mind if I play through?” - Bob Hope
Rocky IV won the Cold War, but Spies Like US was like hitting those commie pukes with a 2X4!
* King Solomon’s Mines is a terrible film, but after the viewing, there was an altercation. It ended with me being thrown off a light pole by an older kid from Woburn.
The Riverside Boys of Reading lost to the “Ass Kicking Gang” of Woburn that night. We were outnumbered and didn’t have our theme music.
So underrated and one of our most quoted…Heading into surgery for my shoulder the nurse started shaving the area and all I could think was “And now to shave the patient…” 😁
I loved this movie too…saw. It at the same theater.
I too thought it odd that Chevy got the girl in this one but he always seemed to get the girl in every film. He is a top 2 asshole, all time. Take Hitler out he’s number 1. BUT in his prime one of the funniest guys in tv or movies.
Great job in this post, I love nostalgia from the 80’s. Keep up the work