Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Disturbing yet enthralling

Best movie of this year hands down!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Comic artist and writer Woody performs a simple courier operation for his friend Harry who works for the CIA. But when he successfully fends off hostile agents, he earns the respect of the beautiful Natalia, who requests his assistance for her defection. Woody uses this request as leverage to use the CIA's resources to bring his comic book creation, Condorman, to life to battle the evil Krokov......If you look at my lists, this month I'm watching a few bad movies. While this one obviously has a fan base, it was a flop on its initial release and nothing has really been seen of it since.And I can see why. The only time I remember this being on TV was on ITV in the eighties at five on a weekday, not a good thing for such a big release, and starring one of the biggest TV personalities (at the time) in the UK.And the main problem? Its boring on the verge of wanting to turn it off, and just when you think Crawford could save he movie, he opens his mouth and releases a truly awful American accent, probably for the overseas audience, because no on could really see a Brit as a hero (a bit pathetic really).So for the rest of the movie, we have some poor James Bond spoof, featuring a flying bird man, with a dodgy yellow car, and a dodgy boat, that fires silly lasers.For a bona-fide kids film, it's very violent indeed, and poor old Oliver Reed is in the middle of it looking like he hates himself.It's a shame that Disney couldn't take a chance and let Crawford use his real accent, instead we get this mundane stuff.The funniest part of the movie, was the promise of a sequel, that made me chuckle.

I only rated it a 9 mainly because of some of the finer details others have pointed out which could have made the film better, but really it is exactly what it was meant to be-- a hilarious double spoof: a spoof on super heroes, and a spoof on spy movies.If you're like me, once you've seen one spy movie, you've really seen them all. They're all the same, with different details. Spy movies, the normal variety, are highly overrated. The same is true with super hero movies, comics, cartoons, etc. Once the original Superman, Spiderman, etc, are introduced, nothing is ever original after that, and it's just so much hogwash that takes itself far too seriously.Enter the spoof, or the farce. This delightful genre of movie or TV show takes something known to be serious, and makes it silly. The fun in watching something like this does not come from thinking "wow, this really could have happened, it's so realistic" but rather from thinking, "Aha! They are making so much fun of James Bond in this scene, it's just hilarious!" A spoof is a variation of a farce-- a farce is a silly story that no one could really expect to happen, but a spoof is a farce that makes fun of something that people take way to seriously. Other popular farces and spoofs have included Get Smart, Gomer Pyle, USMC, The Inspector General, Mathnet (on Square 1 TV), The Princess Bride, Robin Hood Men in Tights, and all the Monty Python adventures. There are many others.Condorman is just such a spoof. It is meant to be funny. It is comedy first, romance and drama second. It appeals to a wide range of age groups because children actually think it's cool (if they're not already spoiled with too many brain-numbing robot and ninja cartoons to be able to appreciate true comedy) and adults love the stabs and jabs taken at the serious spy movies and superheroes.Yes, Condorman might have been better with a bigger budget, and maybe a little more effort could have been put into some of the plot, but I still love it and I think it is by and large one of the most satisfying and memorable films ever made. They don't make anything like it any more-- it's of the same ilk as Strongest Man in the World, and Herbie. Maybe Don Knotts would have been a funnier Condorman, but I still think it was great. I never noticed the wires holding Condor man up or the poor American accent while I was a kid-- come on, you people still watch the Wizard of Oz! For overall watchability, I think this is one to keep on the front row of your DVD collection.

This is a kid's movie that I wonder how it could have even appealed to me as a kid back when it first had a little more, uh, technical relevance I suppose? Actually, no, I wouldn't guess so, if at all ever? Was it a tax write-off? Or maybe the filmmakers took too many drugs and drinks while watching James Bond and Pink Panther movies? Or maybe they knew what they were getting into and thought they could still pull off a legitimately entertaining movie for the whole family. I really have no idea how I would've reacted to this is I were a kid, but as a twenty-something, me and the friends I watched it with became practically the Mystery Science Theater guys, heckling and making up lines as it went along. And, in truth, I might've done it even if I was watching it alone. It's camp without knowing it, or if it does know it maybe it's all the smarter for it. But it does try to pass itself off as something for the kiddies when really it's just too ridiculous and inane for anyone.Maybe the title gives it away, but there you have it- he's a man, but he's also a condor, get it? Well, to put it plainly if I can, Woody Wilkins (Michael Crawford) is ambivalent for about a second to take his 'Condorman' idea to the next step- to team up with the CIA! His mission is to stop a Russian terrorist, played by Oliver Reed, while also with the seductive Ruskie 'Bear' (Barbara Carrera). That's really all you need to know, oh wait, there's more: there's a lead henchman with an eye-patch, or is that a marble eye, or both? How about big gargantuan title cards to introduce every single locale (though sometimes, like with the alps scenes, becoming a little confusing again)? Or massive explosions? I think that might sum it up. But really, if you seek out the movie, you should know what to expect not just from the title but from just the LOOK on the cover of the DVD or VHS. It might be one thing if British director Charles Jarrott went for such silly subject matter with more gusto, but it's almost as if he KNOWS how goofy this is, and has car chases that just spring out of nowhere, plus a climactic speed-boat challenge where even more big explosions happen (and the ratio of the henchmen who jump off the boats before explosion and those who stay on during it is maybe 1/2 and 1/2).In other words, it was perfect as a kind of film to rag on, to put it mildly. It might be one thing if it was so good it's bad, but it turns it it's so mediocre it's just, well, bad. It's got heroes and villains that put out dialog that sometimes is a little incoherent, the bumbling sidekick who is SUPPOSED to be a CIA agent, and that darn one-eyed henchmen, come together in a film where said Condorman only takes flight for less than four minutes! If anything kind can be said about it, it's at least not a boring bad movie, where its so relentless with cheesiness that it becomes wearisome. It's almost too whacked out to get dull at any one point. It is consistent in trying to be entertaining when it really isn't, however it thus becomes on the flip-side entertaining again as fodder for the sort of slings and fun that would make Statler & Waldorf of the Muppets die to dig in on. It's simply one of the most unintentionally funny movies of the 80s, at least from Disney.

I grew up with this film and must have watched it at least 20 times and i still do sometimes.It stars michael crawford who takes his persona of frank spencer and adds an American accent as a cartoon artist who helps a friend who works for the CIA with a job.Anyhows this is merely an excuse for some fun with jokes and some really cool action sequences (the bit with the Porsche's is excellent) think james bond for kids.There is also a bit of romance but nothing to worry about, it really is just a great film for kids.(okay and adults)