terrible... so disappointed.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

In the European nation of Orenbourg, the wealthy Augustus Steranko is in the middle of a shady deal with France's finance minister to acquire gold. When the Frenchman attempts to back out, Steranko promptly has him killed. Suddenly Britain's top secret agent Blade assaults Steranko's mansion, fighting his way through his guards, only to be felled by Steranko's diminutive right-hand woman Ilsa Grunt and her deadly whip.With Blade dead, the bigwigs over at MI6 need a replacement agent and fast. To this end, they enlist the aid of the CIA, who agree to loan them their best agent, one Michael Corben. A traitor in MI6 informs Ilsa of Agent Corben's impending arrival, and she leaves for America.In America, a different Michael Corben, a high school student, has a problem. Graduation has come up, but since he cut his French classes to go partying all year long, he doesn't have enough credits to pass; and at Edsel High, if you don't pass your foreign language class, you don't graduate. Fortunately, though, French teacher Mrs. Grober is going to give him one last chance. The French class is going on a field trip to France in the summer, and is Michael accompanies them, he'll be allowed to pass.So it is that a mixup occurs at the airport. Ilsa waylays and murders Michael Corben the CIA agent, whilst the identically-named Michael Corben the high school student unwittingly takes the dead spy's place on board the plane bound for France. He gets to sit in first class, much to Mrs. Grober's annoyance. Upon arriving in France, Michael is shanghaied by a British agent named Richardson and whisked away to a top-secret lab, despite his protests that he isn't the Michael Corben the British think he is. His protests end abruptly when he's shown the cool, gadget- laden red Lotus sports car he'll get to drive, and he decides he'll play along with the spy gig for a while if it means he gets to play with gadgets and avoid his fussy teacher.Meanwhile, Ilsa, thinking she murdered a decoy, assigns Zigesfeld, an assassin with a golden robotic hand, to follow and kill the "real" Agent Corben. Also tailing Michael is a mysterious woman with some connection to the murdered Blade. Additionally, Mrs. Grober's noisy search for her missing student has MI6 thinking she is an assassin out to kill Michael; likewise, Steranko thinks she's working for MI6. Both groups set out to have her and her class eliminated, and when they end up captured by Zigesfeld and taken to Steranko's mansion, it's up to Michael and the mysterious woman to rescue them and stop Steranko's evil plans.Written by The Monster Squad director Fred Dekker, If Looks Could Kill is a love letter to the over-the-top action films of the 60's and 70's. Unfortunately, it's a disjointed movie, tonally. On the one hand, it's too simplistic and juvenile for adults... but at the same time it's too complicated and violent for kids. It's definitely a film that failed to find an audience. Also, despite supposedly being a spoof (it tends to get categorized as a comedy), its content is played dead serious a lot of the time, especially towards the end.This was supposed to be Richard Grieco's big break, but, alas, the movie underperformed and he never quite made it. The really great performances, though, are the villains. Roger Rees is a bit hard to swallow as the hammy Steranko, while Linda Hunt, who projects subtle, quiet menace as Ilsa, and Canadian actor Tom Rack, who has only one line in the entire film, and acts primarily with his eyes and mannerisms, and in so doing conveys barely-suppressed homicidal mania. He's definitely one of cinema's scarier henchmen characters.The action sequences are hit and miss. Blade's assault on Steranko's mansion at the beginning is neat, but is over too quickly and poorly edited. The car chase in France is slow-moving and kind of uninteresting despite the soundtrack trying to convince us otherwise. This leaves the climax, involving a shootout with hordes of henchmen who can't aim (of course), a fistfight with Zigesfeld, and finally an attempted escape by Steranko which ends in one of the most hilariously awful helicopter crashes ever put to film. If the first half disappoints when it comes to action, then the finale definitely delivers.

I remember seeing this on cable about 10/11 years ago and I watched it with my Dad and brother who both found this hilarious and still do now. This is one of those classic, fun-to-watch comedy films of the early 90s that you wont get bored of unlike today's trash! Its right up there with the Ernest series and Father of the Bride films. If u want a good laugh for an hour and a half, watch this. An original, humorous plot featuring an American class (which is something to common to that 'Saved by the Bell era') in France. They should really start making more movies like this! Kids will ACTUALLY enjoy it. Go rent this NOW!

This is, simply put, one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I've seen quite a few bad movies. It's not just that smarmy idiot Richard Grieco, or the massive plot holes, or the incomprehensible, unbelievable plot, it's the whole combination of massive failures that make this movie so terrible. Now, I realize that this is a teen "action-comedy" of sorts, and it's plot is meant to be a piece of escapist fiction, and I went into this without any kind of bias. I expected fantastic settings, over-the-top villians, and unbelievable gadgets. It failed me at every turn, but the biggest problem was simply how stupid it was. Nothing was believable, nothing. For example, what high school would let you come to the graduation ceremony, call your name, and hand you a diploma, only to have said diploma tell you that you failed to graduate? I don't know any school, even a public school, that would be so sadistic. To put it in a few words, this movie sucks.

This movie was okay. I've seen it a couple of times and it's all right. The one-liners in the movie are the best part, but they do hurt it by overdoing them. The action sequence at the end is enjoyable. I only wish they didn't take Mrs. Grober, a complete wuss in one act and turn her into an over-amped, wanna-be, confident fighter. It just didn't work. The only acting worth crediting is that of Marishka's. The only character who acts her role out well. The plot is original and good which made it a little more watchable. Oh, and did they really have to underuse the Lotus. Come on, we see him screwing around with the gadgets while not even trying to get into too much conflict with the bad guys. So there's one guy chasing him. Do we give a rat's ***? No. If they had almost the whole force on him, then there's something worth watching. Steranko is just plain annoying at times. I wish that that what's her face short lady was the main bad guy(girl). At least she's more intimidating than this tall wimp. One last thing, the helicopter and the fire at the end. Can anyone say,"too much?" I mean a blade going off on its own is the weirdest thing ever, even for a movie. And the fire; I didn't know it could spread so fast in under 3 minutes. Plus, you can tell in the far away shot of the castle at the end when it on fire that it is pure model or something like that. Thank God for CGI these days. 5/10