Bovie Movie

Director John Landis helmed this Cold War farce starring Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase as Austin Millbarge and Emmett Fitz-Hume — two loser misfits who dwell in the lower ranks of the Central Intelligence Agency. Convinced despite much evidence to the contrary that they’re prime secret agent material, both men keep taking service exams in an effort to win promotion. Caught cheating on their latest round of tests, Austin and Emmett expect to be fired but are instead made full field agents and ushered into intense training. Little do they know that it’s all a ruse and that they’re about to be dumped in Pakistan to throw Russian spies off the scent of two real agents with an important clandestine assignment. A spoof of the “road” pictures popularized by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, the film features a cameo by the latter as his golf-playing self.

Borrowing liberally from the French film La Totale, this is an action picture, domestic comedy, and political thriller rolled into a crowd-pleasing ball of entertainment. Producer James Cameron wrote and directed the film. Henry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a workaholic computer salesman neglecting his mousy wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), a legal secretary. Simon (Bill Paxton) seduces Helen with the lie that he is a secret agent; he’s really a used car salesman. Harry suspects that Helen is cheating on him, and he sends a few colleagues to kidnap them. Helen then discovers that Harry is a secret agent by night, working for a shadowy group called the Omega Sector. Harry and his partner Gib (Tom Arnold) are trying to find four nuclear warheads that have disappeared from a former Soviet republic.

A teen learns that all the gadgets in the world can’t help him overcome his awkwardness around the opposite sex in this big-budget family entertainment. In Agent Cody Banks, Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz plays a young man plucked from suburban obscurity to be trained as a CIA super-agent. His mission? Get friendly with his classmate Natalie (played by another teen TV star, Lizzie McGuire’s Hilary Duff) so that he can uncover her father’s diabolical scheme to create indestructible robots. To compound his problems, Cody also has to deal with the same stresses as any adolescent: nagging parents, insufferable classwork, and a fragile sense of self-esteem. Agent Cody Banks was produced by MGM, not coincidentally the studio responsible for another popular spy franchise, the venerable James Bond series.

A previously pampered society mouse must fight his way back to the comforts of Kensington after he is sent spiraling into an underground world filled with scavenger rats and villainous toads in a fun-filled family adventure produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Features and featuring the voices of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, and Jean Reno. Roddy (Jackman) was living the high life when he first met Sid the sewer rat (Shane Richie), but that’s all about to change when Sid decides to send the hapless mouse down the pipes and stealthily take his place in the lap of luxury. Though the bustling sewer city of Ratropolis isn’t without its fair share of kind citizens, it is certainly no place for a pampered mouse with a taste for life’s finer things. Upon making the acquaintance of scavenger rat Rita (Winslet), Roddy is certain that the pair can navigate their way back to the surface in Rita’s trusty boat, the Jammy Dodger, but Rita’s help doesn’t come cheap, and the nefarious Toad (McKellen) is determined to rid Ratropolis of all things rodent. When Toad’s hapless hench-rats Spike (Andy Serkis) and Whitey (Bill Nighy) fail to achieve acceptable results, the green meanie is forced to call in the cavalry in the form of legendary French mercenary Le Frog (Reno) to get the job done.

An unhinged parody of James Bond theatrics, Johnny English finds Mr. Bean himself suiting up as the eponymous super spy for a series of wild and silly adventures. A lowly pencil pusher working for the MI7 agency, Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) is suddenly promoted to super spy after Agent One is assassinated and every other agent is blown up at his funeral. When billionaire entrepreneur Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich) sponsors the exhibition of the Crown Jewels and the valuable gems disappear on the opening night, and on the watch of English, the newly designated agent must jump into action to uncover the thief and procure the missing valuables. Tracking the thieves’ underground escape route with sidekick Bough (Ben Miller), English locks in on Sauvage despite repeated assurances by boss Pegasus (Tim Pigott-Smith) that the respected entrepreneur has nothing to do with the crime. Could the mysterious Lorna (Natalie Imbruglia), who has an odd habit of turning up at the wrong place at the wrong time, hold the key to helping Johnny? A massive hit overseas, Johnny English held its own at the box office in early April 2003, and was slated for wide release in the U.S. If the spoofing in Johnny English strikes especially close to home, that may be because the film was scripted by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who teamed to pen such Bond adventures as Die Another Day and The World is Not Enough.

The three most glamorous and butt-kicking private detectives in the business are back and ready to take on bad guys in this sequel to the 2000 blockbuster screen adaptation of the once-popular television series. Dylan (Drew Barrymore), Natalie (Cameron Diaz), and Alex (Lucy Liu) are once again summoned to the office of their boss Charlie (voice of John Forsythe), where they’re introduced to his new right-hand man Jimmy Bosley (Bernie Mac) and given their latest assignment. It seems a pair of rings have gone missing and need to be recovered, but this was no ordinary jewel heist — the rings have been coded with special information that can be used to access a list of every person in the FBI’s Witness Protection Program, and when a handful of protected informants are murdered, the Angels are brought in to help crack the case. As the women search for the culprits, they encounter Madison Lee (Demi Moore), one of Charlie’s former agents who decided that the wrong side of the law pays better, and Seamus (Justin Theroux), who once dated Dylan and wants revenge for her decision to turn him over to the police. Luke Wilson and Matt LeBlanc return as (respectively) Natalie and Alex’s love interests, as does Crispin Glover as the Thin Man; John Cleese, Robert Forster, and Eric Bogosian also appear in supporting roles.

They’re beautiful, they’re brilliant, and they can kick your butt — the most glamorous private eyes in the world are back in action in this big-screen adaptation of the popular ’70s television series. Natalie (Cameron Diaz) is the smart but silly one, Dylan (Drew Barrymore) is the tough but fun-loving one, and Alex (Lucy Liu) is the classy but hard-as-nails one, and they work for a man named Charlie (voice of John Forsythe), who never meets his employees face to face. Along with their helper Bosley (Bill Murray), the Angels are sent into action when electronics genius Eric Knox (Sam Rockwell) is kidnapped, with the nefarious Roger Corwin (Tim Curry) as the prime suspect. But they soon learn even bigger danger is afoot — the kidnappers have gotten their hands on Knox’s latest invention, a system that can monitor voice communication from anywhere in the world, virtually ending the notion of private conversation. Charlie’s Angels also stars Crispin Glover, Luke Wilson, Kelly Lynch, and Tom Green.

Undercover Brother began life as an animated series on the Internet. The satirical cartoon was created by novelist and screenwriter John Ridley (Three Kings) for the website urbanentertainment.com. Ridley wrote the screenplay with Michael McCullers, co-writer of the Austin Powers sequels, and it was directed by Malcolm D. Lee (Spike Lee’s cousin, and the writer/director of The Best Man). The film stars Eddie Griffin (of TV’s Malcolm and Eddie) as Undercover Brother, he of the gold Cadillac convertible and huge Afro, who uses gadgets and disguises to steal from the rich and give to the poor. His activities are discovered by the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D., a spy organization devoted to subverting The Man (Robert Trumbull) and his henchman, Mr. Feather (Chris Kattan), who use their power over the media to demean black people and destroy racial unity. The spy organization is run by The Chief (Chi McBride), who is constantly screaming at his subordinates. They include Sistah Girl (Aunjanue Ellis), a beautiful martial artist, Conspiracy Brother (Dave Chappelle), who sees white supremacist plots everywhere, and Smart Brother (Gary Anthony Williams, who provided the voice of Undercover Brother in the cartoon), who supplies the operatives with gadgets and information. When a popular black political figure, General Boutwell (Billy Dee Williams), calls a press conference, presumably to announce his presidential candidacy, and instead announces that he’s opening a chain of fried chicken restaurants, the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. rightly suspects foul play, and recruits Undercover Brother to look into it. He goes undercover as an uptight buppie to work for The Man, but his cover is soon blown, and the seductive White She Devil (Denise Richards) is sent in to use her feminine wiles to destroy Undercover Brother.

Austin Powers — fashion photographer, denizen of Swingin’ London, international espionage agent, and bane of dental hygienists everywhere — returns in his second screen adventure. Powers (once again played by Mike Myers), a 1960s superspy stranded in the 1990s, discovers that his nemesis, criminal genius Dr. Evil (also Mike Myers), has somehow stolen his “mojo” (the secret to his otherwise inexplicable sex appeal) and traveled back in time to the 1960s as part of his latest fiendish scheme. Powers must also travel back in time to retrieve it, but if Austin doesn’t quite fit into 1998, he’s been there just long enough not to fit in in 1968 anymore, either. Powers also discovers that Dr. Evil has new allies this time: Mini-Me (Verne Troyer), a clone of Dr. Evil one-eighth his size but just as nasty; Fat Bastard (Myers yet again), whose name describes him just fine; and vixenish assassin Robin Swallows (Gia Carides). Powers’ lack of mojo also proves troublesome when he’s paired with his new partner, saucy CIA operative Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham). Other characters returning from the first film include Elizabeth Hurley as Vanessa Kensington, Robert Wagner as Number Two, Michael York as Basil Exposition, Seth Green as Scott Evil, and Mindy Sterling as Frau Farbissina. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me also includes cameo appearances from Tim Robbins, Jerry Springer, Woody Harrelson, and Burt Bacharach with his current songwriting partner, Elvis Costello.

Yet another classic television series from the 1960s gets a big-screen update in this action-comedy inspired by the Bill Cosby/Robert Culp vehicle I Spy. Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) is a federal intelligence agent who has been assigned to find a particularly expensive and valuable weapon which has gone missing: a special stealth fighter jet which can not only hide from radar, but also turn invisible to the human eye. Scott learns a rogue agent has sold the jet to Gundars (Malcolm McDowell), a powerful and unscrupulous underground arms dealer. After blowing his opportunity to catch Gundars in the act, Scott formulates a Plan B — it seems Gundars is a rabid boxing fan, so in order to get inside his organization, Scott recruits Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy), a longtime middleweight champion whose ego nearly exceeds his talent in the ring. Robinson is excited by the prospect of a life of espionage, but Scott and Robinson’s personalities are like oil and water, and matters are hardly helped by the efforts of less-than-helpful fellow agents Rachel (Famke Janssen) and Carlos (Gary Cole). This adaptation of I Spy was directed by a woman who starred in a memorable television series herself, former Hill Street Blues regular Betty Thomas, who has gone on to a successful career behind the camera.