Ian Fleming did not invent the superspy. He just brought the profession international superstardom. But before James Bond ever fired a pistol, there was Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, also known as OSS 117. The novelist Jean Bruce came up with 91 books’ worth of stuff for him to do.
So 007 is the British 117. If your mind is sufficiently blown, then perhaps we should stop here, since the recent 117 movie spoof is only mildly funny. “Austin Powers” it ain’t.
“OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” actually conflates Bruce’s hero and Fleming’s. The result is an arch espionage comedy that’s never as amusing as it thinks it is. Directed and co-written by Michel Hazanavicius and starring the French comedian Jean Dujardin as OSS 117, the movie is a sketch stretched to tedious feature length.
Set at the end of World War II, the movie’s mystery plot — where has one of 117’s fellow agents disappeared to? — is an excuse for would-be outlandishness and fake exotic locations.
The filmmakers are admirably out to mock the sexism, racism and absurd virility in spy movies, in part, by making 117 a merry nincompoop. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t get that the bell waking him up in Cairo is an Islamic morning-prayer call. He’s just miffed.
Dujardin looks suave. But he’s dashing in a way that necessarily never upstages his cluelessness. He’s handsome first, stupid next and rarely both at the same time — or at least the tame, almost straightforward boudoir scenes didn’t make me laugh. Of course, the image of him hurling live chickens at a foe who hurls them back was pretty funny.
Otherwise, “Nest of Spies” is too busy correcting political incorrectness to achieve its own ribaldry. We’re meant to chuckle when the film’s two female characters, both Arabs, rip off each other’s clothes during a fight on a dock while 117 looks on with pleasure.
But we’ve been here before. I waited for one of them to turn into a Femme Bot. No such luck. “Nest of Spies” appears to have more in common with TV’s “Get Smart.”
“OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies”
Not rated but contains sexual situations, cartoon violence and projectile poultry. 1 hour, 39 minutes. Directed by Michel Hazanavicius; stars Aure Atika, Berenice Bejo, Jean Dujardin and Philippe Lefebvre. In French with subtitles. Opens today at the Mayan.
