Condorman
by Charles Jarrott
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Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Barbara Carrera, James Hampton, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Michael Crawford, Oliver ReedDirector: Charles Jarrott
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-05-18
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Reviews of Condorman
DVD Review: CONDORMAN - how a nerdy comic book artist became the Vulture of the Western World
Summary: 4 Stars
CONDORMAN was a childhood favorite of mine, and, brother, I have been waiting impatiently for a Region 1 DVD to get my mitts on. So it's about time (but now I'm cheesed with the DVD's lack of special features). I find it really hard to be objective with CONDORMAN, this film being such a cherished memory. Having seen it again very recently, I can't help but note the datedness, the laughably rendered laser beam effects, and that hokey theme song and the cheesy cartoon Condorman in the opening credits. But mostly I happen to think that the film does stand the test of time, in terms of its watchability, its humor, and its sense of wonder and adventure.
Some SPOILERS now, peppered throughout.
A conscientious comic book artist, Woody Wilkins won't put anything in his comics which his characters couldn't do in real life. As such, the movie opens in Paris with Woody gigged out in full Condorman regalia and leaping off the Eiffel Tower to test his Condorman wings. It sucks for him that the wings malfunction and he ends up diving into the Seine river. So right away you get a sense of what this cat is like: an adventurous dreamer.
Woody thinks that his friend Harry's job in the CIA is fraught with excitement and skullduggery, even as Harry insists that he's merely a file clerk. But when Harry is tasked with finding a civilian to handle a simple courier assignment in Istanbul, he taps Woody for the mission. In Istanbul Woody meets the mysterious Natalia and impresses her when, in a pretty hilarious scene, he inadvertently takes out several enemy agents.
Cut to some time later, and we finally get to the central plot. The CIA learns that a Soviet KGB operative codenamed the Bear wants to defect, but that the Bear wants only the agent known as Condorman to act as the primary facilitator. Woody is initially reluctant, but caves when he learns that the Bear is actually Natalia (who's mistaken Woody for a top agent) and that the CIA has agreed to bring his comic book designs to life. The rest of the film treats us to more globetrotting exploits, zany secret agent and superhero antics, and a whiff of romance.
So, if you're a kid at heart, CONDORMAN should be right up your alley. One of its strongest points is that it does a good job of massaging your sense of wish fulfillment. Because who hasn't daydreamed of accomplishing daring deeds, of coming out the hero and winning that girl? CONDORMAN is awesomely nerdtacular.
Michael Crawford, if you remember him at all, is more famous for stuff like HELLO, DOLLY and for playing the Phantom of the Opera on stage (for which, to give him his just due, he garnered massive props). Crawford is skinny, gangly, boasts a non-heroic voice, and isn't who you first think of when drawing up the prototypical intrepid man of action. But he's good as the comic book creator/nerd with aspirations of derring-do. This is a Disney flick, so, it's certainly wholesome enough and its sensibilities lean toward the youngsters. A film like this can get away with a character like Woody Wilkins, a "foolish dreamer who draws comic books" who then takes on the identity of one of his creations.
It helps that Condorman has a supporting cast who mostly plays it straight, notably Oliver Reed as the sinister Russian masterspy Krakov, Barbara Carrera as the exotic femme fatale Natalia, and James Hampton who plays Woody's amiable pal and CIA contact Harry Oslo. Jean-Pierre Kalfon, the sorta scary one-eyed Russian hitman Morovich, does it over-the-top, but, really, what else can you do when you're sporting a menacing glass eye and tearing down the Yugoslavian roads in an intimidating black Porsche? And, man, watching this film again just brings back those good old days, when the Iron Curtain was still up and the U.S. and the USSR were still kicking it Cold War. The prevailing thought back then was that the Russian Bear would be a superpower forever...
CONDORMAN is loosely based on Robert Sheckley's novel The Game of X, which I haven't read but have just now ordered online because I hear good things about it. Catering to Woody's intent that Condorman be an international crime fighter, his plan to help Natalia defect involves their navigating a circuitous route, from Yugoslavia to the Swiss Alps to a final showdown in Monte Carlo. Considering that they end up running a gauntlet of enemy operatives in all their stops, they might as well have taken a direct flight home. But where's the fun in that, right? I thought it a perfect touch that Krakov is able to anticipate Condorman and Natalia's itinerary simply by reading Woody's comic books.
When I saw this as a kid, I was totally enthralled by the James Bond-type gadgetry. Even now, I still get a kick out of watching the sluggish Gypsy conveyance transform into the sleek Condormobile and then into a hovercraft. The laser guns, however, sucketh big. Note that CONDORMAN is more a lighthearted spy thriller than a superhero caper. Woody as Condorman appears briefly in the opening sequence and then in the last act. And, as Condorman, he doesn't really indulge in hands on fighty fights but instead settles for foiling the bad guys from a distance, soaring on wings from above and then firing off missiles at them from his Condorboat. I dug the costume, though, and as an L.A. Dodger fan, I'm glad the film closes out in Dodgers stadium, even as Woody receives his next cloak & dagger assignment. I wish, though, that we'd seen something of Woody's other creations. I can't help being intrigued by the likes of Gopher Boy, Bazooka Boy, and Laser Girl. Where oh where can I get me some of those fun Zowie Comics?
Description of Condorman
A pre-Phantom Michael Crawford plays Woody, a goofy cartoonist-accidentally-turned-spy in this Cold War-era lark. In Paris visiting his friend, a CIA "file clerk," Woody is sent on a cloak-and-dagger errand and is mistaken for an operative by his beautiful Russian counterpart. She then contacts the agency with the demand that he, and only he, help her defect. Writer adopts comic book persona and voilą: Condorman! This wide-winged hero thwarts the pesky Soviets at every turn. From the old run-down farmer's truck he's driving emerges a flashy race car that outruns a fleet of Russian vehicles. Later, in a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang moment, the car sprouts floaters, allowing the pair to escape their pursuers by sea. Barbara Carrera's Natalia--the true spy of the two--is really just along for the ride. It's Condorman's show, as confirmed by the ending: a shot-filled showdown off the shores of Monte Carlo.--Kimberly HeinrichsBestsellers in DVD
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