The first laugh-out-loud comedy to come out this year - as well as an embarrassing reminder that anything we can do, the French can do better.
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07/06/08
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OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2008)
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Reviews Counted:55
Fresh:41
Rotten:14
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: This clever spy spoof plays politics and movie conventions for laughs and features a great turn by Jen Dujardin as a smarmy-suave nouveau-Bond.
Theatrical Release:May 9, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: For those that like the spy action of the James Bond series shaken with a bit of humor, this French hit promises to be a tasty cocktail. OSS 117 is a popular French character who has appeared in... [More]
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Reviews for OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
A lame comedy with a few decent laughs and several yawn-spawning set pieces that don't really go anywhere.
08/21/08
Top CriticLeave it to the French to beat us at our own bizarrely self-reflexive comic shenanigans. OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies is a model of smart, often very silly, but never, ever stupid comic perfection.
10/03/08
The packaging is perfect, and the end results beat A View To A Kill any day.
05/23/08
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.
05/16/08
Top CriticClick to read the article
04/23/09
Arguably the funniest spy spoof ever made.
05/09/08
There aren't a lot of huge belly laughs in "OSS 117" (although the chicken fight had me in convulsions), but, consistently clever and amusing, it provokes a lot of grins.
06/11/08
Notwithstanding a willing central performance from Dujardin, the film simply lacks the comedic savoir-faire to leave us shaken, stirred or even reasonably amused.
11/07/08
This French comedy fondly lampoons both the popular French spy movies adapted from Jean Bruce's novels in the 1950s and '60s and the colonialist era they were set in.
12/17/08
The French-made movie travels familiar ground, with a nod as well to Airplane!, Top Secret and that whole genre. Even compared to them, it pushes things just a little -- not too far, but toward the loony.
06/27/08
Top CriticFrench cinema's reputation for subtlety goes up in smoke with OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies, a movie whose satire proves as lame as its clunky title.
06/26/08
Dujardin mantém um bom equilíbrio no tom que confere ao personagem, expondo sua tolice sem transformá-lo numa caricatura que comprometeria a narrativa ao impedir o espectador de acreditar que 117 é minimamente competente.
07/13/08
As a spoof of a spoof the picture becomes repetitive and tiresome in spots but remains entertaining enough to deserve a visit.
04/22/08
Infinitely superior to Get Smart.
11/07/08
Not only spoofs the original source material, Bond, Powers and 1960s TV series -- it also takes on French colonial relations in a politically incorrect way. One of the most hilarious films of the year.
04/26/06
OSS has style in spades.
12/07/07
Spoofy fun at first, but eventually wears quite thin, and I don't think all that much could have been lost in the subtitles.
05/08/08
[Jean] Dujardin's good-natured buffoonery rubs off, his behavior carrying the film.
05/08/08
In a week of overblown, unappetising or disappointing films, this makes a refreshing change. And how interesting to be offered a French movie that doesn't come straight from the "arthouse" stable.
11/07/08
Latest News for OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
November 07, 2008:
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This week in the UK cinemas we have Oliver Stones latest presidential dissection, the George W. Bush biopic W. with Josh Brolin in the title role. Also out is Pride & Glory, a... More...
May 11, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
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February 21, 2008:
Kim Newman on... OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies
RT Obscura, the exclusive column by renowned critic Kim Newman, sees the writer plumbing the depths of the RT archive in search of some forgotten gems. In his twelfth column,... More...
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