Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

bensonmum2 Dean Martin's back for a second spin as Matt Helm in Murderers' Row. In this one, Helm sets out to track down a missing scientist being held captive by the evil (and hysterical) Julian Wall (Karl Malden) – a man bent on world domination. His plan is to use the scientist's ray (I can't remember what kind of ray, but does it really matter?) to destroy Washington D.C. Helping Helm is the scientist's swinging daughter, Suzie (Ann-Margaret).Almost everything I wrote in my comment for The Silencers applies to Murderers' Row. The bit about the plot not mattering – even more so in this case. The notion of Dean Martin playing Dean Martin – again, nothing could be truer. Dino surrounded by beautiful women - Ann-Margaret is a knock-out in Murderers' Row. The booze, the jokes, the gadgets, etc. – it's all here. The best part is that once again it's all handled in a breezy, easy manner that makes watching Murderers' Row a lot of fun. I don't know that I enjoyed it quite as much as The Silencers, but I did find it entertaining. The best bits include: watching Dino try to keep up with the over-the-top dancing of Ann-Margaret, Karl Malden (his performance as the villain is the one thing about Murderers' Row that is actually better than The Silencers), Ann-Margaret's groovy wardrobe, and Helm's freeze and delayed firing guns. What un-PC fun! My advice – if you plan to sit down and check out Murderers' Row (or any of the Matt Helm films for that matter), remember to take things about as seriously as the people who made the movie did (and that's not at all) and you just might enjoy it.

Bogmeister MASTER PLAN: Operation:Scorch - use a new heat ray on Washington DC. After "The Silencers," there was no where to go but with more fun in the sun with Matt Helm - poking fun, that is, at the James Bond spy genre. Dino Martin is as lackadaisical as ever as Helm, the part-time super agent, barely awake in some scenes and ready with the cute quips in, well, every line of dialog. To illustrate the difference between Helm & Bond: Bond, as an example, is allowed one minor joke during his usual mission briefing with M. Now, Helm jokes with his boss, MacDonald (James Gregory, reprising his role) during the entire session, even as MacDonald tells him that Helm may have to commit suicide during the mission. 'I ain't going' Helm quips. The villains are again the evil organization Big-O(oh), who target all the major secret agents as the film starts, including Helm. But, this is one of those false deaths for the hero, just as was done in a couple of the Bonders (and they don't explain how Helm survives). The action takes Helm to Monte Carlo, where a primarily young crowd do a lot of dancing and swinging. Helm searches for a scientist who is providing Big-O (led by Karl Malden) with the final formulas for a super heat ray.The action slows down at the mid-point, especially with the seemingly endless scenes of young folks shaking their bodies to sixties tunes. The filmmakers manage to work Sinatra in again in a sort-of cameo. The absurdity and sight gags are at the usual level: all of Helm's girlfriends attend his funeral dressed exactly the same. The main henchman walks around in public with this big metal plate covering the top of his head and no one notices. Helm drinks while driving and on the job, joking with the liquor bottles. Ann-Margret plays the daughter of the missing scientist and she's always great, no matter what she's doing, but she even gets quite involved in some strenuous action towards the end. Sparv is fine as the femme fatale, with her slightly exotic good looks, though she inexplicably seems to change sides near the end (Helm never even had a chance to seduce her). Malden as the head villain does not do as well, speaking with a dopey accent which fades in and out. He is the subject of an effective on-going gag with a gun that delays firing for a few seconds. The climactic action in the villains' lair is not bad, with some actual suspense and humor mixed in, though the very conclusion on the hovercrafts, on the water, seems like an afterthought. The epilogue is just too silly. Helm would return in "The Ambushers." Hero:6 Villain:5 Femme Fatales:7 Henchmen:6 Fights:6 Stunts/Chases:6 Gadgets:5 Auto:4 Locations:7 Pace:6 overall:6-

Poseidon-3 The second of four Matt Helm spy spoofs starring Martin, this one has precious little to offer (though a third one was in the making already when this was released!)aside from some pretty scenery and some attractive women. Martin stars as the boozing, womanizing secret agent who poses as a photographer by day and tries to prevent world domination by night (in between snuggles with various voluptuous females.) Malden is the villain this time out. He's stolen a device (and the professor who created it) with the intention of blowing up Washington, D.C. Martin must foil his plans before the professor gives in to torture and reveals the proper equations necessary to destroy the Capitol. Along to help (but actually quite in the way) is the professor's shimmying, go-go dancing, wind-up toy of a daughter Ann-Margret. The film is full of the usual groan-inducing entendres, way-out spy gadgets and the requisite pallet of curvaceous lovelies, but it's all so sloppily handled that only a certain amount of enjoyment comes of it. Despite the presence of A-M and the stunningly beautiful Sparv (as Malden's helpmate), there doesn't seem to be an abundance of sexual byplay between Martin and the women. Martin looks tired, bored and lazy through much of the film, though he's Shakespearean compared to his appearances in the Matt Helm promotional trailers. (It's a wonder that audiences took him seriously - if they indeed did - a few years later when he starred in "Airport" as the airline pilot after this string of cinematic gumballs.) A-M is decked out in an array of ludicrous costumes (a long-sleeved, turtlenecked swimsuit?) which are at once amusing and annoying. Her character makes no sense, continuously gyrating in a disco while her father is missing, but maybe she isn't supposed to. Her (lengthy) scenes in the nightclub are a high camp time capsule. Malden has a bad, uneven accent which comes and goes. He gives his role some energy and presence, but it isn't enough. Sparv is completely lovely throughout, but is given virtually nothing to do at all. One minute she seems to be calling the shots and the other she's a flunky for Malden. Reese is an interesting presence as a Bond-like henchman with a steel plate grafted onto his head. What may have been inventive at the time (a Hovercraft chase scene, the use of undulating machinery as an execution device, communication through microphones) unfortunately comes off as pretty boring nowadays, at least the way it is presented and directed here. The impressive use of real hovercrafts is done in by benign handling and unjudicious editing. There is some striking Monte Carlo scenery, but none of the stars appeared to have gone there. There's a ton of body doubling and rear-projection throughout. A-M fans will love all her frenetic dancing, but others will find little to lift their spirits with this one. Watch out for a hilarious dig at Frank Sinatra in which his photo is projected against the wall of the disco while frugging dancers appear to pound on him with their hands followed by another, more obvious, indignity.

moonspinner55 This is only the second entry in the Matt Helm spy-series and already star Dean Martin looks tired, beleaguered and in need of a good belt of gin. It isn't the groovy Bond-satire you hope it'll be--and that the first film, "The Silencers", nearly was. It has Ann-Margret, and she has energy and pizazz to spare--but no character to play. Hothead Karl Malden plays the villain, but he's not nefarious, just buffoonish. And then there's Dino: aging on-screen faster than a bottle of Thunderbird Wine, Martin can barely keep his eyes open, barely get his lines out, seems overly-tanned and over-fed, and creates no sparks with sexy A-M. The script is leadweight, the direction amateurish, the set designs mediocre. It's not even an interesting attempt. It's a four-asprin headache. *1/2 from ****