FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

farrellhehn I have NO idea why this movie has not well survived the critique process. I am an intelligent woman who finds this to be the best Nazi film I've ever seen - a great romance, a great thriller, and just a great movie all-around. In contrast to another reviewer, I found Melanie's performance here to be right on point and she was well-cast. As others mention, she's an interesting contrast, blonde and Jewish, sex appeal but survivor. Cannot believe it was selected as worst movie of 1992. My German is not as strong as the two other languages I speak, so maybe the accent is a mess, but is it really a deal-breaker for the film? Especially when it's a true story. Maybe Roger Ebert has it out for Melanie Griffith or Michael Caine, who knows, but I really encourage you to check this one out.

acheapmom Melanie Griffith plays a World War II US government secretary who transforms herself into an effective spy. Underrated by those around her, she (educated at an unimpressive school) proves she is more street wise than the Vassar types her Harvard educated boss (Michael Douglas) has dated.Yes, it's a slight rehash of Working Girl(her earlier film as a secretary who fights her way to a better position). So what! It's the Cinderalla of the Office escape story for the many of us who were stuck in "9 to 5" jobs below our mental capacity!!!Griffith' character is a 1940's American secretary (who can speak a working class German learned from immigrant parents) who talks her way into actual spy work in wartime Germany! Douglas is the sometimes obtuse OSS (think pre-CIA) American spy guy who reluctantly signs her up for spy work.Joely Richardson is the German girl who has a few weeks as Griffith's best friend "Tell me about Clark Gable!!!". Sir John Gielgud is the stern taskmaster who is her spy leader in Germany...Liam Neeson plays the Nazi you feel a bit sorry for. He's a widowed version of Werner Von Braun who has also fallen in love with Griffith---now working full time as nanny and part time as spy searching for his hidden flying rocket Peenemunde plans!!!---I love many of the old World War II era drama/love/sometimes spy stories! So I love that this film evokes them! (Griffith's character evades capture and saves the day various times - by using techniques picked up in films of that era!!! A boon for trivia buffs..."Remember Mortal Storm with Jimmy Stewart???" ------------------------------------- HOW and WHY this film, Griffith, the script...got those nasty anti-awards listed here amazes me!!! Maybe she (like Kathie Lee for instance) just grates on some peoples' nerves!!!This is a moderately good film. (Betcha lots of women & film buffs are the bigger fans!!!) This film maybe doesn't fit the common demographics. A war adventure movie that might appeal to women more than men. With trimming of the bedroom scene, it could be shown to families with older kids...Even my hyper critical 10 year old son was asking questions (I had skipped the early bedroom scenes). Perhaps it's the Palin Effect (Griffith (like Palin) doesn't come across as nasty, gravely, tough enough to be smart!!!!!)Maybe she doesn't do "Vassar Speak"! But--(like Palin) her effective actions prove otherwise. You doubt her at your peril!

robert-temple-1 This is a terrible film, ruined by the catastrophic miscasting of the two leads. As the male lead, Michael Douglas gives one of the worst screen performances of the twentieth century. He manages to go all the way through the film without showing the slightest trace of any emotion whatever, despite the fact that the story contains much romance. It would be wrong to say that Douglas is wooden, as that is an insult to wood. Even stone is too good for him. Low-grade concrete would be more like it, the kind that crumbles and gives way. What is wrong with him? He has the eyes of a dead fish floating downstream, several days later. To say that there is no chemistry between him and the hapless Melanie Griffith is such an understatement that there is no point: how can you have chemistry with a corpse who kisses you? Melanie Griffith struggles valiantly to show emotion, and often succeeds, but she is walking in molasses. The situation is not helped by the fact that she was desperately miscast and is not at all well directed. Her soft voice is tragically wrong for the part, her quiet manner totally off beam. The underlying story seems to have been good, and Susan Isaacs's novel must have been interesting. In the second half, the film even becomes exciting despite itself, through the sheer power of the story, though the plot and details are all wrong in the film. The one splendid performance in the film, which is truly dazzling, is by Joely Richardson. She would have been a far, far better choice for the female lead. And Liam Neeson, who also does well, could have been the male lead. Why relegate those two fine actors to supporting roles? This whole film is simply a disaster. But if done properly, it could perhaps have been marvellous.

Robert J. Maxwell Melanie Griffith is am ambitious, quick-witted, German-speaking, young secretary at the Office of Strategic Services who is enlisted by her boss, Michael Douglas, and sent to Berlin to work for high-ranking Germans and uncover secrets concerning their V-2 rockets now being built at Penemunde. She winds up as a nanny in the employ of the sympatico Liam Neeson. She doesn't fall in love with Neeson, though the usual dramatic trajectory might seem to call for it, because her heart already belongs to Michael Douglas. He's too dumb to realize it. Berlin is full of agents and double agents. One of the latter plugs Griffith. She's rescued by Douglas and carried in his arms across the Swiss border with the details of the V-2 program concealed in her glove. Douglas and Griffith marry and live happily ever after.None of the principals gives a bad performance but Neeson is perhaps the most interesting of the characters. His devotion to the party is suspected of being lukewarm and he's under suspicion by the Gestapo. Alas, he isn't on screen much and disappears completely as the climax approaches.Most impressive is the evocation of the early years of the war. The make-up strikes us as garish. Berlin seems dark and ominous. The fashions and accouterments seem appropriate.Griffith isn't bad. At least she's not embarrassing. Except for "Mulholland Falls," it may be her best performance. She's supposed to have learned German at her Jewish father's knee and have the accent of "a butcher's daughter," but she doesn't. She has an accent, but it's strictly an American accent. Speer's name comes out at "Shpear" instead of "Shpair." Diverting at first viewing, but not really worth seeking out.