When I rented this movie today, I was in the mood for a simple, light-hearted comedy with beautiful women. I expected something between Charly's Angels and the typical college comedy.
Already the intro sequence caught me by surprise. On the surface, the lettering, voice-overs and soundtrack look like a low-budget TV show. But on a second look, they aren't. They are smartly done parodies. The "SAT sequence" sets the tone and the environment. It creates the link from the most ordinary of all tests, the SAT, to the extra-ordinary world of spies. Yet it's obviously a comedy. The future spies dress like Japanese school girls, in a perfectly inappropriate outfit for their job.
I love about this movie how it keeps the balance between cool spy stuff (like force fields and special weapons) and fun-loving everyday college students. The paper boy throws a newspaper to an old house's front porch, it's stopped by a force-field shielding the headquarter, and drops slightly burned back on the street. Our heroes are introduced as sleepy college students, who are being yelled at by some drill-instructor dude, who's only a moving image in their hallways picture frames. One girl doesn't find her gun, one breaks up with her boyfriend, everything in the first 4 minutes. And then the first moments in the "evil lair"... The movie has its share of silly gags. :-)
Now you might call me ignorant, but I didn't see the lesbian theme coming... However, when it became obvious, it made lots of sense to me. Much like "Lost and Delirious" (2001), this movie treats same-sex relationships as nothing special, nothing to be proud of, nothing to be ashamed of, simply just as another way of people falling in love. It simply doesn't matter. (Ok, if your moral convictions allow for "true love" only in wedlock, if at all, you might find this love story objectionable.)
For my part, I had lots of fun watching this movie. I enjoyed the cool high-tech gadgets, the countless funny references to super-hero and spy movies, the funny plot, and of course all the beautiful women in a heart-warming love story with an happy end. I just felt a bit sorry for Bobby, who was dumped by Amy and had no chance of winning her back.
Already the intro sequence caught me by surprise. On the surface, the lettering, voice-overs and soundtrack look like a low-budget TV show. But on a second look, they aren't. They are smartly done parodies. The "SAT sequence" sets the tone and the environment. It creates the link from the most ordinary of all tests, the SAT, to the extra-ordinary world of spies. Yet it's obviously a comedy. The future spies dress like Japanese school girls, in a perfectly inappropriate outfit for their job.
I love about this movie how it keeps the balance between cool spy stuff (like force fields and special weapons) and fun-loving everyday college students. The paper boy throws a newspaper to an old house's front porch, it's stopped by a force-field shielding the headquarter, and drops slightly burned back on the street. Our heroes are introduced as sleepy college students, who are being yelled at by some drill-instructor dude, who's only a moving image in their hallways picture frames. One girl doesn't find her gun, one breaks up with her boyfriend, everything in the first 4 minutes. And then the first moments in the "evil lair"... The movie has its share of silly gags. :-)
Now you might call me ignorant, but I didn't see the lesbian theme coming... However, when it became obvious, it made lots of sense to me. Much like "Lost and Delirious" (2001), this movie treats same-sex relationships as nothing special, nothing to be proud of, nothing to be ashamed of, simply just as another way of people falling in love. It simply doesn't matter. (Ok, if your moral convictions allow for "true love" only in wedlock, if at all, you might find this love story objectionable.)
For my part, I had lots of fun watching this movie. I enjoyed the cool high-tech gadgets, the countless funny references to super-hero and spy movies, the funny plot, and of course all the beautiful women in a heart-warming love story with an happy end. I just felt a bit sorry for Bobby, who was dumped by Amy and had no chance of winning her back.