63 - O.K. Connery (Operation Kid Brother)

Connection To FOR Y'UR HEIGHT ONLY - These are both inspired by/rip-offing/parodying James Bond.

The name's Connery... Neil Connery... I think it's quite apt Neil Connery stars in the movie because it almost feels like a James Bond movie but not quite, like a knock-off toy where you can see enough resemblance you could get fooled by it from a distance.

Neil Connery is the younger brother of Sean, and wasn't an actor, I mean that in the way that he had no such plans to follow into the field like his brother, he seemed to be in the plastering business before an opportune producer - Dario Sabotello - saw him and saw that he resembled his brother enough - and thus was born the eurospy movie O.K. Connery (or Operation Kid Brother) which actually brought along 2 James Bond regulars Bernard Lee (M in the Bond movies) and Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny) as well Daniela Blanchi (From Russia With Love), Adolf Celli (Thunderball) and Anthony Dawson (Dr. No/From Russia With Love), you see what I mean by those resemblances?

Neil Connery (which is the name of the character he plays) is in this film the brother of an important agent and makes little references here and there to who it possibly could be, his skills are not really as a secret agent but rather as a hypnotist but he is good at archery and kung fu. Thankfully the hypnotist scenes are to get information and there is never a icky scene where he seduces a woman into bed because of it.

The film has a pretty good Bond-soundalike score, Ennio Morricone was one of the films composers (along with Bruno Nicolai) and is one of my favourites of all time so I am biased.

Then there is a bunch of showgirls fighting a bunch of soldiers and winning and then turning the truck into something really called - The Wild Pussy Truck - it's a short scene but I loved it/ It was also fun seeing some of the Bond alumni in this, Maxwell gets more to do then she ever did in the Bond films, while Lee as Commander Cunningham might as well have been called M, but he too pops up more then he did in the Bond films.

Overall I found it an enjoyable movie. I think it's because of how much I enjoy Bond movies that it was fun seeing a film have such bare cheek of using the successful name of that franchise for it's own gain, not a good film by any stretch of the imagination though.

62 - For Y'ur Height Only

Connection To DISASTER MOVIE - humour me on this one, Disaster Movie features a little version of Indiana Jones, whilst this movie is a take on James Bond with a tiny person, I think it's a good enough connection.

I don't think until now I have actually seen any Philippines cinema, I've seen plenty much of Asian cinema and I've seen plenty of stuff that was filmed in the country (an impressive amount of cool stuff) - For Y'ur Height Only (aka Agent 00) is perhaps one of the most infamous to come from that country thanks to featuring a diminutive star - Weng Weng.

Weng Weng is the shortest action star in the history of cinema (lead role at least) and that lies the appeal, because he really isn't half bad at martial arts considering, though him doing the martial arts are some of the least appealing things of the movie because they can get repetitive but are still worth watching.

The bad guy is called Mr. Giant who you would believe is really tall, but he's not he's dwarf (while Weng is a midget) - Mr. Giant's plan of using something called the N Bomb is never really gone into, I guess we just have to believe it's bad.

The similarities to Bond including the very opening, the gadgets that will come into play later and the seduction of women (the scene in question is not very erotic). The film's most entertaining scene for me is after leaving his bosses office I was expecting a bit of Bond/Moneypenny flirting but instead we got him putting on x-ray glasses and looking at the secretaries nude (we see nothing) then him putting his hand to his face like an embarrassed schoolboy. Another memorable bit is Agent 00 using a tiny jet pack which just looked incredibly awesome in my eyes.

I've got to say the dubbing is done with so little enthusiasm that it comes across as a film where everybody is lacking any sort of chemistry with each other.

Overall such a fun (puts on shades) little movie (sorry), it knows it's all a bit silly so has fun with it's scenes and it was a very enjoyable experience for me.