This second OSS 117 is actually some kind of remake of “Furia A Bahia Pour OSS 117” made in the sixties with Frederick Stafford.But the stories are different ,only the location is the same.André Hunebelle’s work was entertaining ,but Hazanavicius’s beats him hands down.Like the first film ,nothing is to be taken seriously and that’s fine with me,particularly with an actor as funny as Jean Dujardin.
A spoof on spy thrillers which does not spare anybody from James Bond to the Nazis to the CIA ,with a lot of hilarious lines .In spite of occasional parts which drag on (the chase in the hospital) ,there’s almost never a dull moment in “Rio Ne Repond Plus” (the title ,like in many spy thrillers ,bears no real relation with the plot!) Allusions to James Bond and Hitchcock abound.His Jewish colleagues call him ” double one seven” .Bill Trumendous (what a name!) is some kind of Felix Leiter (Ken Samuels ) ,roaring with laughter (“That Hubert!he was a born joker!”)and cracking bad jokes .The ending combines “Vertigo” and “North By Norwest” ;the “I’ve got a screw loose because of something which happened in my past” trick was much better applied on “Le Caire Nid D’Espion” though :the circus is not that convincing.The split screen was a famous gimmick in the second half of the sixties (“the Thomas Crown Affair” ” the Boston strangler” ) and it is used with good results ,notably in the scene of the phone calls.
The action takes place in the sixties hippie times ,but OSS has still got the mind of a man of the fifties .Completely uneducated ,he substitutes a macho attitude and an obsolete moral (“he may be a Nazi,but he is still your father !honor thy father!”) for his total incompetence.He may be stupid but he is not malicious when he asks his (female) colleague what the Jews have against the Nazis.It’s not sure he knows what he is taking about when he replies ” Ah !concentration camps!what a carry-on!” Jean Dujardin shines in this part of the dumb spy and the last scene about China with puns galore -which Sacha Guitry might have loved- may suggest a third episode in this country (Didn’t they fight against the Americans in WW2?/ Those were the Japanese/I see ,the Japanese Chinese.)
