Simply A Masterpiece

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This little-known movie (with some famous people in its cast) holds few surprises: its main plot "secret" is given away so early that you wonder why the script keeps treating it as a secret (Saul Rubinek's character has a death mark on his forehead from his very first scene!). And Robert Mitchum is well-cast, but looks bored! The premise in interesting, but it is not used to its full potential. Still, there is at least one smart escape by Lee Majors, the film does have a sense of humor, and it is never less than watchable. Good luck finding a decent print though - mine was from Mill Creek and looked like a transfer from a damaged VHS tape, plus it bleeped out SOME of the four-letter words! **1/2 out of 4.

It's something along the lines of "The Parallax View" but much more light hearted. The staff of a large advertising agency in the well-known American city of Montreal, Canada, do a good deal of walking around in a colossal tall glass tower of a building, amid so many such towers. And why not? The cubicles and offices are heated. Outside, they have to cope with the deep freeze of a northern winter. I always wondered how the Iroquois managed to survive.Anyway, a trimly bearded Lee Majors and his sidekick, Saul Rubinek, are trying to adjust to the new ownership of the agency, headed now by the millionaire Robert Mitchum. He wears a dark, three-piece business suit and his hair is finely coiffed down to the last millimeter, an appealing curl drops negligently across his forehead. Okay. Canadians are known to dress more carefully than Americans, but with Mitchum, I just don't know.The plot has the new owners planting subliminal ads in their television commercial for Chocolate Planet, a new kind of cocoa. And it works too, however implausible that seems. They manage to get a Nazi elected senator from Arizona, and Mitchum plans to embed these messages in ads designed for children's products too, capturing the minds of the next generation and, ultimately, putting the right kind of man into the White House -- one that will provide the desperately needed "leadership" that Mitchum describes.There are a couple of murders along the way, as Majors and his girl friend, Valerie Perrine, try to figure out what's up and steal the evidence. Rubinek, for instance, winds up frozen in a grotesque position inside a refrigerator. But nobody grieves much. The pace is too fast and the wisecracks can't wait. Some of the wisecracks are pretty enjoyable. A security guard is mugged and gets a syringe full of some sort of barbiturate that knocks him out. He protests to the police: "They stuck a needle in my ass! What was I supposed to do?" The detective replies: "Turn the other cheek." I must have seen this years ago because I remembered one scene. Near the beginning, Rubinek rushes into Majors' office, a nervous wreck, and begins explaining that he's just discovered that something secret is taking place within the ad agency. Majors believes none of it and sits behind his desk, resigned and bored. During his rant, Rubinek remarks that Majors' office plant has mealy bugs. Majors leaps to his feet in alarm and says, "MEALY bugs! What are mealy bugs?" It has the production values of a TV movie, several reasonably executed action scenes that lack logic, and a villain who dresses in a black leather coat and black fedora, like some kind of Gestapo. It's a good part for Lee Majors because little is demanded of him except that he be likable, and Mitchum puts little effort into a stock part. It's no more than diverting, and the script has its occasional bright spot.

As I say in the summary, I had a hard time understanding the casting in this one. As for Lee Majors, he was no longer the "Six Million Dollar Man" and he was most likely desperate for work. And, Vallerie Perrine was an almost star several times...almost. But appearances in this film and turkey's like "Can't Stop the Music" have made her a C-list star--so her being in this low-budget Canadian film isn't a surprise. But, how did they ever get the respected mega-star Robert Mitchum to appear in this one? Was Mitchum broke? Were job offers scarce? Was he willing to do almost anything to appear on film? Did the filmmakers use blackmail or extortion to get him to sign on to this project?" All I do know for sure is that I was shocked to see him in this.Now I am not automatically assuming "Agency" is a terrible film--but it certainly is low budget and is distributed now on DVD by Alpha Video (a company which seems to only release films in the public domain or with very, very low costs to obtain). Is it a buried treasure or should Alpha have left this one in some basement where it can further degrade and yellow (and, incidentally, the print is just terrible)? In addition to the three stars, the film also features a very young Saul Rubinek. While you won't likely recognize his name, he later gained some fame on "Deep Space 9" and "Frasier" as recurring characters and has appeared in a huge number of TV shows over the years. He's a very good actor--but that hair!! You have just got to see his huge 1980-style hairdo--it's a definite DON'T! Lee Majors works for an advertising agency. He's moving up in the company and seems pretty happy. However, when his friend comes to him with some paranoid rant, Majors tells him he'll talk to him later--but the man is murdered before they can talk. Majors is able to piece together that something EVIL is afoot at the agency--but what?! Well, it all boils down to a plan to use subliminal messages to control people like a flock of sheep.The plot involves something very timely for 1980 but which has been completely discredited. With the publication of "Subliminal Seduction" in 1974 and "The Clam-Plate Orgy and Other Subliminals the Media Use to Manipulate Your Behavior" (also by the same author), there was a bit of talk about advertising's ability to subconsciously control our minds--making us slaves to the clever advertiser's whims. Well, it made for an exciting book...though none of it turned out to have the least real effect on folks' behaviors. So, while some agencies did experiment with hidden images to make us buy something, research into the topic never panned out--and today you'll have a hard time finding any reputable professional who would believe in it. BUT, in 1980, it was still a rather hot topic--and quite timely. So, despite the plot being scientifically ridiculous, it didn't seem so at the time...or at least not quite as silly.So is it any good? Well, putting aside the impossibility of the plot, you've got a real mixed bag. The film is, at times, tense and interesting but in the end it's all rather clichéd and silly. I particularly laughed at the James Bond-like moment at the end where the baddie told his plan to the hero before killing him! In real life, a bullet in the head and then, maybe, an explanation!!

Catch the first few minutes of this movie when it plays on the late show (probably the only place you'll find it) - the opening bit, a commercial for NO SWEAT deodorant, is one of the most unintentionally funny things you'll ever see. Imagine a cross between Dante's Inferno with disco inferno, with people dressed in costumes that look like they are from an S&M shop.The rest of the movie? Sadly, it doesn't measure up to that. Though there are a few unintentionally funny moments (such as when Lee Majors' character near the end of the movie discovers the secret - which we've LONG deducted before him!), the rest of the movie is pretty much a slow slog, with many contrived scenes or scenes that really aren't needed there. Saul Rubinek provides the better moments, though he isn't in much of the movie."Roll it on or spray (spray)....Roll it on or spray (spray)....Roll it on or spray.....or there'll be the devil to pay!.....No Sweat, No Sweat....NO SWEAT NO SWEAT!"