Still Amusing After All These Years
I have fond memories of this movie as a kid. As an adult, I can readily see it’s flaws as it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The entire movie is a family friendly and lighthearted comedy.
The plot itself is a rather interesting take. Instead of a superhero with real superpowers, it’s about a goofy and clumsy comic book writer Woody Wilkins (Michael Crawford) who is fiercely determined to 'write well' about his greatest creation, the comic book character “CondorMan”. To that end, he goes through extreme measures to ensure that his characters never do anything that cannot be accomplished in real life such as dressing up in his hero’s flying suit and jumping off a building to see if it will actually work. The storyline is a bit weak here and there, particularly where this unlikely hero gets involved in escorting a beautiful Russian spy who wants to defect.
Amazingly enough, the CIA is so desperate to arrange this defection, that they agree to put their super-scientific know-how and resources to actually creating a bunch of Woody’s wilder ideas to real life from the 'Condor Mobile' and a retooled 'Condor Suit'. But the plot isn’t the strong suit, it’s not really about realism but rather absurdism which this movie has in spades.
Overall, the characters weren’t playing Shakespeare. They are a bit cartoonish but they’re supposed to be as this is mainly for kids. As far as special effects, if you’re sharp eyed enough, you can spot some of the more obvious wires and stuff but considering this was made in the early 1980s, I think it was one of the better special effect films for this era.
Condorman is a G-Rated version of James Bond; it’s good vs. evil, the beautiful young woman falling for the good hearted klutz over the bad guy, and they live happily ever after. I fear that most children today would find this movie far too boring and old fashioned with it’s archaic special effects but if you lived during the 1980’s era of movies, then you’ll find it moderately entertaining and a mindless enough show for an hour and a half.
RATING: 2 STARS.