The only notable borrowings from the Cosby-Culp TV series of the late Sixties are the title and the color combination: Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson. (Too late now, though, to boast of any pushing back or knocking down of racial barriers.) And perhaps also, if you insist, the broad genre -- although a stickler for accuracy might protest that the TV show stopped short of spoof and miles from slapstick. Irritating as the patty-cake repartee of Cosby and Culp could sometimes be, the hammer-and-tongs discord of Murphy and Wilson is downright painful. The two are no longer buddies, and only ad hoc partners; the black one is no longer a professional spy, let alone a masquerading tennis player, but a full-time horn-tooting prizefighter who refers to himself by proper name and current ring record (57-0); the white one is no longer a master of his trade but the departmental bumbler and backstabber. ("Attitude Meets Espionage," is the ad line meant to entice you.) The mission they are on -- the black-market auction in Uzbekistan of a stolen stealth bomber, or more to the point an "undetectable nuclear delivery system" -- is played strictly for belly laughs, even down to the topical references (e.g., "evildoers" as the accepted term for enemies of the United States). What it exclusively earns, on the other hand, are gastrointestinal groans. Famke Janssen, Malcolm McDowell; directed by Betty Thomas. (2002) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.