Slacker high school student Michael Corben (Richard Grieco) is ready to celebrate his graduation from high school, only to find out on the day of graduation he is missing a French credit leaving his graduation status incomplete due to his partying and dating distracting him from the class. As a last ditch effort, Michael Corben signs up for a class trip to France to fulfill the missing unit but a case of mistaken identity with a CIA agent (David McIlwraith) also operating under the alias Michael Corben leads the real Michael into the world of high end espionage involving the insidious leader of the European Economic Community Augustus Steranko (Roger Rees) who has a plan to take over all of Europe.
If Looks Could Kill began development in 1986 under the title Teen Agent as a vehicle for Brat Packer Anthony Michael Hall with the film mixing the approach of contemporary teen films of the John Hughes mold with that of the James Bond formula. While the film was initially setup at Tristar Pictures with shooting slated to begin, a change in management at the studio resulting in Tristar dropping the film and putting it into turnaround. Eventually the film was picked up by Warner Bros. In 1989 thanks largely to producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan who had kept the project alive. As Anthony Michael Hall had been aged out of the part in the intervening years, the film was retooled as a vehicle for up and coming actor Richard Grieco who'd come to prominence in the Fox series 21 Jump Street playing recurring character Detective Booker which lead to the one season spin-off booker. Upon release critics panned the film (with a few exceptions such as Roger Ebert) and the movie was given a very quiet release as Silence of the Lambs was dominating the box office and opened in 11th place before being pulled from theaters after two weeks. From a marketing standpoint the film couldn't have come out at a worse time as teen films of the Hughes mold had waned in popularity as had the James Bond series with the underperformance of License to Kill leading to a slump in that series until 1995. It really is a shame the movie didn't do better because I honestly think it's a decent action-comedy.
When the movie first began I wasn't all that impressed with what I saw as I didn't immediately warm to Grieco's character, but the more the movie established itself with this strange mixture of Ferris Bueller by way of James Bond setup I found myself getting more and more engaged with the ridiculousness of the film. The movie's usage of the tropes and trappings of the bond formula does a surprisingly good job of incorporating them within the confines of a teen film as both genres can often be used for high concept fantasy and the fact that the spy elements are treated with actual stakes and threats creates a nice sense of comic contrast with the care free demeanor of Grieco's Michael character. The film features all the standards of the Bond formula be it with over the top gadgets, silent henchman with lethal quirks, or femme fatales with sexually suggestive names and Grieco does a nice job of playing off against these tropes and does score some laughs as an "in over his head" type protagonist. Like many action comedies the last stretch of the movie does maybe sacrifice a bit more of the comedy than it should for the action, and while Roger Rees carries the part of a super spy villain in Steranko, his plan involving the European Economic Community somehow enabling him control over Europe is non-sensical even by the forgiving standards of superspy tropes. If I had to guess I'd say the original script was probably more heavily entrenched in cold war themes of the 80s that had to be dropped with the thaw in Soviet relations that came about with the 90s (hence why Bond was in hibernation).
If Looks Could Kill isn't some overlooked comedic masterpiece, but for the mashup of James Bond and John Hughes teen comedy it set out to be it does its job as fun escapist fantasy at a quick pace. Had the movie been released in the 80s as intended it might've done better, but it's a decent comedy that deserves to be viewed for what it is.
If Looks Could Kill began development in 1986 under the title Teen Agent as a vehicle for Brat Packer Anthony Michael Hall with the film mixing the approach of contemporary teen films of the John Hughes mold with that of the James Bond formula. While the film was initially setup at Tristar Pictures with shooting slated to begin, a change in management at the studio resulting in Tristar dropping the film and putting it into turnaround. Eventually the film was picked up by Warner Bros. In 1989 thanks largely to producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan who had kept the project alive. As Anthony Michael Hall had been aged out of the part in the intervening years, the film was retooled as a vehicle for up and coming actor Richard Grieco who'd come to prominence in the Fox series 21 Jump Street playing recurring character Detective Booker which lead to the one season spin-off booker. Upon release critics panned the film (with a few exceptions such as Roger Ebert) and the movie was given a very quiet release as Silence of the Lambs was dominating the box office and opened in 11th place before being pulled from theaters after two weeks. From a marketing standpoint the film couldn't have come out at a worse time as teen films of the Hughes mold had waned in popularity as had the James Bond series with the underperformance of License to Kill leading to a slump in that series until 1995. It really is a shame the movie didn't do better because I honestly think it's a decent action-comedy.
When the movie first began I wasn't all that impressed with what I saw as I didn't immediately warm to Grieco's character, but the more the movie established itself with this strange mixture of Ferris Bueller by way of James Bond setup I found myself getting more and more engaged with the ridiculousness of the film. The movie's usage of the tropes and trappings of the bond formula does a surprisingly good job of incorporating them within the confines of a teen film as both genres can often be used for high concept fantasy and the fact that the spy elements are treated with actual stakes and threats creates a nice sense of comic contrast with the care free demeanor of Grieco's Michael character. The film features all the standards of the Bond formula be it with over the top gadgets, silent henchman with lethal quirks, or femme fatales with sexually suggestive names and Grieco does a nice job of playing off against these tropes and does score some laughs as an "in over his head" type protagonist. Like many action comedies the last stretch of the movie does maybe sacrifice a bit more of the comedy than it should for the action, and while Roger Rees carries the part of a super spy villain in Steranko, his plan involving the European Economic Community somehow enabling him control over Europe is non-sensical even by the forgiving standards of superspy tropes. If I had to guess I'd say the original script was probably more heavily entrenched in cold war themes of the 80s that had to be dropped with the thaw in Soviet relations that came about with the 90s (hence why Bond was in hibernation).
If Looks Could Kill isn't some overlooked comedic masterpiece, but for the mashup of James Bond and John Hughes teen comedy it set out to be it does its job as fun escapist fantasy at a quick pace. Had the movie been released in the 80s as intended it might've done better, but it's a decent comedy that deserves to be viewed for what it is.