May

20

Spy crap flick of the month: Fathom

May 20, 2007 |

fathom4.gifFathom is another in a cluster of cringeworthy star vehicle spy flicks that seem to have been spawned by the success of the early James Bond movies. This time, we got Raquel Welch as skydiver Fathom Harvill, recruited as a secret agent to recover a stolen nuke or something…

 racquel welch fathomI can’t be bothered to figure out the details. Perhaps at the time this was a lot more watchable– and of course Raquel is always watchable. And it avoids the ludicrosity of, say, Dean Martin’s Matt Helm work. But the clunk-and-grind dialogue (courtesy of Lorenzo Semple Jr., who was “script consultant” on the old Adam West Batman series) and delivery make my teeth grind.

To my eye, it can’t make up its mind from moment to moment whether it’s a spoof or not, except when a bizarre Ernst Blofeld-knockoff makes his appearance. Its tongue needs to be more firmly planted in its cheek for this movie to work as well as it should. It’s definitely a period piece, though… if you like this kind of thing, it’s not as bad as most.

Cheese of choice: Queso Blanco in honor of Raquel’s semi-hidden Latina heritage.


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