62
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldSeattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldThe real joy here is the performance of Jean Dujardin, who, besides being very funny as the Gallic Maxwell Smart, is also enormously charismatic and is made to look uncannily (and I do mean uncannily) like the young Sean Connery of "Dr. No" and "Goldfinger."
- 75TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghA huge hit in France, Michel Hazanavicius' straight-faced spy spoof unleashes a French operative of incomparable incompetence on the volatile Middle East of 1955.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSan Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoA giddy French comedy.
- 70VarietyLisa NesselsonVarietyLisa NesselsonA spy spoof that -- rarity of rarities -- represents a remake actually worth making. Current comic fave Jean Dujardin plays title character OSS 117 as a kind of James Bond crossed with Maxwell Smart.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceA frequently uproarious send-up of Jean Bruce's long-running series of spy novels.
- Light and fun, if also a little slight, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies is like a pleasant sorbet to wash away the aftertaste of the pre-summer clunkers.
- 70SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirDirector Michel Hazanavicius captures the jet-age atmosphere, form-fitting wardrobes, jazz-ethnic soundtrack and bouffant hairdos of JFK/de Gaulle-era espionage films in perfect detail, but it's Dujardin's performance as the suave, confident and utterly clueless Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (to Francophones, a name that drips with phony aristocratic pretension) that gives "OSS 117" its edge.
- 63PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyIt hardly adds up to much, but it doesn't mean to, and it'll leave you with a cleaner conscience than an Austin Powers picture.
- 50The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottNot that Cairo, Nest of Spies is meant to be a thriller, but even as a self-consciously anachronistic knockabout farce it rarely rises to the level of wit, either verbal or physical.
- 25New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoLet the French stick to love stories and leave stupid comedies to Tinseltown.