Everyone knows that bio-terror is really a good subject for a wacky slapstick comedy, so it's astonishing that this one, while fairly campy, isn't much fun. People who are "differently-talented" have made films like Eegah! that are wonderfully entertaining because they're unintentionally funny. Trying to make an intentionally funny film with little talent produces only sadness. Witness Nasty Rabbit (aka Spies-A-Go-Go), a comic Cold War espionage caper. The set up is promising enough: the Soviets plan to destroy the U.S. by releasing a biological weapon somewhere along the Continental Divide, Wyoming, perhaps. Spies from many countries descend on a dude ranch where a Russian spy, disguised as a cowboy, has the 'fernacious'(!) bacteria in a vial tied around a rabbit's neck. Thinking this up clearly exhausted the creativity of the writers (and there are three of them!). Minimal thought goes into the rest of the plot and seemingly none into the dialogue. After the set up, the film starts playing for time and fills an hour with every spy hitting every other in the head. You'll get the picture if you imagine a Three Stooges short dragged out for ninety minutes, and with the Stooges replaced by Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi. No, they would probably be funnier than the lead actors here. The film does have Arch Hall, Jr., (the cabbage-patch Elvis), and Richard Kiel. But don't hope for something as wonderful as Eegah! They do perk up the movie. Kiel appears only briefly and Jr., the titular star, after getting a great build up as a rock-n-roll star-slash-super spy, is woefully underused. And any film that would benefit from more Arch Hall, Jr. really is in bad shape. Still, instead of Arch, the camera focuses on a bunch of unknown, inexperienced and talentless actors as they repeatedly hit each other in the head. I kept wishing the film would cut to the chase and when it did I regretted what I'd wished for. Long after the Soviet Union has gone, this fernacious flick continues to threaten America.
Review of The Nasty Rabbit
