The Secret Weapon

I was prompted to write this review because the only other one currently says that this movie outdoes all Hollywood movies for sex and violence. That's just ridiculous. No matter whether you are on YouTube, Amazon Prime or Tubi (the last one seems to have the longest running length and the best English captioning), this film is only rated TV-14 or 16+. In other words, there is no nudity, and the violence is pretty typical for a film of this type. As far as sex goes, you see one brief shot of a naked back (and nothing else), outfits that are like a bra or bikini, a fully clothed a female on female kiss and a scene that mentions a handjob but shows nothing other than an unrealistic prop inside of baggy pants. Violence has one prop of a dismemberment and standard gun-and-knifeplay. This is all fairly tame. One of the villains even shows how bad he is by drinking milk at a nightclub. Yeah. The good? Well, the thing that stands out to me are the settings. We have a dark warehouse, a nightclub full of glitter and lights, an operations center and the stage of a theatre with masks and costumes, among others. It's visually interesting. The plot starts out fairly slow, with a ludicrous introduction that doesn't seem to recognize that it's a parody of bad espionage film tropes, including a bomb in a teddy bear that has no reason to be there. I'm kind of torn on the rest of it. The star is likable. She first got her start in My Sex Doll Bodyguard, another film that teased her body but showed nothing. I think that was better because it was more of a lighthearted comedy. This film seems too serious, like it was trying too hard for how ultimately shallow it is. But I might have just not gotten it, I don't know.