The Agency

A mysterious millionaire buys an ad agency and begins to replace its employees with his own people, who don't appear to be advertising types at all. A copywriter begins to suspect that the man isn't interested in selling products, as much as he is in inserting his own sinister political beliefs into the commercials the agency runs on television in order to subliminally brainwash an unsuspecting public into supporting the causes and candidates he wants. When the copywriter confides his suspicions to a friend and soon afterwards is mysteriously killed, his friend begins his own investigation.

Could have been a really good movie in more capable hands. As it is, it is rather slow and interest wanes mid way.

Robert Mitchum is barely in it. It's really a lee Majors movie. Valerie Perinne had already lost her looks and is not a particilarly good actress.

Catch the first few minutes of this movie when it plays on the late show (probably the only place you'll find it) - the opening bit, a commercial for NO SWEAT deodorant, is one of the most unintentionally funny things you'll ever see. Imagine a cross between Dante's Inferno with disco inferno, with people dressed in costumes that look like they are from an S&M shop.

The rest of the movie? Sadly, it doesn't measure up to that. Though there are a few unintentionally funny moments (such as when Lee Majors' character near the end of the movie discovers the secret - which we've LONG deducted before him!), the rest of the movie is pretty much a slow slog, with many contrived scenes or scenes that really aren't needed there. Saul Rubinek provides the better moments, though he isn't in much of the movie.

"Roll it on or spray (spray)....Roll it on or spray (spray)....Roll it on or spray.....or there'll be the devil to pay!.....No Sweat, No Sweat....NO SWEAT NO SWEAT!"

Silly action yarn about the new boss at an ad agency (Robert Mitchum) who wants to plant subliminal messages in commercials, with political intent. Inoffensive enough, but to call this more than a time-passer would be kind. Music is sometimes too over-the-top for the subject of the shot.

Lee Majors and Saul Rubinek work for the same advertising agency, headed by Robert Mitchum, but all is not as it appears at the office. Saul has a conspiracy theory of subliminal messaging and political tampering through the ads. Lee starts to believe him, and during one scene he shows his sweetie pie Valerie Perrine how they doctor up the print advertisement of an alcohol label to include skull images in the ice cubes. That's the best scene in the movie, because everything else is either boring or typical.

Lots of 1970s movies are pretty bad, and films made in 1980 sometimes bleed into the terrible previous decade. The Agency has that '70s aura to it, like it's a watered down Network, made by a lousy television channel. I'm not trying to be mean, but after seeing thousands and thousands of movies, there's no sense recommending others watch the bad ones.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. the opening scene features an advertisement that takes place in a nightclub with strobe lights and odd camera angles, and it might make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

When people talk about ''crappy Canadian movies" they're referring to movies like Agency. Somebody puts his whole life into writing a script and seeing it through the development process. But the subject matter is something dull - curling, the ad business, Anne of Green Gables. So instead of getting big-time Hollywood funding the movie's producers have to bamboozle Canadian dentists into chipping in as a tax dodge. You end up with a cheaply made movie that wouldn't see the inside of a movie theatre without a terrorist threat, and probably got shown on late-night CBC at least once a year for decades. Lee Majors looked good in that beard, though.