THE MOVIE

In an attempt to undermine the male dominated society, a small group of powerful and influential women hatch a diabolical plan to reclaim the world for women everywhere. Codenamed Project Damocles, their plan involves hijacking and arming a Mir-style orbiting space station to hold the world to ransom. The group use popular cosmetics company Fabulous Face as a front for their dubious dealings and they send the sexy C.E.O. Lisa (Jean HaleJames Coburn). To succeed though the group need military might. As the bumbling and Closeau-eque Lord Cramden (Lee J. Cobb), chief of intelligence organisation Z.O.W.I.E. would never be party to such evil he is drugged, set up and suspended. The group then set out to replace key military and political personnel with clones, getting help from an unknown traitor inside Z.O.W.I.E. (the powerful intelligence office for which Flint works).

With his good friend in disgrace Flint accepts the job to clear Cramden's name and solve the mystery behind this fiendish plot. Always cool and resourceful under pressure, Flint is taken across the world from Russia to The Virgin Islands via Cuba in search of the villains responsible. One of the most bizarre and subsequently funniest moments comes when Flint visits Russia, proving just how comfortable the character is in his staunch and pervasive heterosexuality.

The first rule of the sequel is liberally applied here. There are more women, more dead henchmen and more over the top Flint escapades than ever before. If Our Man Flint was a parody or spoof, then this is a farcical spoof. The character of Flint has been even further mythologised in this instalment and this film is more ambitious with a few more action set pieces. Coburn feels more at home in the character this time out and on the whole the characters seem more at ease together this time.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

The feature is presented in 2.35: 1 Anamorphic Widescreen. The video quality is similar to the first film Our Man Flint (read the review here)
. The film is 35 years old this year and yet it holds up remarkably well all things considered. The transfer does suffer some considerable telecine wobble during Cramden's dinner and in a few key scenes in the chief's office. These are unusual to see and can become a little distracting.

I believe the shaky camera technique used during the plane sequences is not telecine wobble, although it is similarly frustrating. The age of the film shows more at these times than anywhere else. The print this was taken from appears to have been cleaned up considerably. At several points during the film, stock footage of rocket launches that is of significantly lesser quality than the film.

When the film begins there are less brash colours. From the Moscow sequence onwards, there is almost and explosion of colour. The use of red in Moscow works on many levels, not least of which is to illustrate the ample colour saturation when needed. There are very occasional dirt and flecks during Flint's incursion to Fantastic Face, the only time it became really noticeable. The lighting is very deliberate, with some nice examples on some of the more romantic scenes.

Old films can be prone to being ultra clean and sometimes end up with and unreal look, much too clean with the film look removed. That’s not the case here. This is still comfortably filmic, with an overall slightly grainy feel.

Audio:

The first audio selection is a 448 kbps Dolby Digital 5.0 English soundtrack. Instead of the Mono masquerading as Stereo in the first film, here it seems it's Mono masquerading at 5 channel Surround. The track lacks depth and punch, but gets the job done as needed. There are no surround or Low Frequency Effects in this mix. On a positive note, there are no pops, clicks or dropouts to speak of either.

Secondly there is a 192kbps French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. It is a slightly better dub than the original, but the subtitle track is just as condensed. A minor niggle with the French dialogue track is that it sounds a little rushed, but that's probably due to French not being quite as concise as English.

Returning also is composer Jerry Goldsmith, who as well as arranging an eclectic score which captures the mood well, also penned the theme song, Your Yowie Face. The theme is appropriately tongue-in-cheek with several references to the film itself. The music in the soundtrack is heavily infused with a bossa nova flavour, with lots of organs used to create a mellow ambience and a more relaxed pace. Overall the soundtrack is sounds slightly more dynamic than the original.

THE EXTRAS

The menus used here are identical to the first movie, creating a theme in the short series. The single additional feature is a minute-long Theatrical Trailer. It is presented in 192kbpsDolby Digital 2.0 and unrestored Widescreen and sets up the extraordinary talents of everybody’s favourite secret agent.
This disc also has English, English for the Hearing Impaired and French subtitle tracks. The English is fairly accurate, the track for the hearing impaired is almost verbatim and the French seems condensed as far as I could tell.

SUMMARY

The movie is one of the better sequels around. It isn't quite Superman II or Godfather II, but it has a strong sense of the first film, without compromising the themes and feel of the characters or situations. A few flaws in the video presentation don't stop this from being a fun and worthwhile outing. The audio was an unusual arrangement, but it was comparatively better than the original. This disc is as light on extras as the original. Overall, In Like Flint is a perfect accompaniment to the Our Man Flint Disc. A Derek Flint double bill will quench even the most fervent fans appetite.