The bottom of the barrel for the Dino/Matt Helm series. Everything about this movie is terrible for a light entertainment. Dino seems completely disengaged, his comedy timing is way off. The special effects are almost non existent with action scenes filmed against process screens, and a phony flying saucer that wouldn't cut the mustard in a Flash Gordon serial.
The usual cast of bimbos seems mighty second rate in The Ambushers. Senta Burger is made up and coiffed in such a way that she is practically emitting light like a neon sign. She wears a weird almost day glow lipstick that is hard to take your eyes off of even though you try. Janice Rule is Dino's female lead and she seems to be taking this film seriously or more like she has wandered in from another movie and didn't realize this was a big unfunny joke. At least Rule is a lot more age appropriate for the middle aged Dino than some of the other women Martin hits on in these movies.
If The Ambushers has any redeeming features, I suppose it's the tacky sets and late 1960's fashions particularly the women's fashions that female cast has to wear. The clothes certainly make some kind of statement about what middle aged male filmmakers though looked hot and sexy on women when this movie was made.
Finally, this film has shall we say a rather sexist attitude towards women. Nobody expects a Matt Helm movie to be an enlightened character building experience for women that appear in it, but The Ambushers is even worse than usual when it comes to this leering slobbering attitude towards all of it's female cast.
Bottom line, nobody tried very hard on this one.
102 minutes.
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