Review of The Helicopter Spies

Enters so bad it's good on so many levels, this seventh entry of The Man From U.N.C.L.E series would have benefited a huge deal from a bigger budget. The plot is far superior and yet simpler to most of the previous films, with Bradford Dillman's arch criminal after the deadliest weapons on the planet in order for his religious cult, "The Third Way", to take over the world via a train robbery. The final fight is also reminiscent of 1962's Doctor No. Other than that, the rest of the film relies on the same old formula of Robert Vaughn's coolness, David McCallum's bravery, a beautiful girl (Carol Lynley delivers the goods and gives a bubbly performance) and a badass secondary villain, this time in the form of John Dehner's power-crazed Doctor - he had huge shoes to fill after Curd Jürgens' awesomeness in The Karate Killers, which was the sole reason why that particular film was just about half-decent. But of course, like the whole of this series, you have to take this film with a huge pinch of salt and your tongue firmly in your cheek. It's technically a monstrosity and yet complete and utter fun.