The Secret Agent Club Review

Secret Agent Club, The
Children's comedy about toy store owner Ray Chase (Hulk Hogan), who is really a secret agent for the SHADOW Organisation. Ray steals a secret ray gun from the evil Eve (Lesley-Ann Down), who had intended to sell it to terrorists, but is captured in the process. It then falls to Ray's young son Jeremy (Matthew McCurley) to save his dad by fighting Eve and her army with toys from his father's shop.

by Paul Merrill |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1996

Running Time:

90 minutes

Certificate:

PG

Original Title:

Secret Agent Club, The

On a budget that would barely cover one of Arnie’s cigars, that other body builder-cum-film star Hulk Hogan essentially remakes True Lies, this time with Jamie Lee Curtis replaced by the streetwise antics of a bunch of kids.

The Hulkster stars as a Bond-esque secret agent doing his bit for world peace, while his embarrassed son (McCurley) thinks he’s a bumbling klutz running a toy shop, and whose latest dare devil mission involves relieving a vampish megalomaniac (Down) of a revolutionary laser gun. But no sooner is it in his grasp, than her crazed henchman tracks him down, forcing him to explain to his son that dear old dad’s no dud after all.

Where the film departs from True Lies is that whereas Curtis had precious little function beyond flashing her pins and emitting the odd shriek, here it’s the youngsters who have to do the rescuing when our hero finds himself under lock and key. Naturally, they are the stock Hollywood gung-ho juveniles.

However, unlike Schwarzenegger’s straight-faced efforts, Hogan at least opts for playing with tongue firmly in cheek, parodying his larger-than-life persona, but still looking ill at ease in any scene in which he isn’t called upon to commit an act of violence.

With a little less overacting from the supporting cast, and a touch more imagination, this could have been lowbrow fun. As it is, it’s bland, only occasionally entertaining, nonsense.

Not entirely unsuccessful, but almost.
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