Editorial Review

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• HiFi Sound
• NTSC

Reviews (7)

The name is Bashir . . . Julian Bashir . . .
I know, I know, "Our Man Bashir" is yet ANOTHER Star Trek episode where the holodeck program goes wrong, but take my word for it, this is a fun one.Dr. Bashir is having fun playing a James Bond type spy during the Cold War on Earth, hanging out with a buxom valet and having fun.Meanwhile, Sisko, Kira, Dax, Worf and O'Brien (essentially everybody else) are on a runabout coming back from a conference.The runabout is sabotaged and the group is beamed off right before the explosion so they end up trapped in the pattern buffer.The computer stores their patterns in all available memory, which is how they all end up in Bashir's program, but WITHOUT their neural energy.So Bashir's little game suddenly turns deadly serious as he must keep them alive or else their patterns will be lost forever.Yes, it is a bit contrived, but it still great fun.Especially since Bashir keeps trying to stay in "character" during it all.Plus, you have to love all the Bond jokes (e.g., Sisko as "Dr. Noah" and Dax as "Professor Honey Bare")."Our Man Bashir" is another of those fun episodes that lets the cast relax while waiting for the Dominion hordes to come pouring through the wormhole and make life on DS9 really interesting.

Our Show DS9
Star Trek has had its share of holodeck episodes. At times this has been tiresome and formulaic, but I think this is probably the best holodeck episode ever produced. If you like the spy genre, you'll love it that much more. Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell and Michael Dorn take turns as characters in a James Bond-esque fantasy realm. Brooks is electrifying, you mostly forget he's Sisko. The interaction between Garak and Bashir adds to the fun, especially with Garak making wry comments like "Kiss the girl, get the key. They didn't teach us that in the Obsidian order." Buy it, you'll watch it a thousand times. I know I have.

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned

Reviews (7)

What were you expecting??
If you are looking for a 'Genius' movie here, it's like looking for a humpback whale in a swimming pool... This movie is a modest, campy fun flick. Not too great, some jokes do fall flat, but overall I liked most of the jokes, and the visuals aren't bad either.

Comedy soft porn at its best!
I rented this on video a few years ago with a group of friends, incorrectly titled "Sex Detective", and have been searching for it again ever since.I suspected "Sex Detective" was not the real name of the film, as it's about a spy, not a detective, but my search was fruitless - until today!I shall be ordering this film on DVD forthwith; it really is very funny and great to watch with a group of mates. The sex scenes are quite soft, but much better and more convincing than in a lot of comedy porn such as those Seduction Company ones.As a Bond spoof it's great; classic scenes include the one in which Rod fights a duel in a brothel using a pair of vibrators which are crossed on the wall, and the scene in which Q gives him a selection of low budget gadgets because his department is running out of money.Quality!

Rod Steele DVD suffers from stolen widescreen
Yes, Bob Donovan does a cool Bond accent, but I'm still waiting for the proper DVD version of this film to appear. All we have now is a cheap pan-and-scan copy with the director's commentary drowned out by the loud audio of the main feature.

It ends up like a fuzzy version of some late-night Cinemax thing from the 1980s, borrowing heavily from the spy caper humor of the old 1960s Ted Mark paperback series.

Ironically, they also put out an unrated version, but they again went and butchered the picture in half, from widescreen down to standard screen. (Although I haven't heard if the audio on the director's commentary is similarly ruined on this version.)

I thought this naughty little gem deserved much better DVD treatment than this, especially since it wouldn't have cost much more to provide it.

The movie was originally shot in widescreen, so it could easily be reproduced as such. And it's simple enough to turn down the volume on audio track one, allowing you to hear audio track two. So why didn't they?

Features

• Color

Reviews (5)

unwatchable
When this DVD arrived home, I expected quality for the price.It's not that the plot was bad - it's not.Rather, it's a bumbling comedy and actually quite amusing in a clumsy Austin Powers set in Rome vs. Great Britain sort of way - if one could see the picture!As soon as the credits rolled, snap, crackle, pop! All scenes in mottled gray midnight. This looks dubbed from a VHS cassette that was overplayed.I could still see lines in the picture.This was made in someone's basement maybe.I don't know.The image will shimmy, shake, flutter and flicker and the audio is muffled.The film ran a little over one hour, forty minutes of which gave me a migraine.I returned this DVD and found a restored copy via Troma company and guess what?The picture was restored, the audio clear as a bell and about 30 minutes of deleted scenes!Now this movie makes sense.It's a silly romp, for Hoffman fans it's a neat flick to own.But, Passion Productionswanted a fast profit without working to bring this movie up to 2005 DVD standards.I can't believe it was even sold for this price.

Huh?
I found the exact same edition of this DVD brand new at a discount store for $3. When I got it home, the video was terrible, and there was no audio. The recording quality is the worst I have ever seen, and there are NO extras. Even the film description on the box is full of typos, spelling errors and incorrect grammar. There was not even a paper insert in the DVD case. This looks like a DVD someone made in their garage...and they want $25 for it? I have seen this film before, and while not remarkable it is enjoyable for Hoffman fans. That having been said, I suggest you wait until they re-release in in watchable form!