Boris & Natasha

Stars: Sally Kellerman (M.A.S.H., Back to School), Dave Thomas (Stripes, Strange Brew, TV's "SCTV"), Andrea Martin (TV's "SCTV"). Shelved when producer/distributor M.C.E.G. dissolved, this direct-to-video release is based on characters Jay Ward created for his legendary The Rocky and Bullwinkle show. Boris (Thomas) and Natasha (Kellerman) are a pair of bumbling spies from the fictitious behind-the-Iron-Curtain country of Pottsylvania. In this extended episode they are sent to America in search of a professor who has invented a microchip which reverses time. From the laughless opening which features the duo on a motorcycle with a sidecar running through one vegetable stand after another (how original), to the finale, the tone of Boris & Natasha is desperate. It desperately wants to be funny, but it just isn't. Two items of note: 1) there are a few cameos sprinkled throughout the film--John Candy, Jose Eber, John Travolta, and director Charles Martin Smith (star of Never Cry Wolf); and 2) the theme song "It's Good to be Bad," is sung by Sally Kellerman, whose raspy vocals are a surprisingly good cross between those of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner. Audience: As part of Academy's "Story Line" series, the film is aimed at families. However, there is a fair amount of cartoon-style violence (for instance, following John Candy's cameo, a bomb explodes splitting him into a trillion pieces).