Film

OSS 117: Lost in Rio

A gloriously deadpan spy spoof that sends Jean Dujardin's magnificently vain, magnificently clueless French agent to 1967 Rio, where he bumbles through Nazi hunters, bikinis and Cold War intrigue without ever noticing his own casual awfulness. It's less parody-by-punchline than parody-by-tone: gorgeous period design, straight faces, and a hero too stupid and too handsome to know he's the joke.

TMDb rating7.1

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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery1997

The other great spy-genre spoof built on a beautiful idiot in period clothes, groovy sets and total sincerity about how ridiculous it all is. Same DNA, different accent.

But Broader, sillier, more gag-a-minute than OSS 117's deadpan style — less subtle, more mugging.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery poster

The Pink Panther1963

Inspector Clouseau is OSS 117's spiritual grandfather: supremely confident, catastrophically incompetent, and the last person in any room to realise it. Elegant, silly, timeless.

But Slower paced and gentler than modern spy comedy — a lot of physical farce, not much irony.

The Pink Panther poster

Get Smart2008

A studio comedy about a self-important secret agent whose confidence wildly outpaces his competence, with the same fondness for gadget-era spy tropes played completely straight-faced.

But American and glossier — trades period texture and satire for broader, more conventional action-comedy beats.

Get Smart poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

That Man from Rio1964no page yet

This is the specific film OSS 117: Lost in Rio is parodying almost scene for scene — same city, same era, same breathless derring-do, minus sixty years of hindsight and self-awareness.

Jean-Paul Belmondo sprints through Rio in an actual 1960s French action-comedy so close to OSS 117's plot and setting that it feels like the blueprint being lovingly ransacked.

But No irony, no satire — it's the genuine article, played with total earnestness rather than a wink at the audience.

More like this (8)

Kingsman: The Secret Service2015

A loving, stylish send-up of spy-movie tropes with impeccable tailoring and a wink at every Bond cliché — if you want the genre's fondness lovingly weaponised rather than gently mocked.

But Far more violent and self-serious about its own coolness — less interested in humiliating its hero than OSS 117 is.

Kingsman: The Secret Service poster

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!1988

Leslie Nielsen's oblivious cop delivers the same magic trick — utter disaster played with total sincerity — in rapid-fire gag form. A masterclass in deadpan idiocy.

But Denser with jokes and less concerned with plot or period detail than OSS 117's more sustained satire.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! poster

Johnny English2003no page yet

Rowan Atkinson's bumbling British spy is a close cousin — vain, incompetent, blithely unaware — wrapped around Bond-movie set pieces rather than Eurospy ones.

But Aimed squarely at family audiences, with a softer, more slapstick sensibility than OSS 117's dry period pastiche.

Spy2015

Melissa McCarthy flips the spy-comedy formula — competent hero, ridiculous world around her — with the same commitment to genuine tradecraft glamour undercut by absurdity.

But Foul-mouthed and contemporary where OSS 117 is arch and period-perfect — a very different comic register.

Spy poster

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.2015

If it's the 1960s spy aesthetic you're craving rather than the outright joke — sharp suits, Cold War glamour, tongue firmly in cheek — this nails the mood without full parody.

But Plays it cooler and straighter; the laughs are wry asides rather than the engine of the film.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. poster

Dr. No1962no page yet

The real thing OSS 117 is gently mocking — the first Bond film, all Cold War swagger, exotic locations and effortless masculine cool, utterly unaware it will one day be a punchline.

But Played completely straight — no jokes, no wink, just the original template in all its dated, unbothered glory.

Archer2009

Sterling Archer is Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath's American cartoon twin: same vanity, same obliviousness, same joke of competence collapsing under narcissism — just drawn instead of filmed.

An animated spy comedy built around an impossibly vain, catastrophically self-unaware agent who ruins every mission through sheer ego — OSS 117's exact comic engine, running for over a decade.

But Faster, meaner, and more profane, with serialised office politics that reward watching many seasons rather than one film.

Archer poster

The Battle of Algiers1966

OSS 117's joke is his cheerful blindness to French colonialism and racism; this film shows exactly what that blindness cost, stripped of every laugh.

A ferociously serious, documentary-style account of the real Algerian War France was fighting while men like OSS 117 preened through fictional Cold War intrigue — the history the comedy is quietly standing on.

But Bleak, urgent and unsparing — the tonal opposite of a spy spoof, with no comfort or comedy anywhere in it.

The Battle of Algiers poster

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