Popular reviews

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  Review by threepenny ★★★½

  Tony Kendall and Brad Harris team up in the first movie of the last classic German series, before a combination of worldwide recession and television brought the golden age of international co-productions to an end. Dubbed no matter what language you watch it in, it's a messy, but ultimately enjoyable Euro-spy romp filled with beautiful women all wearing purple wigs, punch-ups, shoot outs, and of course an evil villain with an island lair. Tony Kendall is "Joe Walker", Private Investigator, a womanizer who even has his own theme song about how much everyone loves him. When he's not investigating murders he's making out with the ladies or alternatively finding them dead in his closet. Brad Harris is the brawn of…

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  Review by laird ★★★½

  The first of the Kommissar X series of German Bond knock-offs following a secret agent with the super regular name of Joe Walker played by a super regular looking guy with a cool name, Tony Kendall. It doesn't get more straight forward genre exercise than this: some scientists disappear, a super villain emerges, the secret agent can't keep his eyes off the ladies or his finger off the trigger. There's a big shootout in a compound full of fembots and some malarkey about gold (they could have at least made it silver or bronze to be subtle, but hey, Goldfinger was pretty important to a lot of marketing campaigns in 1960s continental Europe). Totally pleasing fun.

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  Review by Ray ★★★½

  “I love you, Joe Walker, just like every woman loves you, as you love every woman, every happy, beautiful woman in the wooooooooorld. Ohhhh Joe!”

  Friday, I’m in love. Not gonna lie. I watched this for Olivera Katarina (billed here as Olivera Vuco). Despite a ridiculous lavender wig, I recognized her immediately as “Bobo.” But it’s not like my arm ever has to be twisted to watch a Eurospy caper. This one is the first of the Kommissar X series.

  I like that this takes the James Bond/Felix Leiter relationship and slathers on a Holmes/Watson dynamic with “Kommissar X” Joe Walker, New York City’s swinging private dick, and NYPD Captain Tom Rowland. Both are working in Dubrovnik for no really…

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  Review by Max Kromholc ★★★½

  A fun and action-packed European attempt at a spy movie that’s probably closer to Matt Helm than James Bond. It’s very 60s and very misogynistic but a good time nonetheless. That theme tune is hilarious.

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  Review by Jeff Williams ★★★½

  "I love you Joe Walker, just like every woman loves you."

  Fun German/Italian produced euro-spy nonsense directed by Gianfranco Parolini with generically named private eye, Joe Walker (Tony Kendall), kissing the ladies into submission and his cop pal, Brad Harris, helping out with the action. Obviously inspired by the Bond films, but shot on a shoestring and even more tongue-in-cheek, the fast paced goofiness prevents the film from ever becoming dull. Would have liked to have seen more Brad Harris as he only gets to kick into high gear in the climatic scenes at the end.

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  Review by Christopher Feldmann ★★★½

  Im Fahrwasser der JAMES-BOND-Filme gab es einige Nachahmer, besonders aus europäischer Ko-Produktion. Die Spitze des Eisbergs dürfte aber KOMMISSAR X sein, eine Reihe, die insgesamt sieben Filme umfasst.

  JAGD AUF UNBEKANNT bildet einen gelungenen Auftakt. Exotische Atmosphäre, ansehnliche Damen, Action und Sprüche en Masse. Die Synchro hat ein paar echte Highlights auf der Pfanne und macht den Streifen vollends zum spritzigen Euro-Pulp-Cocktail, der seine Groschenheft-Grundlage nicht leugnen kann.

  Freu mich schon auf sechs weitere Abenteuer!

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  Review by Craig J. Clark

  "This place is done up in early Ian Fleming."

  A fun, fast-paced James Bond knockoff starring Tony Kendall and Brad Harris -- two of the Three Fantastic Supermen -- as, respectively, "the most expensive detective in the whole world" and the police captain on whose nerves he gets. This was the first entry in the "Kommissar X" series, which pumped out six films in the space of three years, presumably because the producers were worried the super-spy fad would die out before they could cash in.

  There are two more in the collection I borrowed from a friend and a couple more on YouTube, so I'm looking forward to checking them out. I doubt the others will feature henchmen in radiation suits, though.

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  Review by Thomas Hortian ★★★½

  Als zwei ehemalige Gangster Sprengstoffattentaten zum Opfer fallen, steht Capt. Tom Rowlands (Brad Harris) vor einem Rätsel. Darin verwickelt scheint der mysteriöse O'Brian (Nicola Popovic), dessen Sekretärin Joan (Maria Perschy) Rowlands Kumpel, den Privatdetektiv Joe Walker (Tony Kendall) damit beauftragt, einen verschwundenen Wissenschaftler zu finden...

  Ja, ich weiß, ich schmeiß wieder die Reihenfolge der Filme komplett über den Haufen (Bauchentscheidung). Doch jetzt, auch beim ersten Kommissar X-Abenteuer muss ich sagen, dass eine Erkennungsmelodie etwas Schönes sein kann, mich aber das zum dritten Mal in den letzten Tagen erklingende "I Love You, Joe Walker" schon etwas nervt. Nichtsdestotrotz wieder ein großes Vergnügen, auch wenn sich die Chose zum Ende hin deutlich abnutztk, denn das lange Finale ist leider nur Eurospy-Durchschnitt. Für…

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  Review by Inkompetenzninja ★★★

  Knorke auf welch naiv-groteske Art "Joe Walker" aka "Kommissar X" hier als Superdetektiv und Womanizer überhöht wird. Die Brandt-Synchro macht dem flott, wenn auch ohne jedwede Raffinesse und mit überschaubarem Aufwand zusammengeklauten Euro Spy Treiben zusätzlich Beine. Nett.

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  Review by stuartinnes ★★★

  There is an edge to those early Bond movies. Bad people doing ugly things in beautiful locales. Blackhearts let loose in paradise. I don't think it's revisionist to say that the James Bond character (and I'm talking the Sean Connery iteration here) was supposed to be a bit of a bastard. Sure, a modern viewer will be occasionally be appalled by an action or line of dialogue that was never intended to appal, but much of Bond's unpleasantness is absolutely meant to be there. He's the musk in a bottle of perfume; the unpleasant odour lurking beneath the sweet floral scent, adding contrast and complexity to the bouquet.

  By and large, the spy movies that followed in Bond's wake did…

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  Review by Cadhla McCarthy ★★★½

  this was v fun, so colourful and the random scenes completely in german with a loud fuzz over it just added to it perfectly.

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  Review by PacificNil ★★★½

  "Kommissar X - Jagd auf Unbekannt" ist der erste Film der Kommisar-X-Reihe, die es bis 1971 auf 7 Teile bringen sollte und startete 10 Monate nach dem artverwandten ersten Jerry-Cotton-Film - artverwandt deswegen, weil beide Reihen auf Heftromanen beruhen und beide Reihen US-amerikanische Superdetektive in den Vordergrund stellen. Im Gegensatz zur Cotton-Reihe ist Kommissar X nicht so liebevoll amerikanisch ausgestattet und wirkt sowohl landschaftlich, als auch architektonisch sehr europäisch. Die Reihe befindet sich auch näher an James Bond und präsentiert in "Jagd auf Unbekannt" einen blofeldartigen Superschurken (übrigens 1 1/2 Jahre vor "Man lebt nur zweimal"!). Womit sich "Kommissar X auszeichnet, ist sein stark erhöhter Sleazegehalt: Die Frauen sind nach der Theiss-Theorie ("Star Trek", Originalserie) gekleidet, also so, dass es…