In 1980s comedian Bill Cosby enjoyed such popularity in America that some commentators began to name entire decade after him. This was mostly due to his role of Cliff Huxtable in immensely successful television sitcom The Cosby Show. Like many celebrities who gained fortune and fame in television, he tried to expand his stardom to big screen. The result was Leonard Part 6, 1987 comedy directed by Paul Weiland, nowadays known as one of the worst film ever made.
Bill Cosby plays Leonard Parker, wealthy owner of elite San Francisco restaurant who used to be top CIA operative. His career in intelligence ended seven years ago when his wife Allison (played by Pat Colbert) left him, and Leonard spends all this time trying to win her back. In the meantime, animal rights activist Medusa Johnson (played by Gloria Foster) has developed a sphere that allows mind control of animals and turning them into small armies of determined killers. After using animals to dispatch various CIA agents trying to stop her, she plans to unleash them on unsuspecting San Francisco as first step in conquering the world. Leonard’s former boss Nick Snyderburn (played by Joe Don Baker) asks Leonard to help. Leonard, after initial hesitation, agrees and, aided by his trusted butler Frayn (played by Tom Courtenay, who also serves as film’s narrator), prepares to raid Medusa’s headquarters, manned by small army of highly trained vegetarian warriors.
Cosby produced and co-wrote Leonard Part 6, obviously intended as parody of James Bond films. Cosby also wanted to pay homage to I Spy, 1960s spy comedy television series in which he had starred together with Robert Culp. His intentions, however, were quite different from what actually ended on the big screen. Leonard Part 6 is, to put it mildly, revoltingly unfunny film. Almost none of the jokes work and those that do are ruined by poor timing and abysmal editing. There are some scenes that are bizarre and that could have worked in a surreal sort of way, but Cosby plays them straight. Furthermore, film lacks proper timing and it takes almost half an hour of plot dealing with Leonard’s domestic issues before proper action starts. The action is violent, although the violence isn’t graphic due to Cosby insisting to make this film family-friendly, but those scenes only point to the lack of proper humour. Lack of creativity can also be seen with three scenes – which are supposed to be the best visual jokes – being pre-viewed at the film’s beginning (which also gives lame excuse why previous five instalments of Leonard Parker saga aren’t available for the audience).
It would be unfair to say that there aren’t some tiny bright spots in this dark hole of a film. Subplot about Leonard’s 20-something daughter Joan (played by Victoria Rowell) dating a theatre director (played by Moses Gunn) four decades her senior looks macabre and ironic in light of more recent revelations about some aspects of Cosby’s private life. Gloria Foster apparently has great fun hamming it up as female villain. Music score by Elmer Bernstein is effective, but only reminds the audience that was supposed to be ambitious first class Hollywood production.
However, in all other aspects Leonard Part 6 should represent a source of embarrassment for everyone involved. Even Cosby became aware of it late in the production and during the release try to publicly distance himself from the film. Unsurprisingly, Leonard Part 6 turned into massive box office flop, got savaged by critics and “won” Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actor and Worst Original Screenplay. Director Paul Weiland, at the time best known for his work on British television, later blamed fiasco on Cosby being “surrounded by sycophants” and unwilling to accept anything that ran contrary to his ideas. Cosby later worked hard to prevent Leonard Part 6 from being shown on television and this, to a degree, managed to preserve his image of impeccable television icon. It would take something more serious, like 2010s accusations of sexual assaults, to shatter that image, bringing additional reasons for audience to avoid this film.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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