It's something along the lines of "The Parallax View" but much more light hearted. The staff of a large advertising agency in the well-known American city of Montreal, Canada, do a good deal of walking around in a colossal tall glass tower of a building, amid so many such towers. And why not? The cubicles and offices are heated. Outside, they have to cope with the deep freeze of a northern winter. I always wondered how the Iroquois managed to survive.Anyway, a trimly bearded Lee Majors and his sidekick, Saul Rubinek, are trying to adjust to the new ownership of the agency, headed now by the millionaire Robert Mitchum. He wears a dark, three-piece business suit and his hair is finely coiffed down to the last millimeter, an appealing curl drops negligently across his forehead. Okay. Canadians are known to dress more carefully than Americans, but with Mitchum, I just don't know.The plot has the new owners planting subliminal ads in their television commercial for Chocolate Planet, a new kind of cocoa. And it works too, however implausible that seems. They manage to get a Nazi elected senator from Arizona, and Mitchum plans to embed these messages in ads designed for children's products too, capturing the minds of the next generation and, ultimately, putting the right kind of man into the White House -- one that will provide the desperately needed "leadership" that Mitchum describes.There are a couple of murders along the way, as Majors and his girl friend, Valerie Perrine, try to figure out what's up and steal the evidence. Rubinek, for instance, winds up frozen in a grotesque position inside a refrigerator. But nobody grieves much. The pace is too fast and the wisecracks can't wait. Some of the wisecracks are pretty enjoyable. A security guard is mugged and gets a syringe full of some sort of barbiturate that knocks him out. He protests to the police: "They stuck a needle in my ass! What was I supposed to do?" The detective replies: "Turn the other cheek." I must have seen this years ago because I remembered one scene. Near the beginning, Rubinek rushes into Majors' office, a nervous wreck, and begins explaining that he's just discovered that something secret is taking place within the ad agency. Majors believes none of it and sits behind his desk, resigned and bored. During his rant, Rubinek remarks that Majors' office plant has mealy bugs. Majors leaps to his feet in alarm and says, "MEALY bugs! What are mealy bugs?" It has the production values of a TV movie, several reasonably executed action scenes that lack logic, and a villain who dresses in a black leather coat and black fedora, like some kind of Gestapo. It's a good part for Lee Majors because little is demanded of him except that he be likable, and Mitchum puts little effort into a stock part. It's no more than diverting, and the script has its occasional bright spot.

I remember seeing this film at theater in 1981. I own VHS version and I could not wait to DVD with decent quality to be released. This DVD quality is total joke. It is worse than recorded from TV or transferred from VHS to DVD. I understand this movie was not produced nor distributed by major studio. This is Canadian produced film marketed as an American film. Does it mean this movie is never gonna be released with decent quality on DVD!? I hope not. This movie had a potential to be very powerful thriller film, but script was very one dimensional and failed to develop the story. However seeing late Robert Mitchum and Movie stardom hungry Young Lee Majors was priceless as guilty pleasure here. Even 25 years later, I like to pop this VHS into my old VCR and I can not help thinking about how time has flied so quickly......

"Agency" is one of those films that's equal parts cheese, espionage, and paranoia-truly something that could only be a product of the 70's. It's not exactly earth-shattering but a must-see in my book. The "revealing point" is so funny/messed-up...well, just one hint. Wait for them to play the "Chocolate Planet" tape and you'll see for yourself. But I'm warning you...you might die laughing. *PHNERK!* -No Nukes, The Satanic Pikachu

Catch the first few minutes of this movie when it plays on the late show (probably the only place you'll find it) - the opening bit, a commercial for NO SWEAT deodorant, is one of the most unintentionally funny things you'll ever see. Imagine a cross between Dante's Inferno with disco inferno, with people dressed in costumes that look like they are from an S&M shop.The rest of the movie? Sadly, it doesn't measure up to that. Though there are a few unintentionally funny moments (such as when Lee Majors' character near the end of the movie discovers the secret - which we've LONG deducted before him!), the rest of the movie is pretty much a slow slog, with many contrived scenes or scenes that really aren't needed there. Saul Rubinek provides the better moments, though he isn't in much of the movie."Roll it on or spray (spray)....Roll it on or spray (spray)....Roll it on or spray.....or there'll be the devil to pay!.....No Sweat, No Sweat....NO SWEAT NO SWEAT!"