It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

My God! What a great UNDER-RATED movie! Where do I start? The opening theme song and the images that go with it get ten out of ten. Then after we are finished with the cool theme music we cut to the spaceship...with some cool Hugo Montenergo music playing over the spaceship footage. From this point I am hooked on this fun,fun,fun, very 1960s movie! Dean Martin is outstanding in this film and soon-to-be Land Of The Giants cast member Kurt Kasznar is fine as well. Albert Salmi is here and he will join Kurt as a guest star in one episode of Land Of The Giants (Graveyard Of Fools).The only thing I have against the film is the train-track scene where it is a bit too obvious that the actors are actually in the studio and not out on location at all. The Ambushers is FUN.

Some think this is the worst. I say it is the best. A must see Austin Powers fans. Matt Helm inspired the rotating round bed. This movie had the gun in the bra (Fembots) and the Arab assassin. Co-star Janic Rule was great as a fellow agent. The dialog was like Steed and Miss Peale. Better than the past Helm females that were comic relief. The story was put together well, a bit silly about a flying saucer that only women can operate, but the plot line was solid. Not much filler action or girl scenes. Great location shot and the jazzed Mexican background music fit just right. Good action scene in the beer factory. The lifting machines used to lift kegs may have inspired the fight in the Alien film. A fun film.

The third 'Matt Helm' picture came out in the same year as 'You Only Live Twice' ( starring Sean Connery as 'James Bond' ), 'Casino Royale' ( an all-star 007 spoof headed by Peter Sellers ), 'In Like Flint' ( starring James Coburn as 'Derek Flint' ), and 'Billion Dollar Brain' ( starring Michael Caine as 'Harry Palmer' ). Two of those pictures had plots involving outer space, so 'The Ambushers' followed suit. After a breezy title sequence ( the catchy song is performed by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart ), the film opens at a secret location somewhere in the States. I.C.E. have been brought in to supervise security on the test flight of an experimental flying saucer. The pilot is Sheila Sommers ( Janice Rule ). No sooner is the craft in flight than an anti-gravity beam pulls it back to Earth. The thief is one Jose Ortega ( Albert Salmi ), owner of a beer factory in Acapulco. He intends selling the saucer to the highest bidder in order to finance a revolution against the Mexican Government. Sheila is found in the jungle some time later, badly beaten and with no memory of her ordeal. The only thing she remembers is the jingle to a television commercial for Ortega's beer. To recuperate, she is sent to an I.C.E. rehabilitation centre by MacDonald. Also present ( on a refresher course ) is Matt Helm. Posing as husband and wife, he and Sheila fly to Acapulco to make the acquaintance of Mr.Ortega. This is the second and last 'Helm' to be scripted by Herbert Baker and directed by Henry Levin. Once again Donald Hamilton's storyline ( which had an ex-Nazi out to destroy Texas with a Russian nuclear missile ) has been clumsily grafted onto a jokey, sci-fi plot. Agents from all over the world converge on Acapulco to buy the saucer. None are aware that it can only be flown by a woman. Any man who tries to do so is killed by radiation. The locations are beautifully photographed by Burnett Guffey and Edward Colmans and the movie coasts along nicely with plenty of action and humour. There is a wonderful scene where Matt and Sheila must spend the night in the desert and his car automatically converts into a mini 'hotel'. Hugo Montenegro wrote the music, while Oleg Cassini ( Jackie Onassis' fashion designer ) provided the clothes. Albert Salmi is particularly menacing as the villain, and Janice Rule makes a classy heroine as Sheila. Senta Berger sizzles as the top pilot for 'BIG O' - Francesca Medeiros. Kurt Kasznar ( who also appeared in 'Casino Royale' ) provides the odd laugh as Ortega's bumbling henchman. Yes, the Slaygirls are on hand again to assist Matt, some kitted out with guns in their brassieres. At times you feel that there's a better movie struggling to get out. A stronger emphasis on adventure and less on comedy was needed. Better S.F.X. would have helped too. The saucer and Ortega's anti-gravity devices ( where did he get these, incidentally? ) look like left-over props from 'Star Trek'. For all its shortcomings, this is the best Helm movie since 'The Silencers'. Harry and Michael Medved's decision to include it in their book 'The 50 Worst Films Of All Time' is mystifying.

Third in a series of Matt Helm films starring Martin, this is often noted as being the worst or next to worst. Martin plays a swinging, hot-to-trot parody of James Bond in a film that takes every double entendre and gadget from that series and cranks them up to the nth degree. This time out, Martin must recover a stolen flying saucer with the aid of the female pilot who was stolen with it, then released. Rule (a pretty uncharacteristic choice for a film like this) plays the astronaut/pilot. Martin first attends a camp where he's refreshed in the ways of the spy (and where a battalion of voluptuous babes called The Slaygirls are being trained.) Then he's off to Mexico to track down the ship which is believed to have been nabbed by (the decidedly UN-Hispanic) Salmi. Various complications ensue including run-ins with bumbling second banana Kasznar and drop-dead eye candy Berger. It's pretty clear that the film isn't aiming for greatness, or even seriousness, when the two primary weapons are a bra that shoots bullets and a device that makes men's pants fall down! The latter device is pitifully ridiculous in that it melts belt buckles and somehow that leads to men's buttons, hooks and zippers also failing so that an army of henchman are forced to reach for their dangling trousers rather than catch their man.There's a groovy title song played over credits that display a huge array of bikini-clad, heavily made up beauties that wind up having little or nothing to do with the plot. All of the kicky, funky music is by Hugo Montenegro and it's one of the film's better attributes. The film is only really bad if one is expecting serious spy drama or high brow jokes. The villain's chief gadget is a dopey looking satellite dish that shoots sparks out of it (along with a hand-held version.) It serves its greatest purpose pouring drinks for everyone. The one-liners in this film are of the lowest caliber possible and the ultra-macho point of view will likely be off-putting to some viewers. However, for those eager to see the type of kooky, colorful romps that inspired Mike Myers to create "Austin Powers", this is required viewing. (Check out how Dino's car trunk pops out an inflatable tent complete with bed, nightstand, lamp and metal chairs!) Martin isn't exactly flexing his acting muscles here, but he was playing into his image at the time of a boozy womanizer. Rule is a better actress than this fluff deserves and she doesn't really fit the boobs and hair-type of role, but she does well anyway. Berger is unbelievably luscious. Wearing what have to be the cinema's largest-ever earrings and sporting an impossibly golden tan, hair piled high and an aquamarine lounging gown, she is one of the most underrated beauties on record. She deserved a bigger career in Hollywood than she wound up with. There's a poolside fashion show of ultra-60's Oleg Cassini creations and most of the women wear false eyelashes so heavy they can almost open their eyes. It was a time that can never be repeated, so one should relish films like this as the time capsules they are and rent Oliver Stone movies when they want to be challenged.