This shouldn't work. Really, it shouldn't.Just looking at the poster art, I can't help but imagine something crass and meanspirited -- a little person from an impoverished nation being mocked and abused for 90 minutes for the entertainment of others. It's to Eddie Nicart and Weng Weng's credit, though, that the film transcends its potentially awful premise to be something that's both truly joyful and knowingly silly.Here, Agent 00's height is never depicted as being anything other than a positive: he's able to sneak around, make quick escapes, and just utterly kick ass while doing it. It's a fearlessly physical performance from Weng Weng, who performs some pretty insane stunts, while being nothing but legitimately charming and funny the entire time. He gets tossed into the frame by crew members, pulls a Marry Poppins, hides in bushes, and even 'flies' a jetpack. It's just wonderful.Starcrash and The Mighty Peking Man are both ripoff films that I like to describe as being "the dream a child had the night after seeing the original film for the first time." This is another one of those.
