Leonard Part 6
| Leonard Part 6 | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Paul Weiland |
| Produced by | Bill Cosby |
| Screenplay by | Jonathan Reynolds |
| Story by | Bill Cosby |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
| Cinematography | Jan de Bont |
| Edited by | Gerry Hambling |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $24 million (Production) + $9 million (Marketing) |
| Box office | $4.6 million |
Leonard Part 6 is a 1987 spy parody film. It was directed by Paul Weiland and starred Bill Cosby, who also produced the film and wrote its story. The movie also starred Joe Don Baker and Gloria Foster, the latter of whom played the villain. The movie was filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area. It earned several Golden Raspberry Awards; Cosby himself denounced and disowned it in the press in the weeks leading up to its release. It is often considered to be one of the worst films ever made.
Bill Cosby plays Leonard Parker, a CIA spy-turned-restaurateur. According to the opening sequence of the movie, the title refers to the idea that this film is actually the sixth installment of a series of films featuring the adventures of Leonard, as parts one through five were locked up in the interests of world security. In actuality, there are no movies preceding this one.
The theatrical release poster points out that Leonard Parker is, at the time of his reluctant return to action, coping with domestic issues:
"His daughter is engaged to a man old enough to be his father.
His estranged wife behaves like she is younger than their daughter.
And now his government has asked him to save the world. Again."
The movie starts with Parker being called out of retirement by his CIA director Snyderburn (Baker) to save the world from evil vegetarian Medusa Johnson (Foster), who brainwashes animals to kill people. The film ends with Leonard infiltrating Johnson's headquarters (an "International Tuna" factory), fending off the vegetarians with magic meat he received from a Gypsy, freeing the captive animals, and flooding the base using Alka-Seltzer. He escapes by riding an ostrich across the roof; the unlikely steed flies him to the ground.
The movie received overwhelming negative criticism. When the film was released in 1987, even Cosby himself said that he was so disappointed with it that he publicly advised people not to waste their money on it.
The Los Angeles Times wrote: "'Leonard Part 6' is a smug, tedious exercise in self-indulgence ... There's virtually nothing to laugh at in this film, and too much of everything else." The Times noted that, although Weiland was the director, "clearly Cosby, as star, producer and idea man (writer), is the auteur here."
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Wikipedia