Charles McGarry was a spy novelist in the 1970s - this is one of his books which got a satirical treatment from Richard Brooks, not known as king of comedy but full of outrage and spirit.
Connery is a swashbuckling journalist who gets involved in some terrorists who steal nukes. The guts of the story is a procedural - who killed Katherine Ross - but the movie is mostly done in a Strangelove style that doesn't quite work. Brooks displayed little flair for comedy in his career.
Connery commits - it's the sort of movie you can imagine he enjoyed making because it's so random. George Grizzard is the president, Leslie Nielsen a nutbag politician, Robert Conrad a nutbag general, John Saxon a nutbag CIA op, Hardy Kruger an arms seller, Rosalind Cash the vice president, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a girl in a reality TV show who wants to kill her parents.
The movie takes a big swing though. Not dumb. Would've been better played straight I think though.
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