Two young New Yorkers Travis and Wendell are offered the chance to open-up a night-club in a small Nebraska town, well that's what they think. As unknowingly to them they're in the USSR, in which the inhabitants are Russian spies in a replica of an American town that seems to be caught in a time slump of 1950s. They were brought in to instill the current US pop culture / true modernistic outlook.

I wouldn't say it's a laugh out loud or timeless comedy classic, but "The Experts" is an endearing and perfectly pitched zinger with a whole bunch of fun performances. John Travolta and Arye Gross (looking good in mullets) are agreeably candid and work off each other well. They can find themselves really tearing each other apart, but they can't stay mad at each other for too long. A plucky Kelly Preston is unforgettably smoking and Deborah Foreman is likable too. James Keach is quite comical in his short role. Inoffensively light-headed and throwaway screwball comedy that wholesomely plays up its irony-laced one-idea gag of the materialistic appreciation of the American way of life and the acceptance of others. The messages might be heavy-handed, but the breezy script and evocatively original screenplay never over does it. Director Dave Thomas (a recognizable comedian actor) keeps it bright and carefree stringing together random activities with a hip soundtrack to back it up. Silly, but one of kind shenanigans.

Ever wanted to see John Travolta with a fierce mullet and a bad fashion sense? Check out 'The Experts,' a cold-war influenced, pre-Truman Show comedy that was a good idea, but should've developed into something more.

This is the story of KGB agents who have developed an isolated town which will emulate a sleepy Midwestern American town. The purpose is to fully assimilate it's agents into American culture so that they may go undetected when they infiltrate the states (although some of the residents had been there their whole lives and seemed unlikely of doing anything in the actual America for which it serves as a template). But, sensing that the training ground is out-of-touch with modern America, one of the executives of the agency hires to bumbling New Yorkers to be their guide to what's hip in 1989 America. They lure them to the town under the guise that they're developing a night club and want those two to advise them.

Unaware of what is going on, their "experts" stick out like a sore thumb in the 50's Midwest style neighborhood, before others catch on and emulate the two newcomers' love of dirty dancing, club music, and mass materialism of electronic consumer goods in the same way that the modern teenagers in Pleasantville effected their surroundings. Only, the other agents disapprove of the changes in their people who seem wholly unaware of their artificial surroundings (much like "the experts") and don't want the Experts to stay. Meanwhile, it is only a matter of time before the Experts figure out what is really going on as they tend to rub some of the higher-up executives the wrong way with their presence.

The idea was fun, and deserved a lot more quirkiness and less family-friendly appeal in order to make one of those really funky late 80s comedies that celebrate that modern American city culture. The movie, however, by mid-state tends to drag on in repetition and by the end, becomes completely balled up in corniness as the town becomes chaotic and the filmmakers struggle for a perfect resolution in which American culture prevails over the perceived stuffiness of then-Communist Russia. It is instead a more moderate comedy with some funny moments, but overall is more or less droll. Not that hilarious, not that different. But there is some appeal, especially if you're searching out lost titles of the 80s, no matter how mild they may be.

Worth a shot, if for nothing else, than to see Arye Gross and John Travolta in ridiculous 80s garb.