Hey folks, Harry here. Many folks have a strange way of just dismissing Tony Scott's films, but while I've never felt he was the visual genius that his brother Ridley Scott is... I feel that Tony Scott has a better understanding of Pop Entertainment and mass cultures' desire for flashy film entertainment... something that I feel he does quite well! Check out the clips and the not so glamorous review...
Click here to see the three scenes from SPY GAME
Meanwhile, here's the latest word on the film itself...
Hello Harry,
Don't need to go the supermarket for your Turkey this year. Just check out Spy Games.
I will give two reviews of Spy Games, the new "thriller" starring Brad Pitt and Robert Redford. One short, one shorter. A caveat- I wanted to like ths movie.
The shorter review.
It sucked. Only a hard core CIA junkie would get jollies out of this, and only of they liked catching mistakes.
The short review.
So Brad Pitt gets captured by the Chinese, circa 1991. He is a spy gone rogue, on an unauthorized mission to rescue a woman. Robert Redford is the CIA operative who trained him in the seventies and eighties. The head honchos at Langley interrogate Redford(the character's name is Nathan Muir, but lets face it, Redford always plays Redford) about who Pitt is( name is TomBishopditto-Pitt plays Pitt) and recounts how he met Pitt and trained him.
And what ensues is a series of flashbacks to the big CIA stories of the seventies and eighties... Vietnam, East Germany, and Beirut(or Cyprus, it wasn't clear.
Between flashbacks, Redford is trying to figure out how to rescue Pitt, whom the CIA have( in my opinion) forsaken for taking on an unauthorized mission.
So I could go on, but here's the bottom line. No Scott's are created equal. Ridley would never have touched this , But Tony seemed to have a grand time boring me to death. Unnecessary and droning voice over. Check. Annoying NYPD Blue camera work, if those guys had a helicopter. Check. Underdeveloped suits at CIA. Check.( I think that guy from Die Hard 3 was there, sans mustache.) Annoying chick with great body, but no removal of clothes. Check(Oh Catherine McCormack is all right in other stuff. I think that's who it was, anyway).
Last week I put in a review for Black Knight(Spy Game was not as bad). I compared it to a piece of manure.
And for your reading pleasure, I compare Spy Game to two solid ball players(Pitt and Redford- well, Redford anyway) playing with a piece of crap. Dont matter how good you are. You can't play ball with shit.
Put that as the title, Harry. "Spy Game- You can't play ball with shit"
Other details.
In full disclosure, I sat in front of my old elementary school substitute teacher. She enjoyed the film. So Tony, if your reading, you got at least one fan. But my friend was so bored, she nodded of half way through.
That's it for me.
And as I am want to say.
"Spy Games Over, Man! Spy Games Over!" (That could be the title, too)
Happy Turkey Day, Harry,
Hudson
