No movies adapted from John Le Carré novels come to mind when I recall bad film experiences. The complexity of the characters, the extreme circumstances, and the very personal look at the decisions and consequences they face make a film like Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy well worth a look.
Oh, and the grand performances must be mentioned.
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I saw this movie because Clint Eastwood directed and Leonardo DiCaprio starred, not so much because I have a fascination with J. Edgar Hoover. Apparently, critics have disliked the movie for all that it left out of this iconic and powerful figure of the 20th century. My hunch was that the film makers didn't want to overshadow the story of the man with details of the FBI - I was right.
J. Edgar traces a couple strands of the first and long lasting FBI director's life. His relationships with his mother and two very close secretaries combined with his determination to both keep the FBI funded and in his complete control. There are plenty of references to some of the defining events in his career (Lindberg kidnapping, Dr. King, and the communist pogroms), but the focus of the film is his obsessions, indiscretions and desire for defining his own legacy.
An intricate and detailed film with a steady pace and tremendous acting.
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Again, looking at these old crime thrillers is like looking at an era of innocence, and some of the earliest iterations of mystery film mechanics. Hitchcock is emulated so much today that very little that we see in his movies seems original today.
A case of mistaken identity throws Carey Grant into a dangerous spy game. He is on the run from both foreign spies and American police and guided by the CIA. The film begins on the east coast and ends in the northern midwest in a few tense scenes.
Really fun to watch if only for costumes, manners of speech, and to see Alfred Hitchock's master use of the camera.
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Ridley Scott delivers a spy/anti-terror/middle east film that puts the USA on top again, but does humble them a bit. DiCaprio and Crowe demonstrate their superior acting abilities again in a tenuous boss/field worker relationship.
Gene Hackman acts in this early film noir that helped sustain his status as a serious actor. He plays a wire tapper private investigator who stumbles upon a crime that is going to happen. Throughout the film he struggles with what his action should be as his job could facilitate the crime. Some great twists.
Chuck Barris would have us believe a story about his life that no one can corroborate. Believe it or not, it's a formidable tale and the telling of it should rest alongside the exotic biopics of Andy Kaufman and Domino Harvey.
David Cronenberg spins this surreal tale beginning in the real and stable world of a modest and honest exterminator. When the powder he uses is discovered to have narcotic qualities, we slip into a drug induced world of spying, literature, sordid sex and murder.
This is a stark black and white film with an even bleaker ending. John Le Carré wrote the book the film is based on.
This is not a great movie. A secret service agent becomes obsessed with a serial killing woman while he's haunted by his missing daughter. The film moves very slowly and the situational drama is laden with dry sap. The writer probably had a message, but it's too contrived to bother with.
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This is a terrifically structured thriller. L.B. is stranded in his third story courtyard facing apartment after breaking his legs on a photograph reporting job. After observing his neighbours for days, he suspects that a woman has been murdered and he believes he knows who the killer is. L.B.'s beautiful girlfriend is eager to prove how adventurous she is in order to convince him that she is worthy of marriage. Hitchcock locks us in the room as well as we peep into others windows.
Number four. It didn't top number three in my opinion, but it was a great ride.
World War II is finally over for Dr. Jones and he works for the CIA now as he searches for relics that the Soviets covet. In this episode, he must prevent a psychic spy from discovering the lost city of El Dorado in South America. He is joined by a teenager, Mutt, and the leading lady of Raiders.
The stunts continue as normal with plenty of new ones to please the appetite. Indiana is clearly superhuman and he's fun to watch. I did notice that Harrison Ford's voice faltered quite a bit, it's not as commanding as it used to be.
Spielberg clearly knows what he's doing: no sex, hardly any profanity, the violence is fake, it's only a little scary, but it's edge of your seat cinema.
Truth: Greed kills. Knowledge is better than money.
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A feel good CIA movie - yowsers, those are rare! I must say, I wasn't too hopeful for a true story about subversive military action perpetrated by a superpower. Thankfully, it was an honest show.
The story involves a congressman who raises a budget for a CIA project to effectively arm Afghanis against invading Soviets in the 1980's. The Soviet attack is rightfully portrayed as beyond brutal and the CIA is portrayed as disorganized and disinterested until the right people get on the case. We get a behind the scenes look at covert operations that ultimately succeed in bouncing the Red Army out of Afghanistan.
Of course, this would be just another red white and blue movie without a smart twist, something I'm sure Tom Hanks requires for any film he makes (quite literally as he produces as much as he acts). We get to see the CIA and a congressional house committee humbled as we see the aftermath in Afghanistan.
Acting in this film is genuinely grand. Awkward moments are central and the story is told very well as the characters push through taboos and political tape. Charlie Wilson doesn't as much go through a transformation as much as he wakes up and acts. His story is told efficiently through brief and sometimes crude language.
Truth: Good intentions that include fervent action can still yield mixed results when there isn't a bit of good forethought.
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Thrillers have come a long way since Marathon Man. Dustin Hoffman plays a graduate student caught in a web of international politics, theft, and deception in New York City. He does a good job playing naïve and the bad guys are bad.
Unlike today's mystery thrillers, this one leaves a bit more left unsaid - we never find out what the father was accused of and we never learn what the full connection between the temptress is to the antagonists. I like not knowing everything - it keeps me watching to the last second.
Also unlike today's fast paced, technology focused thrillers, this one moves much slower. The film seems to make a few nods to some Bond films with the dentist villain who tortures his victims using his profession, but the effects of the torture are much more realistic and you get the sense that this is really happening or really could happen.
The climax of the film really challenged me and my own values. Would I have had the courage to do what Hoffman's character does?
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John Le Carré says that though the film is very much unlike his book, there could be no better adaptation. I'll agree blindly as I haven't read his book. This film is a crashing wave against what they called "the establishment" in the sixties and seventies and what we now call multinational corporations and globalization.
The wave takes the form of people who dare to do right despite threats on their lives. A web of techno savvy activist cells lay as the foundation for undermining unrighteous behaviour by a rogue pharmaceutical company. The focus becomes a low level foreign envoy's wife and her unassuming husband. The plot strangles and dives and ultimately we are left with some serious questions in our own laps.
I enjoyed the film, despite the very sad subjects because of it's poetry, it's tremendous portrayal of life even in the face of death.
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So, it's a little forced. It's still incredibly fun. The only other film that I've seen and can think of that deals so overtly with philosophy is Waking Life - which I'll review someday, if I can stay awake through it againg.
Huckabees is a philosophy lesson in the form of a comedy. It's very offbeat, think The Royal Tenenbaums. The actors are quite high profile: Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg, Naomi Watts, and Jason Schwartzman. They have a lot of fun pushing existentialism and nihilism out of the textbook and into consequential behaviour. This can be a little tiresome if you're not into philosophy as many of the lines refer heavily on thought and perspective.
But there's a lot of fun for those who just want to relax and not think. The piece is an investigation spurred on by a coincidence. The investigators are out to teach their client that he needs to realize how connected he is to everything and to just flow with things. The existential detectives and their clients collides with Christians, a nihilist, and a WalMart-esque corporation called Huckabees and the yuppy up-and-coming characters at head office.
I rate this one high because it laughs at itself and yet treats the subject matter with great respect. The conclusion may be a little flippant, but it's out to cause a discussion, not give you the answer. I like the fact that it makes an effort to show that philosophy is an extremely powerful system. I believe that without philosphy, we wouldn't have many of the advances in society that we enjoy - like clean water and security. I also believe that the consequences of ignoring philosophy are such things as the bad things in our education system and globalization.
If anything this movie will encourage you to ask yourself how you connect with others - or how you don't connect.
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I used to watch Get Smart, a children's spy show, on YTV when I was young, so I couldn't pass up buying the bargain bin reunion DVD. The original series ran from 1965-1970, so some of the actors in the final chapter of Control vs. KAOS look a little worse for wear - especially Agent 99. She was the reason I bought the $2.99 DVD, but looks like some facial reconstruction took place between 1970 and 1989. Darn.
So, like my last post, it is necessary to accept certain unlikely/impossible events/objects in this movie in order to truly enjoy it; a history with the characters, like I had, is also a big help. So, in the tradition of the Pink Panther, Inspector Gadget (whose voice was Don Adams who played Maxwell Smart), Austin Powers and all blundering spies, we have the inept Agent 86 (Smart) and sexy sidekick Agent 99. They have a robot agent and an agent who invents cool gadgets to aid them in the quest to defeat the evil KAOS who have captured a professor and used his formula to create a weather making machine. Sound familar?
I found constant references to how Americans were polluting and constantly watching TV to be rather humourous. The film is stacked with clever and not so clever puns. The most hilarious parts were some comments made by 86, such as:
CIA Chief: You look to be in pretty good shape.The comedy is slapstick and often very cliché. Though there is a noble moral to the story, it's not going to convince anyone to read more. For what it is, I was surprised at how much it kept me awake.
Agent 86: Would you believe that I run 100 miles a day?
CIA Chief: I find that pretty hard to believe.
Agent 86: Would you believe that I run 50 miles a day?
CIA Chief: No.
Agent 86: How about 2 pushups and heavy breathing?
.... 
