Category Archives: Spies

Kingsman: The Golden Circle review — The same, but less

September 25, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by Matthew Vaughn | Written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, based on The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons | 141 min Kingsman: The Secret Service is an odd, postmodern action movie, one that revels in all its James Bond 007-aping tropes, but serving them up in a class-conscious, R-rated, vaguely satirical dish. I…Read More

Atomic Blonde review — Satisfying in the punch, less so the spycraft

July 30, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by David Leitch | Written by Kurt Johnstad, based on the graphic novel The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart | 115 min A plausible spy thriller is tough to pull off—the plot and characters have to snap together lock tight and surprise in stages. Action movies are a little simpler provided…Read More

12 Films To Get Excited About: Summer 2017 (aka the Anti-Blockbuster Blues)

May 15, 2017 flawintheiris

Usually I do a summer preview between now and mid-June—I did in 2015, and in 2014, but last year I couldn't find my thrill for the summer, so just did a post-mortem around labour day. With analysts expecting the Hollywood blockbuster season to be a total dud, thanks mostly to franchise fatigue—did anyone ask for fifth…Read More

Snowden review — Stone chooses drama over suspense

September 16, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Oliver Stone | Written by Stone and Keiran Fitzgerald, based on books by Anatoly Kucherena and Luke Harding | 134 min | ▲▲△△△ I have to own my bias on this one, just as I did with Pawn Sacrifice and another Joseph Gordon Levitt feature The Walk: These movies are all fictionalized takes on real…Read More

Jason Bourne review — Total recall doesn’t make it memorable

August 1, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Paul Greengrass | Written by Greengrass and Christopher Rouse, based on the character created by Robert Ludlum | 123 min | ▲▲▲△△ In the first decade of the millennia, the Bourne franchise served up an amnesiac assassin whose better nature overcomes his programming, dispatching both foreign agents and his corrupt former bosses in a flurry of terrifically…Read More

Our Kind of Traitor review — Ordinary spycraft

July 30, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Susanna White | Written by Hossein Amini, based on the John Le Carré novel | 108 min | ▲▲△△△ Poetry professor Perry (Ewan McGregor) and barrister Gail (Naomie Harris) are a couple in trouble. They head to North Africa to see if a romantic getaway might help their marital strife. There they meet Dima…Read More

Reviews: Creative Control, Misconduct, The Benefactor, Queen of Earth, MI-5

May 16, 2016 flawintheiris

Creative Control Directed by Benjamin Dickinson | Written by Dickinson and Micah Bloomberg | 97 min. | ▲▲▲▲△ | On DVD, Blu-Ray, and VOD May 17 My first impression of Creative Control was that star/director/writer Dickinson is a narcotized Noah Baumbach. Not a terribly generous thought, but that's what I was thinking. As I went deeper into his…Read More

Spectre review — So Big, So Beautiful, But a Bit Blah

November 7, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Sam Mendes | Written by John Logan, Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, Jez Butterworth, from a story by Logan, Purvis and Wade, based on the Ian Fleming character | 148 min "Bond is back... and this time, it's personal!" This could have been the cheekily lame tagline for each of the four Daniel Craig…Read More

Spectre is coming…

November 4, 2015 flawintheiris

On Friday the new James Bond 007 movie opens in cinemas. Having enjoyed the adventures of the suave, ruthless British spy since I was knee-high to Nick Nack, the arrival of a new one brings a cinematic thrill unlike any other. My excitement over a new 007, stoked by the positive notices from the UK…Read More

Bridge of Spies review — Antiquated Crossings

October 16, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Steven Spielberg | Written by Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, and Joel Coen | 141 min Don't believe the marketing. Yes, Bridge Of Spies is set in the late 1950s and early '60s, based on a true story, and yes, it's set in the intelligence community of the United States, the Soviet Union, and…Read More