Category Archives: Spies

The Courier review — Cumberbatch impresses in spy thriller

April 17, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Dominic Cooke | Written by Tom O'Connor | 112 min | On Demand Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a slightly tweedy, slightly goofy machine parts salesman in London in late 1960. He's got no interest in opening up his business into the Soviet market with Khrushchev beating the drums of war and double-agent,…Read More

Sean Connery: 10 Of His Best Non-Bond Roles

November 4, 2020 flawintheiris

Sean Connery died on Saturday, October 31, at age 90. The Scottish actor was the first cinematic James Bond, and for many will always be the greatest — defining the mix of suave, stylish, sexy, and ruthless for a generation of fans. While so much of what he did with that character is easy to…Read More

Ava (2020) review — Uninspired actioner almost saved by terrific cast

October 20, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Tate Taylor | Written by Matthew Newton | 96 min | On Demand and Netflix Buried in this script is a dazzling bit of espionage jargon borrowed from B2B marketing. It's the suggestion that an agent is “client-facing.“ Such signs of sparky ingenuity in the script are disappointingly intermittent given the wealth of…Read More

Possessor Uncut review — Ruthless and brilliant horror sci-fi

October 2, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg | 103 min | Crave Plus Brandon Cronenberg's second feature is a bloody marvel of nightmare fuel. I enjoyed Cronenberg's first, AntiViral, but, like a lot of people, I'm sure, I drew a lazy parallel or two between his work and his well-known, body-horror-loving daddy, the legendary David. This…Read More

Tenet review — Nolan’s time-travel spy thriller almost too complex

August 27, 2020 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan | 150 min | Netflix Christopher Nolan's enormous, brilliant movies are never less than ambitious, and the best of them find a balance between the kinetic, the cerebral, and the passionate — I'm thinking of Memento, Inception, Interstellar, and Dunkirk, even his Dark Knight trilogy. His newest blockbuster nails…Read More

The Bourne Legacy (2012) review — Action franchise’s clever extension

August 5, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Tony Gilroy | Written by Tony and Dan Gilroy, from a story by Tony, inspired by the Robert Ludlum novels | 135 min | Amazon Prime and Netflix | Originally reviewed August 15, 2012 A tough act this one is following. The first three Bourne movies are that rare popular franchise without a…Read More

Wasp Network review — Spy thriller absent sting

July 6, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Olivier Assayas | Written by Assayas and Fernando Morais, based on Morais' book The Last Soldiers of the Cold War | 127 min | Netflix A historical thriller — and yes, the 1990s is history now — based on a true story of Cuban pilots, defectors to the United States, who joined anti-Castro…Read More

Operation Finale review — Nazi hunter drama on target, mostly

June 20, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Chris Weitz | Written by Matthew Orton | 122 min | Netflix As a dramatization of Israeli agents' Argentine efforts to secure and extract the fugitive Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi "Architect of the Final Solution," it's hard to believe this picture was made in 2018. It moves and twists and shakes like a…Read More

The Catcher Was A Spy review — Paul Rudd gets on base

May 31, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Ben Lewin | Written by Robert Rodat, based on the book by Nicholas Dawidoff | 98 min | Netflix Fans of Paul Rudd, and I know there are many, shouldn't miss this oddity in his catalogue: the time where he played a real life Red Sox catcher Morris "Moe" Berg (not the Pursuit…Read More

The Last Thing He Wanted review — Promising thriller loses the plot

March 19, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Dee Rees | Written by Rees and Marco Villalobos, from the book by Joan Didion | 115 min | Netflix 35 years ago, The Last Thing He Wanted wouldn't have been an outlier. It would've joined other political dramas based on actual geopolitical events, stories of fictional journalists and innocents caught up in dodgy…Read More