Category Archives: Spies

The Bourne Legacy review

August 15, 2012 flawintheiris

Directed by Tony Gilroy Written by Tony and Dan Gilroy, from a story by Tony, inspired by the Robert Ludlum novels. Tough act this one is following. The first three Bourne movies are that rare popular franchise without a weak link. Each of the films has something to recommend it, the second and third strongly…Read More

Revisiting the Bourne Trilogy

July 30, 2012 flawintheiris

I decided to rewatch the immensely popular and influential Universal Pictures action franchise this weekend in advance of its relaunch August 10 with The Bourne Legacy. I say "relaunch" because it's not just another sequel — the director of the second and third film, Paul Greengrass, chose not to return, as did the lead, Matt…Read More

Page Eight and London River reviews

March 12, 2012 flawintheiris

Two very different but very London-centric political thrillers now on DVD: Page Eight | Written and Directed by David Hare (BBC) Pravda playwright and The Reader screenwriter David Hare returns to directing for the first time in years with this John le Carré-style British spy drama. Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) plays a straight-arrow MI5 man,…Read More

London Boulevard and The Double reviewed

February 14, 2012 flawintheiris

Just in case you think I've not been seeing anything lately, here are two new reviews of films I caught up with on DVD. (It's almost too cold in Halifax to go out to the movies, I'm just sayin'.)London Boulevard, the review up at The Coast, offers another sterling Colin Farrell performance. And The Double,…Read More

Haywire review — Terrific spy thriller delivers wall-to-wall action

January 21, 2012 flawintheiris

Directed by Steven Soderbergh | Written by Lem Dobbs | 93 min | Hoopla Oh, how much fun is Haywire? It's from Steven Soderbergh, who is always an interesting director—I'm a big fan of The Limey, Out of Sight, sex lies and videotape and Solaris, with much respect for Traffic, last year's Contagion, Erin Brockovich…Read More

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol review

December 19, 2011 flawintheiris

Directed by Brad Bird Written by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, based on the TV series Mission: Impossible created by Bruce Geller | Netflix People talk about how the Bourne movies updated the espionage action thriller for the new century, in the feel and the look of the thing. Just consider how the director of…Read More

The Debt review

September 4, 2011 flawintheiris

Directed by John MaddenWritten by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan,based on the film Ha-Hov by Assaf Bernstein and Ido RosenblumRachel Singer (Helen Mirren), ex-husband Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson) and ex-pat David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds) are national heroes in their homeland of Israel. In the mid-1960s they were Mossad agents, assigned to East Berlin…Read More

Hanna review

April 8, 2011 flawintheiris

Directed by Joe Wright Written by Seth Lochhead and David Farr Hanna is a lot of things. On the surface it's what the trailer says it is: Saoirse Ronan is the titular teen, raised since diapers to be a polyglot killer by her father, Erik (Eric Bana) in a shack in the snowbound wastes, hiding…Read More