Tag: espionage

REVIEW: ‘The Amateur’ doesn’t have enough thrills for an audience

It’s probably not a great sign that throughout this experience I was wishing the movie was about Laurence Fishburne’s character rather than the protagonist.

That protagonist is Charlie Heller (Rami Malek), the titular Amateur who works as a cryptographer with the CIA. Rather than conducting missions in the field, he works at the agency’s headquarters in the digital space. That is until his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack.

Following the incident, Heller sets out on a path of revenge. After picking up some training from special operative Robert Henderson (Fishburne), Charlie sets off on a multi-nation quest of payback against those behind the London plot, even if he has to go against the CIA to get it done.

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REVIEW: Soderbergh’s ‘Black Bag’ is a satisfactory spy flick

Talk about a power couple.

In the latest film from director Steven Soderbergh, Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play a married couple who both work in British Intelligence as elite spies. At the outset of the film, Fassbender’s character George is informed that a secret piece of tech has been leaked and one of the suspects behind it is his wife, Kathryn.

George accepts the mission to investigate where the leak is coming from, committing to including his wife in his search, though he is skeptical. The film follows as he plays a careful game of keeping Kathryn close while also looking into her own spy work which has been labeled as classified or “black bagged.”

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REVIEW: I met the real agent ‘Argylle,’ I wish I hadn’t

“Argylle” is a film that could have spent more time on the drawing board, because on the big screen, it’s just wasting other peoples’ time.

In the film, Argylle is the titular character of a spy novel series written by the introverted Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard). The author is working on her latest book, but is running into a bit of writer’s block.

A bigger problem comes along in the form of a group of men trying to capture Elly, though, as the books she’s written have actually been rather prophetic when it comes to real world espionage. Her only protection is a secret agent, Aidan (Sam Rockwell), who defends Elly and leads her to where she can uncover the truth about the real Argylle.

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REVIEW: ‘Blacklight’ lacks entertainment value

It’s time to spin the “what will Liam Neeson’s action character be?” wheel! We’ve had mob enforcer, air marshal and former Marine in recent years.

And it looks like this time it’s FBI agent!

Travis Block (Liam Neeson) is an extraction expert for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When an agent’s cover is blown and they’re put in danger, Block is who the FBI calls to help them get out. While he’s great at his job, though, his work experience has caused friction with his family, notably with his daughter Amanda (Claire van der Boom).

Recent attempts to make things right with his daughter and granddaughter are interrupted, though, by his latest job, which is to bring in a rogue agent, Dusty (Taylor John Smith). However, when Block learns the FBI is actually after Dusty because he wants to leak information about the agency’s wrongdoings, the veteran agent turns his attention to what the bureau is hiding.

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Ranking the Craig’s Bond Films from Worst to Best

Daniel Craig’s stint as James Bond has come to a close with the film “No Time to Die.” With his era now in the rearview, it gives an opportunity to take a look at Craig’s five Bond films and see where they rank.

Overall, Craig’s run as Bond was a pretty damn good one, even if there were some films that fell short in quality. Here’s how I place the Craig era Bond flicks, from worst to best.

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REVIEW: ‘The Courier’ is an interesting, but not game changing spy thriller

The spy game is always a dangerous one to to play. It’s Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn to learn that lesson in this new historical drama.

Cumberbatch plays Greville Wynne in “The Courier,” a film that takes place during one of the most tense periods of the Cold War. Wynne is British salesman who often travels for work. Along with visiting neighboring countries, Wynne also travels to some Eastern Bloc nations.

Because of his ability to do business in the Soviet area, Wynne is recruited by the CIA and MI6 to go to Russia and meet with an informant. He’s told by the agencies that he is only to visit the informant, Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), and return documents to MI6, appearing as just a regular salesman conducting business However, with the Cuban Missile situation nearing, surveillance of what Wynne is doing begins to increase.

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REVIEW: Excessive techno-babble makes ‘Tenet’ tiresome

Having nearly three fourths of the dialogue in your movie be scientific terms and concepts doesn’t make your movie smart.

“Tenet” follows a character simply known as The Protagonist (John David Washington). A spy who appears to work for the American intelligence apparatus, Washington’s character is assigned a mission where he has to investigate weapons that defy time.

For example, the spy is shown bullets that are inverted, which means they move backwards in time. On his mission, the Protagonist is assisted by a helpful contact named Neil (Robert Pattinson). As the mission continues, the Protagonist discovers the main person associated with the weapons is Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh). To get close to the arms dealer, the agent begins speaking with Sator’s wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki).

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