Jan 26, 2012
Lockout U.S. Trailer
Luc Besson and his partners take their neo-Eurospy nonsense to outer space in Lockout. Yeah, I know; this is pretty much straight sci-fi, so what's it doing on a spy blog?
1. Because despite the outer space setting, the hero (played by Guy Pearce) is still a secret agent. And, better still, "He's the best there is... but he's a loose cannon."
2. Because it clearly embodies the same anything-goes gonzo enthusiasm as Besson's more down-to-earth neo-Eurospy movies, like From Paris With Love and the Transporter movies.
3. Because it looks utterly awesome.
We saw an extended trailerish featurette a few weeks ago here, and there's also this international trailer which contains some different one-liners from the American one:
Lockout opens April 20 in the United States.
Tradecraft: RKO Attempts New Saint Movies
Following the frustrating collapse (yet again) of the latest attempt to bring Simon Templar back to the small screen, Variety reports that RKO will attempt a big screen revival for Leslie Charteris' famous modern-day Robin Hood. According to the trade, the studio has signed Eagle Eye co-writer Travis Wright to pen a remake of one of the 1930s or 40s RKO Saint films (exactly which one is unclear) for producer Rick Porras (The Lord of the Rings) with an eye toward a trilogy of Templar tentpoles. But according to all-around Saint expert Ian Dickerson (author of The Saint on TV and erstwhile co-producer of the stalled television revival), Wright will have his work cut out for him. "RKO have the rights to remake their old B&W films but they cannot change the dialogue and they cannot change the length of the picture," Dickerson posted on the CommanderBond.net forums, where he has been updating fans for some time on his own Saintly efforts. He adds that RKO's rights apply to movies only, not to television. Does this really mean that an RKO remake would have to be 69 minutes long with all the same lines spoken by Louis Hayward or George Sanders? Maybe... but maybe not. Remember, Kevin McClory was actually able to get pretty creative in Never Say Never Again, even though his rights were strictly limited to an exact remake of Thunderball. Granted, the individual cases could be quite different, and I'm certainly no expert on copyright law, but I'm betting RKO have some experts on their legal team working hard to find loopholes. But the prospect of a fairly faithful, period-set remake of The Saint in New York actually quite appeals to me! While I'm very eager for Dickerson and his colleagues to get a new TV Saint up and running, I'd be curious to see what RKO can come up with as well. The more Saintly irons in the fire the better, as far as I'm concerned. It just increases the odds of one of them actually coming to fruition, right? Fingers crossed, but (to paraphrase a CBn poster) breath not held.
Hayward, Sanders and Hugh Sinclair all played Simon Templar for RKO; in later movies he was played by Felix Marten, Jean Marais (who gets a bad rap, but I quite liked in the role) and Val Kilmer (who deserves his bad rap). Vincent Price was among the actors to voice the Saint on the radio, and on TV he's been played by Ian Ogilvy, Simon Dutton, Andrew Clarke and, most famously, of course, Roger Moore.
Hayward, Sanders and Hugh Sinclair all played Simon Templar for RKO; in later movies he was played by Felix Marten, Jean Marais (who gets a bad rap, but I quite liked in the role) and Val Kilmer (who deserves his bad rap). Vincent Price was among the actors to voice the Saint on the radio, and on TV he's been played by Ian Ogilvy, Simon Dutton, Andrew Clarke and, most famously, of course, Roger Moore.
Jan 24, 2012
Tinker Tailor Nets Three Oscar Nominations
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was better recognized in its native land, where it earned 11 BAFTA nominations including Best Film and Outstanding British Film, Best Actor, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design and Sound.
Spy fans may also be pleased that four veterans of the fantastic OSS 117 parodies (reviews here and here) received Oscar nominations for their work on the wonderful awards front runner The Artist: Jean Dujardin and Bernice Bejo were both nominated for their acting, Ludovic Bource for his score and Michel Hazanavicius for directing and writing. It's great to see spy movie veterans go on to such acclaim, but I hope amidst all the Oscar buzz they don't forget their Eurospy spoof roots... because I still desperately want to see a third OSS 117 adventure! (It would likely see a much wider U.S. release following the visibility of The Artist.)
Congratulations to all the nominees from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Artist!
Jan 21, 2012
Haywire Movie Review
Movie Review: Haywire (2012)
Jan 19, 2012
Archer Returns in a Big Way
Archer returns tonight, January 19, at 10pm Eastern on FX. The season premiere, guest starring Burt Reynolds, should continue to air throughout the weekend. Check your local listings, as they used to say.
New Spy DVDs Out Since Christmas
I've gotten several weeks behind now on new spy DVDs, but there's been some great stuff coming out! So here's a massive post-Christmas catch-up.
Remember Age of Heroes, the movie we first heard about in 2010 about "Ian Fleming's Red Indians," the 30 Assault Unit commando team created by the future Bond author while he served in Naval Intelligence during WWII? It came out on Region 2 PAL DVD last June from Metrodome Distribution, and I had little hope of it ever showing up stateside. But this week, thanks to eOne Entertainment, it has, on both DVD and Blu-ray! The film stars former Bond baddie Sean Bean, and James D'Arcy plays Commander Fleming. A good old-fashioned war adventure, Age of Heroes depicts the incredible true story of how James Bond creator Ian Fleming oversaw the activities of an elite and supremely well-trained commando unit during World War II, following the members of the 30AU from defeat at Dunkirk to a chance to change the course of the war on a top secret mission in Norway. For more on Fleming's involvement with 30AU, check out Craig Cabell's books Ian Fleming's Secret War and The History of 30 Assault Unit: Ian Fleming's Red Indians.
Also out this week on DVD and Blu-ray, from Lions Gate, is Abduction, the teen spy movie starring simian Twilight heartthrob Taylor Lautner. This movie got terrible, terrible reviews when it came out theatrically last fall. And I won't say they're not deserved; it is, after all, a pretty terrible movie. But so are a lot of movies, and Abduction isn't any worse than most other bad movies, and is a whole lot more fun than most bad movies. So... okay, I will say that it didn't deserve quite the drubbing it took. Because if you have some friends over, pour some drinks, and put this on, you're all going to have a pretty good time. And while you're cracking jokes about Lautner's unbelievably terrible performance and wondering aloud what the likes of Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello, Alfred Molina and Michael Nyqvist are doing in this movie, you're also going to find yourself sucked in a bit by John Singleton's ridiculous action sequences and the overall absurdity of the script. It's bad, yes... but it's enjoyably bad! (And I have a sneaking suspicion that some people probably thought the teen spy movies of my youth were bad, like my own personal favorite If Looks Could Kill.) Extras on both versions include the featurettes "Abduction Chronicle: On-Camera Production Journal," "Initiation of an Action Hero: Taylor's Amazing Stunts" and "The Fight for The Truth: Making Abduction" as well as a gag reel. On top of that, the BD offers "an exclusive In-Film Experience with in-picture documentaries and exclusive behind the scenes interviews with cast and crew." If you care. Retail is $39.99 for the Blu-ray (which also comes with a digital copy) and $29.95 for the DVD, but of course they're both half those prices on Amazon.
Earlier this month, Acorn released the second volume of the Sixties ITC spy series Man in a Suitcase, starring Richard Bradford as sacked CIA agent turned private operator McGill. These episodes from the second half of the show's single, super-sized season made their Region 1 DVD debut. (The entire series was released in single volumes in Britain and Australia.) Many of McGill's best adventures come in the second half, so this would be a welcome release and a must-buy for American ITC aficionados on that basis alone... but as it happens, there's even more reason. Man in a Suitcase: Set 2 also includes a very big bonus feature: the 69-minute interview with star Richard Bradford that first appeared on Network's Region 2 DVD release (but was not found on the Region 4 Umbrella set). Bradford was a perfectionist and a Method actor, which brought him into conflict with some members of the cast and crew and earned him a reputation for being "difficult." In this surprisingly candid interview from 2004, he speaks frankly and openly about those on-set clashes, as well as discussing his early days studying at Lee Strasberg's famous Actors Studio, working with his friend and fellow Method actor Marlon Brando, and more. If for some reason you needed further encouragement to buy the second and final collection of this top-notch Sixties spy show, this is it! Man in a Suitcase: Set 2 retails for $59.99, though it's considerably cheaper from the usual online vendors.
Read my review of Acorn's Man in a Suitcase: Set 1 here.
In the last week of 2011 (on my birthday, in fact), Fox snuck out one of the very best spy releases of the year, Archer: The Complete Season Two, on DVD and Blu-ray. The wildly irreverent, always inappropriate Archer remains one of my favorite spy shows on TV, and as I said in my post about the Best Spy Television of 2011, I find it very impressive that the writers managed to maintain the high level of quality in its second season. That's particularly tough for a parody series. The secret, of course, is that Archer is much more than a mere spy parody. It's a dysfunctional family comedy that happens to be set in a spy agency. As I said before, the extremely raunchy humor is definitely not for all tastes, but if it is to your liking, you'll no doubt appreciate the excellent animation and cool spy style on top of the gags. And even if I didn't love it already, a very obscure Magnum, P.I. reference in Season Two assured the show my allegiance forever! The Season Two discs contain some very good extras, including excerpts from last year's Comic-Con panel, which are hilarious (though I wish they'd included the 2010 panel, too, which featured less cutting up from the cast, but more legitimate answers about how the show is made and what influenced its creators), and several animated shorts. In one, Archer himself answers viewers' questions (and the writers get a whole lot of mileage out of a single set-up!), and in another he messes up the opportunity to give a shout-out to troops stationed overseas who love the show in a uniquely Archer way. These extras certainly make up for Season One's fake "unaired pilot" (which annoyed some fans), but they don't let that concept go, either. In fact, another funny short expands upon the main gag in that feature. The same day Season Two came out, Fox also made Archer: The Complete Season One
widely available on Blu-ray for the first time. The high-def version was previously a Best Buy exclusive, and Archer's top-notch design and crisp animation make it one show that truly benefits from high-def presentation.
Finally, Universal released the Jason Statham/Clive Owen period assassin thriller Killer Elite on dual formats, DVD and DVD/Blu-ray combo. The only real bonus material on both versions is deleted scenes, which is too bad, because I would have liked some featurettes exploring the supposedly factual book on which the movie was based, The Feather Men, and how and why the film deviates from its source. Oh well. The combo version also includes a digital copy and an Ultraviolet copy (oooh!), which is something the studio wants you to be way more excited about than you no doubt are. Retail is $29.98 for the DVD and $34.98 for the combo, though of course both are considerably cheaper than that on Amazon right now. I really enjoyed Killer Elite. You can read my full review of the film here.
Read my review of Acorn's Man in a Suitcase: Set 1 here.
widely available on Blu-ray for the first time. The high-def version was previously a Best Buy exclusive, and Archer's top-notch design and crisp animation make it one show that truly benefits from high-def presentation.
Tradecraft: Fox Teen Spy Show Gets Pilot
It seems like all the spy TV pitches studios bought last fall are getting pilot orders this year! (Which is great news.) The latest one to get the go ahead, from Fox, is the Karyn Usher teen spy show we first heard about in October. According to Deadline, "The procedural thriller centers on the orphaned 17-year-old daughter of a CIA operative who is recruited to become an operative herself. She encounters a mysterious rogue agent/assassin who serves as both her surrogate father and professional mentor in the spy world." This one sounds like it's got a lot of promise to me. (I confess I have a soft spot for teen spies.) This is the second spy pilot Fox has ordered this week; a few days ago they ordered Josh Friedman's female spy drama The Asset. So the odds are looking good that we'll see at least one spy series on the Fox schedule next fall...
Jan 18, 2012
Book Review: Call For the Dead by John le Carré (1961)
Book Review: Call For the Dead by John le Carré (1961)Part 3 of an ongoing series, "The Smiley Files," examining the career of George Smiley in literature and film. Read my introduction to Smiley here.
When new readers pick up a John le Carré book, chances are they’ll opt for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, or one of the new ones. Few will automatically reach for the author’s first book, the far less famous Call for the Dead. And in some ways, perhaps, that’s wise. Tinker, Tailor is a much richer book, and more likely to hook a new reader for life on le Carré’s writing. But there are good reasons to consider Call for the Dead as well. In fact, while Tinker, Tailor stands pretty well on its own, I would strongly advise reading Call for the Dead before The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. At the very least, Call for the Dead makes an essential prequel to that more famous novel, which directly follows events in the author’s first book. But it’s actually much more than that. Call for the Dead is a terrific spy novel in its own right, and as confident a debut novel as I’ve ever read, laying bare the promise of the phenomenal career to come. At a slight 150 pages or so, it’s also a very quick read and a great primer on the serious side of the spy genre that won’t require a serious investment of time.
Call for the Dead opens with Smiley well past his wartime prime, toiling away in petty administrative duties in the vast bureaucracy of the Circus (le Carré slang for British Intelligence), reviewing the files of potential traitors and updating their security clearance. The Circus received an anonymous letter reporting that a Foreign Office employee named Samuel Fennan had been a member of the Communist Party in his pre-war University days. Smiley is obligated to follow up on this, and suggests to Fennan that they conduct their interview in the park so as not to cause Fennan any embarrassment by meeting in his office. The interview goes smoothly, Smiley finds himself liking Fennan, and he concludes that no action is necessary; after all, “half the Cabinet were in the Party in the thirties.” All seems well. Then that night he’s awakened with a call summoning him into the office at an ungodly hour for a meeting with his fastidious, incompetent, politically-fixated boss, Maston. (Maston is known officially as “the Adviser,” a title we later learn preceded Control as functional head of the service, but better known among rival departments as “Marlene Dietrich” owing to his drama queen tendencies.) Maston is panicked. Fennan is dead, and there’s a suicide note blaming Smiley and the Circus for harassing him.
Smiley teams up with Mendel, a Special Branch detective on the verge of retirement who will recur throughout the series, to answer that question. The Adviser doesn’t want it answered. He wants the whole affair wrapped up as quickly as possible with minimal embarrassment for the Circus. Smiley is so outraged that he quits the Circus (the first of many such occasions), and decides to pursue the investigation on his own with the aid of Mendel and his former colleague, Peter Guillam (fated to be another recurring character), who provides crucial information from inside the secret service that Smiley’s no longer privy to. That innocuous phone call will lead this trio on a perilous quest involving East German spies, the London underworld, more murders, and specters from Smiley’s wartime past. It will also land Smiley in the hospital, the victim of a vicious attempt on his own life—and see him grappling in another brutal, life-or-death struggle atop his very own Reichenbach Falls. Yes, it's all a bit more physical and a bit more of an adventure than one might expect of George Smiley!
The Smiley Files
Part 1: George Smiley: An Introduction
Part 2: Movie Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Jan 17, 2012
Tradecraft: Fox Orders Pilot for The Asset
Last August, we heard that Fox had bought a pitch from Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles producer Josh Friedman called The Asset. Now Deadline reports that Fox has ordered up a pilot. This is the next step along the road to your television sets, but certainly not the last. If the network likes the pilot, then hopefully they'll order it to series... and then you'll see it on TV next fall. All we know about the show is that it's described as "a character-driven drama set in the New York office of the CIA, which centers on a female agent." I still think The Asset is a great title, but I also still want to know what the cool twist is that differentiates this female-driven spy show from Covert Affairs and Alias! And I know there must be such a differentiating twist, or else Fox wouldn't have ordered the pilot and Josh Friedman wouldn't have pitched it to begin with. I would have thought it would behoove Fox to include whatever sets this show apart in their early press releases, but of course I'll be tuning in if this show makes it to the air no matter what...
More Details On Melissa George's BBC Spy Series, Nemesis
Jan 16, 2012
Tradecraft: New Team Invokes The Sigma Protocol
Jan 13, 2012
Lockout Trailer
Well, this isn't really really a trailer, per se, but AICN has posted this promotional video with plenty of footage providing us with our first look at the next Luc Besson-produced neo-Eurospy movie, Lockout (here billed under its infinitely inferior alternate title of MS One, a moniker no doubt intended to evoke Besson's French hit District B13). As we learned when it was first announced in 2010, Lockout is not a conventional neo-Eurospy movie along the lines of Besson's Taken, From Paris With Love or Transporter movies. Instead, it is what movies like Agent 3S3: Operation Atlantis or Mission Stardust were to the Sixties Eurospy movies: a genre hybrid that happily handpicks elements from spy and sci-fi and anything else that comes to mind, throws it all in a blender and damn the consequences. This one's about a disgraced government agent who has to save the President's daughter (all standard, typically formulaic Eurospy or neo-Eurospy stuff)... in space! I like the twist. The footage here definitely makes it seem more sci-fi than spy, but it's clear that the film has that same overall feel and attitude as Besson's other neo-Eurospy fare. And, as I expected him to, Guy Pearce seems to make an absolutely perfect hero for one of these movies. I love his one-liners in the video. And I love that he gets to do what Liam Neeson never did in Taken when his teenage daughter was whining like a ten-year-old: he shushes Maggie Grace. (Grace is said to have a much larger role in Taken 2, and I hope Lockout proves why. Even in the brief snippets of her performance we see here, it looks like a definite improvement over Taken.) Lockout opens in France next month; Film District will release it in the United States later this year. Take a look:
Jan 11, 2012
Watch the First Five Minutes of Haywire Online
Relativity Media has put up the first five minutes of Steven Soderbergh's action-packed spy movie Haywire on Hulu. You can watch it here. Pretty cool, huh? Well, that only gives you a taste of all the action in this movie. And each fight scene is staged and shot differently, keeping things interesting. Haywire is a surprisingly good action movie, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. Read my review of the film here.
Jan 10, 2012
Official James Bond 50th Anniversary "Golden Girl" Poster
More Bond Blu-rays Coming This Year
Of course the bad news here is that most fans likely already own the existing Blu-ray titles, and since no individual releases have been announced, they may feel compelled to shell out all over again for this complete set just to own the ones they don't already have. That's clearly the strategy here. And, personally, I have to admit it doesn't really bother me. Historically I've always upgraded to the latest release of Bond movies anyway, going all the way back to the days of VHS, so I'd probably buy this set even if the only upgrade was a new bonus disc. (I'm a sucker for new editions of James Bond and Evil Dead.) And for those who aren't completists like me (though I suspect a lot of readers are), I have no doubt that the missing titles will be released on their own sometime down the road.
The press release ends with a quote from Michael G. Wilson, promising that "We have a whole program of exciting activities planned for our 50th anniversary year, beginning with today’s announcement." This is an exciting beginning to 007's Golden Anniversary in the cinema. I can't wait to see the rest of the program EON's got planned! In the meantime, here's a trailer for the Blu-ray collection:
Ryan Reynolds Really Wants You to Think He's Jason Bourne
Jan 9, 2012
Final Poster For Haywire Revealed
To find out why, read my full review of Haywire here.
Haywire opens nationwide on January 20.
First Photo of Renner as New Bourne
The Bourne Legacy opens August 4.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Does Well in North American Expansion
Read my review of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) here.
Read my introduction to George Smiley here.
Jan 6, 2012
Tradecraft: Rhona Mitra Joins Strike Back
Read my review of the Cinemax version of Strike Back here.
Read my review of the original UK version of Strike Back here.
Jan 5, 2012
Tradecraft: Seth Rogan Joins Disney Spy Comedy
Variety reports that Seth Rogan has come aboard to produce, and likely star in, the Disney spy comedy The B-Team. The story, by Derek Gulley and David Scneiderman, follows a spy's tech support team who must rise to the occasion and spring into action themselves to rescue him when the top agent goes missing. The project has been in development for several years, but Rogan's involvement is likely to spark further movement.
Jan 4, 2012
Thomas Newman to Score SkyFall?
MI6 is reporting that longtime Bond composer David Arnold (who is also the musical director of the London Olympics this year) will not score SkyFall (is the F capital? I'm not sure anymore), and longtime Sam Mendes collaborator Thomas Newman will. Hm. Well, that's... interesting. I'm a big Arnold fan myself, and I'll be sorry and nervous to see him step aside for a film (hopefully he'll return to the series in the future), but after five straight Arnold scores (another and he would have tied John Barry's longest streak, which he's already got beat in terms of years), I'm also curious to hear another take. There are just a lot of composers I would have been far more eager to see try their hand at 007 than Newman. Nothing against him, mind you. He's a great composer who's earned ten well-deserved Oscar nominations. I've just never heard him do anything that made me think he'd be appropriate for Bond. (Though I never thought that about Alexandre Desplat, either, until I heard his extremely Bondian Largo Winch music, so you never know.) But he's certainly got range, so I expect he'll deliver something thrilling and appropriate. He's got a few spy movies under his belt, too, though neither are remotely Bondian. In fact, I found his score for The Debt pretty underwhelming and fairly generic as modern spy music goes:
No, I don't want that sound. But his score for Steven Soderbergh's period spy movie The Good German (review here), while not remotely appropriate for 007, demonstrates clearly that Newman is more than capable of adapting to an existing style. In this case, it's a 1940s style:
And I'll admit I'm not super familiar with his whole oeuvre; he's not a composer I've ever followed that closely. When he's made an impression on me, it's usually been with dramatic scores that tug the heartstrings, like WALL*E or Mendes' American Beauty. But try nine minutes or twelve minutes into this Adjustment Bureau suite for some surprisingly atypical action music. I'm not saying that's what I'd want for Bond, but I am saying that it demonstrates a range not hinted at in some of his more purely romantic scores.
Of course, so far this is just a scoop on MI6 with no source credited. We won't know if he's on board for sure until there's some sort of official announcement. But given his history with the director, I'd say it's highly likely. Overall, as much as I like David Arnold's work, it's exciting to have a fresh take on Bond music again. Usually when John Barry stepped away from his semi-regular duties, the results were more dated scores like Bill Conti's For Your Eyes Only or Marvin Hamlisch's The Spy Who Loved Me, but dated or not, some of those non-Barry outings yielded spectacular results. (I'm particularly partial to George Martin's Live and Let Die, and Conti's music has grown on my over the years.) Other times, they've resulted in Eric Serra's GoldenEye. I'm hoping SkyFall proves to be more of the former... but most of all that it proves to be classic Bond.
No, I don't want that sound. But his score for Steven Soderbergh's period spy movie The Good German (review here), while not remotely appropriate for 007, demonstrates clearly that Newman is more than capable of adapting to an existing style. In this case, it's a 1940s style:
And I'll admit I'm not super familiar with his whole oeuvre; he's not a composer I've ever followed that closely. When he's made an impression on me, it's usually been with dramatic scores that tug the heartstrings, like WALL*E or Mendes' American Beauty. But try nine minutes or twelve minutes into this Adjustment Bureau suite for some surprisingly atypical action music. I'm not saying that's what I'd want for Bond, but I am saying that it demonstrates a range not hinted at in some of his more purely romantic scores.
Of course, so far this is just a scoop on MI6 with no source credited. We won't know if he's on board for sure until there's some sort of official announcement. But given his history with the director, I'd say it's highly likely. Overall, as much as I like David Arnold's work, it's exciting to have a fresh take on Bond music again. Usually when John Barry stepped away from his semi-regular duties, the results were more dated scores like Bill Conti's For Your Eyes Only or Marvin Hamlisch's The Spy Who Loved Me, but dated or not, some of those non-Barry outings yielded spectacular results. (I'm particularly partial to George Martin's Live and Let Die, and Conti's music has grown on my over the years.) Other times, they've resulted in Eric Serra's GoldenEye. I'm hoping SkyFall proves to be more of the former... but most of all that it proves to be classic Bond.
Upcoming (Non-) Spy DVDs: Pierce Brosnan's U.S. Debut
... and very shortly, I'll be able to, thanks to eOne Entertainment. TV Shows On DVD reports that eOne will release the 286-minute 1981 miniseries about the Irish immigrant experience in America as a 2-DVD set on February 28. The SRP is $29.98, though it can currently be pre-ordered on Amazon
for slightly less than that. Brosnan (around the time that Cubby Broccoli supposedly commented on the set of For Your Eyes Only that "if that man can speak with a British accent, he's our next James Bond" or something to that effect) co-stars with Kate Mulgrew (Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins), Linda Purl (Under Cover - hm, there's one I'd like to see on DVD) and Simon MacCorkindale (The Riddle of the Sands, Counterstrike - and there's another!).
Jan 2, 2012
Best of 2011: Television
As with spy movies, 2011 was an excellent year for spy TV, too. There may not have been quite as many new spy series as last year (but then again, maybe there were), but the ones we got were pretty darn good for the most part. Additionally, the right shows from last year (Archer, Covert Affairs, Nikita) were renewed, and came back strong. (Well, the first two did, anyway. Nikita hasn't quite found its footing since the big shakeup at the end of Season 1.) Once again, there's such an embarrassment of riches that rather than just saying that Page Eight or Homeland are the best TV of the year, I can make individual categories, like the Emmies.
Best New Spy TV Show of 2011 - Homeland
I have to admit up front: I'm behind. I haven't yet seen the entire first season of Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa's Showtime drama Homeland. Perhaps it takes a 24-style dive in quality in the second half of the season. I hope not, though, and I don't expect it to based on the strength of the early episodes, which are compelling enough on their own for me to make this selection. Gordon and Gansa successfully dial down their frenetic 24 pacing to create a slow-build spy drama that devotes an entire season (and possibly an entire series) to the question of whether or not an American (in this case a rescued POW played by Damien Lewis) is an enemy agent. That's quite a feat after 24 raised and answered that question on an almost weekly basis (to the point of absurdity), its spy agency (CTU) more rife with moles than Kim Philby's MI6. When this cable show, a remake of an Israeli series, was first announced, I wondered how it could possibly perpetuate its Manchurian Candidate setup into an entire season, let alone an entire series, but Gordon and Gansa answered that question right off the bat in a truly terrific pilot: the way television should sustain a season, with rich, compelling characters. Lewis' Sgt. Nicholas Brody may well be a terrorist, but Gansa, Gordon and director Michael Cuesta still make us care about him and even identify with him. Would you have expected that from the producers of 24? Claire Danes' CIA agent Carrie Mathison, meanwhile, is so troubled she makes Queen & Country's Tara Chace seem well-adjusted. She's obsessive. She's on anti-psychotic medications, and hiding her condition from the Agency. She blames herself for 9/11. And, like many a fictional spy before her but in a much more pathetic light, she seeks refuge from her troubles in a parade of compulsive, anonymous sexual encounters. (She even wears a wedding ring to ward off potential relationship-seekers.) Danes compiles all of these severe character flaws into a character you can't take your eyes off of, the first TV spy tailor-made for cable. And those are just the leads. Virtually every character on screen is well-developed, with only David Harewood's Deputy CIA Director ringing a cliched note. Homeland is as compelling as television gets.
Honorable Mention
Cinemax's Strike Back (full review here), another cable show, may not be the intelligent action drama that its UK progenitor was, but it's thoroughly watchable in its own right, offering the opposite of what Homeland gives us: instead of well-rounded characters, we get mindless action, preposterous stunts and frequent nudity... and sometimes that's exactly what we want. Strike Back delivers it with style. I can't quite tell where I stand on CBS's Person of Interest, starring Jim Caviezel as a former CIA agent who pools his spy know-how with Michael Emerson's infinite resources to help New York's helpless, Equalizer-style. It's The Equalizer meets Batman, and that's a pretty cool combo. Some episodes are great. Others are quite terrible. It doesn't really deserve an honorable mention most of the time, but I wanted to say something about it and this seemed like the appropriate place.
Best Spy TV Movie or Miniseries - Page Eight
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, one of my two picks for Best Spy Film of the Year, didn't have a monopoly on all-star casts among serious British spy dramas this year. An almost equally all-star ensemble could be seen on TV (on BBC in England, and on PBS's Masterpiece Contemporary in America) in David Hare's adult drama Page Eight, including Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Judy Davis and Ewen Bremner. Nighy stars as a senior MI5 analyst Johnny Worricker whose life is thrown upside down when his boss gives him a secret document whose eighth page contains a bombshell big enough to bring down the government and then dies before instructing him on what, exactly, he wanted him to do with this intelligence. Simultaneously to these events, he's just met the perfect woman in his next door neighbor, played by Weisz. But Worricker's been in the spy game too long to believe in coincidences. Is he right to be suspicious? Or will paranoia rob him of the best thing he's ever stumbled into? This is espionage of the serious, slow-moving school at it's very best. The action plays out deliberately on the faces of these veteran thespians in the form of sidelong glances that say more than monologues instead of in car chases and gunfights. And we get plenty of that class-conscious in-fighting and office politics that I love in this sort of British desk spy story. Page Eight is that rare class of TV movie that just as easily could have been theatrical, and fans of John le Carré and Len Deighton should eat it up.
Best Returning Spy TV Show - Archer
There's not much new that I can say about Archer that I didn't say when I picked it as last year's best new show, but I do find it impressive that the writers managed to maintain the high level of quality in its second season. That's particularly tough for a parody series. The secret, of course, is that Archer is much more than a mere spy parody. It's a dysfunctional family comedy that happens to be set in a spy agency. As I said before, the extremely raunchy humor is definitely not for all tastes, but if it is to your liking, you'll no doubt appreciate the excellent animation and cool spy style on top of the gags. As for the parody side, there are a lot of great pop culture parodies (yes, actual, clever parodies and not mere Family Guy-style references), and not just to spy movies. As a life-long Magnum, P.I. fan, my head nearly exploded when one episode, "Placebo Effect," ended with a lengthy, nearly line-for-line recreation of one of the most memorable Magnum endings. "Did You See the Sun Rise" is classic television that deserves much more of a place in the history of the medium than it gets, but unlike some of the more famous Miami Vice moments, doesn't seem to be that well known outside of a core group of Magnum fans. For those that do know it, though, that Archer reference will blow your mind. What other show would even greenlight such a thing? Of course, the end of "Placebo Effect" works just fine for viewers who aren't familiar with the Magnum episode. As it should, in any good parody. I just happen to be a Magnum fan, but I'm sure I'm probably missing other, equally obscure references on Archer. But I don't feel like I'm losing out, because the show is so consistently funny no matter what level you appreciate it on.
Honorable Mention
Covert Affairs also came back strong. But I'm about to talk about that below...
Best Spy TV Episode - Covert Affairs - "Uberlin"
There were a lot of good episodes of spy television this year, but the Berlin-set second season episode of Covert Affairs demonstrated why that USA show deserves to be taken seriously as spy TV. Writer Erica Shelton offered everything spy fans could ask for from a good spy show, or even movie: real Berlin locations, Cold War intrigue, assets with dubious loyalties, and even some action in the form of a pretty cool car chase. I love the way that this show uses actual foreign locations—and uses them well. Producer Doug Liman (director of The Bourne Identity) told a Comic-Con crowd this year that it's frequently just him and a camera on these foreign shoots, shooting guerrilla style, but in the case of "Uberlin" episode director Jonathan Glassner clearly deserves at least some of the credit. I don't know how much of the episode was actually shot in the German capital, but Glassner uses whatever bits were to clearly create the impression that it all was. Plus, the episode made full use of the show's most undervalued asset: Peter Gallagher. The plot found his CIA honcho forced back into the field for one assignment alongside Annie Walker (Piper Perabo).
Honorable Mention
As I said, there were a lot of good episodes this year. The second season premiere of Archer was a standout in a series that nearly always delivers the goods, showcasing both the show's raunchy humor and stylish animated action in a hilarious episode that combined alpine spyjinks like snowmobile chases and ski chalets with a running gag about an underage celebutante throwing herself at Archer. The pilot of Homeland, as I mentioned above, was also stellar. It did everything a pilot should, clearly establishing the show's characters and making the audience care about them in only an hour while at the same time putting into motion a complex ongoing plot. Nikita also deserves mention for its penultimate Season 1 episode, "Betrayal," which perfectly paid off a season's worth of plot threads in an exciting build-up to a final confrontation between Nikita and division. The actual finale, unfortunately, didn't quite deliver on the promise of "Betrayal," as it scrambled to get its ducks in a row for Season 2. It's ironic, but had the series been cancelled after a single season it might have delivered a more satisfying finale.
Worst of 2011
As with all of this year's spy movies, this TV season was really good enough to avoid any real Worst Of contenders. The worst script I read was for the pilot of Fox's Exit Strategy, but that didn't make it to air. (And, I have to admit, the actual filmed pilot marked an improvement on the script... though it still didn't merit a pickup.) ABC's Sixties-set spying stewardess series Pan-Am didn't compel me to tune in beyond the first few episodes, but it didn't outright stink either. Mainly, the non-spy elements weren't that compelling to me. So with no Under Covers on the schedule, I'm going to give the networks a pass as well and not anoint a Worst Series this year. (If we venture slightly outside the spy perimeters, though, that revival of Charlie's Angels was the worst television I've seen in years! Luckily, I've already forgotten it.)
Still to come: the best and worst spy DVDs of 2011... and a look ahead at the coming year. Check back soon!
Best New Spy TV Show of 2011 - Homeland
I have to admit up front: I'm behind. I haven't yet seen the entire first season of Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa's Showtime drama Homeland. Perhaps it takes a 24-style dive in quality in the second half of the season. I hope not, though, and I don't expect it to based on the strength of the early episodes, which are compelling enough on their own for me to make this selection. Gordon and Gansa successfully dial down their frenetic 24 pacing to create a slow-build spy drama that devotes an entire season (and possibly an entire series) to the question of whether or not an American (in this case a rescued POW played by Damien Lewis) is an enemy agent. That's quite a feat after 24 raised and answered that question on an almost weekly basis (to the point of absurdity), its spy agency (CTU) more rife with moles than Kim Philby's MI6. When this cable show, a remake of an Israeli series, was first announced, I wondered how it could possibly perpetuate its Manchurian Candidate setup into an entire season, let alone an entire series, but Gordon and Gansa answered that question right off the bat in a truly terrific pilot: the way television should sustain a season, with rich, compelling characters. Lewis' Sgt. Nicholas Brody may well be a terrorist, but Gansa, Gordon and director Michael Cuesta still make us care about him and even identify with him. Would you have expected that from the producers of 24? Claire Danes' CIA agent Carrie Mathison, meanwhile, is so troubled she makes Queen & Country's Tara Chace seem well-adjusted. She's obsessive. She's on anti-psychotic medications, and hiding her condition from the Agency. She blames herself for 9/11. And, like many a fictional spy before her but in a much more pathetic light, she seeks refuge from her troubles in a parade of compulsive, anonymous sexual encounters. (She even wears a wedding ring to ward off potential relationship-seekers.) Danes compiles all of these severe character flaws into a character you can't take your eyes off of, the first TV spy tailor-made for cable. And those are just the leads. Virtually every character on screen is well-developed, with only David Harewood's Deputy CIA Director ringing a cliched note. Homeland is as compelling as television gets.
Honorable Mention
Cinemax's Strike Back (full review here), another cable show, may not be the intelligent action drama that its UK progenitor was, but it's thoroughly watchable in its own right, offering the opposite of what Homeland gives us: instead of well-rounded characters, we get mindless action, preposterous stunts and frequent nudity... and sometimes that's exactly what we want. Strike Back delivers it with style. I can't quite tell where I stand on CBS's Person of Interest, starring Jim Caviezel as a former CIA agent who pools his spy know-how with Michael Emerson's infinite resources to help New York's helpless, Equalizer-style. It's The Equalizer meets Batman, and that's a pretty cool combo. Some episodes are great. Others are quite terrible. It doesn't really deserve an honorable mention most of the time, but I wanted to say something about it and this seemed like the appropriate place.
Best Spy TV Movie or Miniseries - Page Eight
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, one of my two picks for Best Spy Film of the Year, didn't have a monopoly on all-star casts among serious British spy dramas this year. An almost equally all-star ensemble could be seen on TV (on BBC in England, and on PBS's Masterpiece Contemporary in America) in David Hare's adult drama Page Eight, including Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Judy Davis and Ewen Bremner. Nighy stars as a senior MI5 analyst Johnny Worricker whose life is thrown upside down when his boss gives him a secret document whose eighth page contains a bombshell big enough to bring down the government and then dies before instructing him on what, exactly, he wanted him to do with this intelligence. Simultaneously to these events, he's just met the perfect woman in his next door neighbor, played by Weisz. But Worricker's been in the spy game too long to believe in coincidences. Is he right to be suspicious? Or will paranoia rob him of the best thing he's ever stumbled into? This is espionage of the serious, slow-moving school at it's very best. The action plays out deliberately on the faces of these veteran thespians in the form of sidelong glances that say more than monologues instead of in car chases and gunfights. And we get plenty of that class-conscious in-fighting and office politics that I love in this sort of British desk spy story. Page Eight is that rare class of TV movie that just as easily could have been theatrical, and fans of John le Carré and Len Deighton should eat it up.
Best Returning Spy TV Show - Archer
There's not much new that I can say about Archer that I didn't say when I picked it as last year's best new show, but I do find it impressive that the writers managed to maintain the high level of quality in its second season. That's particularly tough for a parody series. The secret, of course, is that Archer is much more than a mere spy parody. It's a dysfunctional family comedy that happens to be set in a spy agency. As I said before, the extremely raunchy humor is definitely not for all tastes, but if it is to your liking, you'll no doubt appreciate the excellent animation and cool spy style on top of the gags. As for the parody side, there are a lot of great pop culture parodies (yes, actual, clever parodies and not mere Family Guy-style references), and not just to spy movies. As a life-long Magnum, P.I. fan, my head nearly exploded when one episode, "Placebo Effect," ended with a lengthy, nearly line-for-line recreation of one of the most memorable Magnum endings. "Did You See the Sun Rise" is classic television that deserves much more of a place in the history of the medium than it gets, but unlike some of the more famous Miami Vice moments, doesn't seem to be that well known outside of a core group of Magnum fans. For those that do know it, though, that Archer reference will blow your mind. What other show would even greenlight such a thing? Of course, the end of "Placebo Effect" works just fine for viewers who aren't familiar with the Magnum episode. As it should, in any good parody. I just happen to be a Magnum fan, but I'm sure I'm probably missing other, equally obscure references on Archer. But I don't feel like I'm losing out, because the show is so consistently funny no matter what level you appreciate it on.
Honorable Mention
Covert Affairs also came back strong. But I'm about to talk about that below...
Best Spy TV Episode - Covert Affairs - "Uberlin"
There were a lot of good episodes of spy television this year, but the Berlin-set second season episode of Covert Affairs demonstrated why that USA show deserves to be taken seriously as spy TV. Writer Erica Shelton offered everything spy fans could ask for from a good spy show, or even movie: real Berlin locations, Cold War intrigue, assets with dubious loyalties, and even some action in the form of a pretty cool car chase. I love the way that this show uses actual foreign locations—and uses them well. Producer Doug Liman (director of The Bourne Identity) told a Comic-Con crowd this year that it's frequently just him and a camera on these foreign shoots, shooting guerrilla style, but in the case of "Uberlin" episode director Jonathan Glassner clearly deserves at least some of the credit. I don't know how much of the episode was actually shot in the German capital, but Glassner uses whatever bits were to clearly create the impression that it all was. Plus, the episode made full use of the show's most undervalued asset: Peter Gallagher. The plot found his CIA honcho forced back into the field for one assignment alongside Annie Walker (Piper Perabo).
Honorable Mention
As I said, there were a lot of good episodes this year. The second season premiere of Archer was a standout in a series that nearly always delivers the goods, showcasing both the show's raunchy humor and stylish animated action in a hilarious episode that combined alpine spyjinks like snowmobile chases and ski chalets with a running gag about an underage celebutante throwing herself at Archer. The pilot of Homeland, as I mentioned above, was also stellar. It did everything a pilot should, clearly establishing the show's characters and making the audience care about them in only an hour while at the same time putting into motion a complex ongoing plot. Nikita also deserves mention for its penultimate Season 1 episode, "Betrayal," which perfectly paid off a season's worth of plot threads in an exciting build-up to a final confrontation between Nikita and division. The actual finale, unfortunately, didn't quite deliver on the promise of "Betrayal," as it scrambled to get its ducks in a row for Season 2. It's ironic, but had the series been cancelled after a single season it might have delivered a more satisfying finale.
Worst of 2011
As with all of this year's spy movies, this TV season was really good enough to avoid any real Worst Of contenders. The worst script I read was for the pilot of Fox's Exit Strategy, but that didn't make it to air. (And, I have to admit, the actual filmed pilot marked an improvement on the script... though it still didn't merit a pickup.) ABC's Sixties-set spying stewardess series Pan-Am didn't compel me to tune in beyond the first few episodes, but it didn't outright stink either. Mainly, the non-spy elements weren't that compelling to me. So with no Under Covers on the schedule, I'm going to give the networks a pass as well and not anoint a Worst Series this year. (If we venture slightly outside the spy perimeters, though, that revival of Charlie's Angels was the worst television I've seen in years! Luckily, I've already forgotten it.)
Still to come: the best and worst spy DVDs of 2011... and a look ahead at the coming year. Check back soon!
Jan 1, 2012
Best of 2011: Movies
2011 has been a truly banner year for spy entertainment across the board. In movies alone, I think we've had more of them in 2011 than in any other year since I started this blog in 2006. But it wasn't just quantity; it was an overall year of quality, too. Some years, the pickings have been fairly slim in choosing a best spy movie of the year, but 2011 has offered an embarrassment of riches for fans of the genre. There have been enough good ones that in another year, something like Hanna or X-Men: First Class might have easily grabbed the top honors. But not this year. I could probably even make a Top 10 list rather than choosing a single winner. And, as it happens, I'm not choosing a single winner. It's a tie.
Best Spy Movies of 2011: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Since it was first announced over two years ago, director Tomas Alfredson's feature film adaptation of the classic John le Carré novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (previously made as an excellent 1979 BBC miniseries) has flown high on my radar. I've breathlessly followed the lengthy casting process, which packed the film with star after star, and barely contained my anticipation as Europeans had the chance to see the film months ahead of its U.S. release. Reviews out of the UK were stellar, as expected. As a serious contender for Best Picture, overall, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy seemed almost preordained to achieve the top spot on a list of best spy films of the year. But it was never a given. Alfredson was adapting my favorite novel of all time, a dense and complex work that had previously barely been contained in a 7-hour miniseries, into a 2-hour feature. Could he possibly satisfy dedicated fans of the novel? Yes he did—thrillingly. (Read my full review here.) We couldn't have hoped for a better film version of the story, and now all my hopes turn towards further Smiley films from the same team.
Far less preordained was that I'd be equally thrilled by the fourth film in the Tom Cruise-starring Mission: Impossible franchise. I absolutely love the TV show upon which these films are ostensibly based, but I haven't loved any of the previous films in the series. Upon its initial release, I hated the first one (though I've since come round on it a bit), and the second was even worse. I did like the third one, but not enough to expect to enjoy the fourth anywhere near as much as I did. Sure, the casting was promising, but then there was that ridiculous title. Yet Brad Bird (The Incredibles), in his first live-action feature, delivered the most sheer fun in any spy film this year. Prior entries in this franchise have owed more to James Bond than the series whose theme music they share. Ghost Protocol, however, not only incorporates more aspects intrinsic to Mission: Impossible than the previous movies (including quite a few sly in-jokes for fans of the TV show), but also finally succeeds in out-Bonding Bond—at least for the moment. It delivers all the huge, larger-than-life, world-at-stake spy action that Quantum of Solace failed to. The much-hyped sequence with Cruise mountaineering about outside the tallest building in the world is itself worth the price of admission. I've seen it twice so far, and I can't wait to see it again. It's great stuff. (Watch for a full review soon.)
The fact that both of these spy movies were opening in the U.S. in the same month has fascinated me, since they perfectly represent the polar extremes of the spy genre. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a realistic, tightly-plotted, character-driven period thriller about loyalty, betrayal and office politics set mostly in the smoke-filled confines of a government bureaucracy, whereas Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is a silly, way over-the-top action movie filled with spectacularly improbable gadgets and deliriously impossible stunts. About all they have in common, interestingly, is that both movies begin with a mission going wrong in Budapest. But they're both undeniably spy movies, and together they represent just about everything I love about the genre—on both extremes. I kept trying to suss out which one I liked more, and finally realized it was a tie. A perfect tie. I couldn't be more satisfied.
Honorable Mention
As I mentioned above, either Joe Wright's stylish teen assassin movie Hanna or Matthew Vaughn's equally stylish paen to Sixties spy movies with superheroes, X-Men: First Class (review here), could have taken top honors in another, less crowded year. Both deserve to be seen. Neither Colombiana (review here) nor Killer Elite (review here) ever would have had a shot at the title, but both delivered exactly what I wanted from them in their respective corners of the genre. 2011 really was a very good year for spy films.
Worst of 2011
It was so good, in fact, that I don't actually have a pick for the Worst of the Year. The actual worst spy film of the year, qualitatively, was probably the Taylor Lautner vehicle Abduction, but even that was enough fun that I'd feel pretty churlish to actually saddle it with that demonstrative. The most disappointing spy movie of the year, for me, was probably The Debt. While I had no expectations whatsoever for Abduction, I had high hopes for The Debt (review here), since its pedigree included writers of both X-Men: First Class and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It fell seriously short of my expectations, but was by no means the worst of anything. So I'm not picking a worst spy film of 2011!
Stay tuned for a look at the best and worst spy television of the year...
Dec 25, 2011
Merry Christmas From the Double O Section!
H0 H0 H“The Long Christmas Eve” finds Amanda (Kate Jackson) trying out her homespun housewife wisdom on the KGB as well as the Agency, and her speech about the holiday spirit gets CIA and KGB agents to spend Christmas Eve together in a remote cabin in the woods and call a truce from trying to kill each other. Good thing, too, because WWIII seems about to break out with a whole unit of Russian soldiers on U.S. attacking American agents! Scarecrow's (Bruce Boxleitner) reaction to waking up to find Amanda serving hot chocolate to his enemy is priceless. This episode also gets points for another moment of Avengers-like weirdness when an assassin dressed in a Santa suit blows up a phone booth.
Happy Christmas to all!
Dec 20, 2011
Acorn's Man in a Suitcase: Set 2 to Include Richard Bradford Interview
Read my review of Acorn's Man in a Suitcase: Set 1 here.
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