New Spy DVDs Out Today

New Spy DVDs Out Today Alright, after a number of slow weeks on the spy front, today the flood-gates are opened! Prepare to lighten your wallets, spy fans. Young Indiana Jones First up, we've got the final volume of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Vol. 3: The Years of Change. There are only two more "movies" (amounting to four original episodes) chronicling Young Indy's spy career in this set, but the rest is well worthwhile anyway, especially for Indy fans. "Tales of Innocence" combines the original "Northern Italy 1918" episode (in which Indy contends with ambulance driver Ernest Hemingway for the love of an Italian beauty while running a mission behind enemy lines that requires him to disguise himself with an eyepatch) with a never-aired, never-before-seen adventure in which French Intelligence sends Indy undercover in the Foreign Legion to root out a traitor supplying North African insurgents with the latest French weaponry. While the first half of the story is fairly light on spying, the latter half is definitely espionage-heavy. "Masks of Evil" (which was previously available on VHS) puts together one of the best and most poignant of Indy's espionage escapades, the heavily Ashenden-inspired "Istanbul 1918" with his never-aired first ever run-in with the supernatural, "Transylvania 1918." The former finds Indy undercover in the heart of the enemy Ottoman Empire, unable to reveal his true identity to the woman he loves. MI-5's Peter Firth guest stars. The latter sees Indy assigned to investigate troop disappearances in the Carpathians and coming face to face with Dracula (Jurassic Park's Bob Peck in Nosferatu mode), hellbent on creating a vampire army of his own. As with the other volumes in this series, the copious documentaries included on each disc are all incredibly impressive, and I went straight to the one on Dracula. You won't actually learn as much about the historical personage as I expected, but it does trace the Count's popularity in popular culture from Stoker's book, through Lugosi and Lee, right up to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Interesting. I certainly didn't expect to see Buffy and Spike in a Young Indy documentary!

Indy's spy career ends with the conclusion of WWI, but his adventuring career begins in earnest with "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye." "Winds of Change" combines the original "Paris 1919" episode (about the peace conference that followed the First World War) with a new, never-before-seen (except for bits that were cannibalized to frame the original USA broadcast of "Travels With Father") homecoming story in which Indy is reunited with his estranged father (Lloyd Owen, doing an impressive Sean Connery) for the first time since running away from home to join the Mexican Revolution. "The Scandal of 1920" is a joyous Broadway farce, and "Hollywood Follies" follows Indy's brief career in pictures. The real treat of this set, though, is the DVD debut of "Mystery of the Blues." This episode (originally aired on ABC as a two-hour "movie event") features a wrap-around story with Harrison Ford as a bearded, 51-year-old Indiana Jones narrating the main event, which finds Indy learning jazz from Sidney Bechet (Casino Royale's Jeffrey Wright) and eventual "We Have All the Time in the World" crooner Louis Armstrong while investigating Al Capone with a young Elliott Ness. But it's Ford's bit that's a cause for celebration for Indy completists: finally, on the eve of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we have Indy's first 1950s adventure (complete with John Williams' theme and a car chase through a snowstorm) on DVD! Like the first two volumes, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Vol. 3: The Years of Change is essential viewing not only for spy fans and Indy fans, but fans of good television in general.

I Spy You can actually pick up all three seasons of I Spy for less than the cost a single volume of Young Indy, thanks to Image's new priced-to-sell remastered discs. (At Best Buy they're just $12.99 apiece.) Image's initial collections of I Spy (three boxes of episodes in a random order) were the first TV-on-DVD releases to take advantage of the then brand new slimline DVD cases; the new season sets are even more compact... but now behind the times in terms of DVD packaging technology. They're in five-disc flippers as thick as an old double, even though Paramount now manages to pack such flippers into cases the width of a single DVD! (These things are important to people whose shelves are long out of room for discs.) Enough about the packaging! What's the show about!? Well, Robert Culp poses as a playboy tennis pro, and Bill Cosby as his trainer. Of course, they're both, in fact, spies. I Spy is a Sixties spy show in a more serious, Mission: Impossible vein than The Avengers or later seasons of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Its primary advantage over all those shows, though, is that I Spy was actually shot on location around the world instead of on the same Hollywood backlots that constantly (and unconvincingly) doubled for other countries on the other programs. For this alone, it's arresting viewing, but Culp and Cosby also have great chemistry together, and a parade of talented guest stars (including Jason King himself, Peter Wyngarde) keep things interesting. The Robert Culp audio commentaries and occasional isolated music tracks are retained from the original releases, and the picture and sound have supposedly been remastered. Intelligence

Today you can also pick up Acorn Media's release the first season of Intelligence, a drama about Canadian spies, of all things (and that's a President's Analyst reference, my Canuck friends, not a knock on Canada!). The first season is 14 episodes and stars former Max Headroom and former Sherlock Holmes actor Matt Frewer. I don't know anything about his series or about the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), so my interest is definitely piqued. The Golden Compass Finally, we also have Daniel Craig's big budget fantasy extravaganza The Golden Compass in stores today. The whole affair felt kind of flat to me, but Craig was good and the Oscar-winning art direction by Dennis Gassner was outstanding. I mention this because Gassner is also art director on Craig's next movie, something called Quantum of Solace. Note that Best Buy offers an exclusive version in their stores with over forty minutes of bonus footage. Since so much of Craig's Lord Asriel was cut from the finished film (including the whole end of the book), it's possible that this will be included on the Best Buy disc. [UPDATE: Never mind. The Best Buy disc comes with forty minutes of behind-the-scenes bonus footage, not deleted scenes.] These exclusives tend to go quickly, though, so if you want one, you better pick it up today rather than on Ebay for $50 down the road!

Movie Review: Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull -- Yes, It's Spy-Related!

I am going to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but the very nature of spoilers is, of course, subjective. I won't reveal any scene specifics or spoil any character relationships, but I will be discussing the movie, which in itself may constitute spoilers to some. Most of what I talk about won't surprise anyone who's seen the trailers.

So what's an Indiana Jones review doing on a spy blog? Well, we’ve already seen Indiana Jones as a young man spy for the Belgian and French Intelligence services during WWI. Now, after years of fieldwork as an archaeologist, we see a much older Indy plunged into the Cold War to contend with its most natural villains, the KGB. Also on hand are all the other espionage acronyms associated with that era: FBI, CIA and MI-6. (One character claims at various times in the movie to work for all of those organizations, or combinations thereof. I won’t reveal his or her true allegiances.) Even the OSS gets a name-check, and we learn that Indy went back to his intelligence career with the outbreak of WWII, spying for that American wartime espionage outfit along with his sometime partner George “Mac” McHale (Ray Winstone).

Frankly, though, while the presence of KGB agents in a Connecticut college town spurs the film’s greatest chase sequence, most of the espionage angles in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are pretty half-baked, as is its incessantly over-explained yet never adequately explained titular MacGuffin. But you know what? None of that matters. What matters in an Indiana Jones movie is globetrotting historical adventure, archeology-based action, trap-filled tomb-raiding, and, above all else, likeable, relatable characters grounding all the chaos in some sense of plausibility. Harrison Ford, once more, does exactly that. Indy gets himself into some of the most unbelievable predicaments of his career in this entry, but thanks to Ford’s easy charm in a character that fits him as well as the leather jacket he’s famous for, we’re on board with him all the way.

Age is not a problem for Ford. The audience gets to revisit a character many of us have grown up with, and known all our lives. There’s never any question that Ford is Indiana Jones, and it’s exhilarating to spend time with him again. Furthermore, his closest supporting cast are also a joy to tag along with. Karen Allen brings the same spirited gusto to the role of Marion that she did twenty-seven years ago in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and her banter with Indy maintains the same spark it had back then (thanks in part, apparently, to an uncredited Lawrence Kasdan--according to an interview with screenwriter David Koepp in Creative Screenwriting). Finally, Shia LaBeouf makes an entirely successful addition to the team, imbuing his character, Mutt Williams, with a terrific, Ford-like charm of his own. Honestly, I wasn't sure about this character based on the trailers, but he's actually one of the best parts of the film! Cate Blanchett sinks her teeth into the Russian villainess, KGB agent Irina Spalko. Part Edith Head, part Rosa Klebb, and considerably sexier (and more handy in a fight) than either, she creates a fun foil for Indy, but ultimately not one of the more fleshed-out villains in the series.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull goes out of its way to reward dedicated fans of the franchise, with surprising references to everything from the other films to the Young Indy TV series (which I'm personally thrilled to see officially connected to the movie canon!) to--most surprisingly of all--the 90s paperback novels. I recommend rewatching the original trilogy of films prior to seeing the new one, even if you know them by heart. At the very least, stick Last Crusade in your player. Crystal Skull offers some amazing payoffs to what's come before.

The movie suffers in its third act, largely thanks to an unfortunate overabundance of CGI and an underwhelming MacGuffin. (But does that surprise anyone? We knew when we heard the title that a crystal skull is hardly the Ark of the Covenant!) These shortcomings are more than made up for, however, by a series of showstopping setpieces, terrific character interplay and, above all, Harrison Ford, back to doing what he does best after so many years.

Stay tuned this week for more spy-related Indy coverage, and a chance to win Young Indiana Jones DVDs!

New Spy DVDs

Today is a huge day for spy-related DVD releases!

The Company

First, and most directly spy-related, is Sony’s two-disc release of the Ridley Scott-produced TNT miniseries The Company, based on the book by Robert Littell. Chris O’Donnell stars as a young man caught up in the early days of the CIA; the great Alfred Molina plays his mentor, and Michael Keaton plays real-life spy hunter James Jesus Angleton. Angleton is, of course, the historical figure upon whom Matt Damon’s character was based in The Good Shepherd, and based on the special features (I haven’t had a chance to watch the miniseries itself yet), The Company looks to have a lot in common with that film. Not only does it cover many of the same actual events and feature the same characters (whom The Good Shepherd vaguely fictionalized), but it also looks very much the same, art direction-wise, and sounds the same, as Jeff Beal’s music is quite reminiscent of Bruce Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos’. Of course, my major complaint about The Good Shepherd was that, as long as it was, it was too short for the story it was trying to tell, so perhaps The Company fares better over three two-hour episodes. In one of the two making-of featurettes, producer Scott mentions some rival stories in production (The Good Shepherd and what else?), but he and John Calley proceeded undaunted, with a script by Black Hawk Down scribe Ken Nolan. Although relatively brief, both featurettes are worth watching, and fans of Littell’s books will be interested in Nolan’s comments on adapting one of them.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume 1

Regular readers certainly know how excited I am about this release, as I’ve written quite a lot about it in the past. I think this show was probably my most anticipated DVD of 2007, and Volume 1 is finally here! Twelve discs of historical Indiana Jones adventure, and dozens of meticulously-produced documentaries on the subjects featured in the episodes. Volume 1 doesn’t actually get into the lengthy espionage stage of Young Indy’s career, but it lays the groundwork for it. Going in chronological order (rather than the order in which they originally aired), this set features five adventures of the 9-year-old Indiana Jones (played by Cory Carrier), and two of the teenage adventurer, played by Sean Patrick Flannery. Each “episode,” however, is really a new movie-length adventure, made up of two actual television episodes put together. The original series, then titled The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, ran as hour-long episodes on ABC from 1992-93, and featured wrap-around segments with an elderly Indiana Jones (George Hall) recalling his exploits. These segments are not featured on the DVDs. The movie length seems appropriate, though, since the big name directors and guest stars, exceptionally high production values, and breathtaking location photography (shot in thirty-five countries around the world!) gave the series a very filmic quality.

The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 2

There are no spy movies to be found in Anchor Bay’s second box set of Bava films (the director’s Danger: Diabolik is available as a Special Edition from Paramount, and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs has yet to see a DVD release, although I believe Fox/MGM own the rights), but plenty of other genres are represented, from giallo to gothic to Western to sex comedy. Best of all, this box sees the reissue of two-and-a-half long out-of-print ELKE SOMMER movies, Baron Blood and Lisa and the Devil! (The half is accounted for by House of Exorcism, an appalling version of Lisa re-cut by producer Alfredo Leone into an Exorcist knock-off.) Regular readers are no doubt familiar with my feelings on the sexy spy star Sommer, and her co-star in Lisa and the Devil (the Devil himself) is no less than the very best Blofeld, Telly Savalas. Her equally charming Deadlier Than the Male partner, Sylva Koscina, also appears. Ms. Sommer contributes a commentary track to House of Exorcism, and Tim Lucas does to four others.

Executive Action

Finally, Warner Bros. releases a catalog title today long in demand by fans of the Seventies conspiracy breed of spy movie: Executive Action, starring Burt Lancaster. Executive Action offers a believable, documentary-style account of a sinister plot behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Spies On DVD Today: Young Indiana Jones Volume Two

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Vol. 2: The War Years (slimmer and more attractive than Vol. 1) is simply packed with espionage adventure. Though they feature a younger version of a hero best known for his swashbuckling archaeological exploits, in this series we discover that Indy cut his teeth as a secret agent for (wait for it) French and Belgian Intelligence during WWI. Not every episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles featured a spy plot, but most of those included in Vol. 2 (here re-edited into feature length "movies") do.

One need look no further than Disc 2, "Demons of Deception," for a fantastic example of this. Not only is the feature, one of the best in the series, a gripping and adult spy drama, but the truly fantastic extras take the form of documentaries like "Reading the Enemy’s Mind - Espionage in World War I." The feature itself is cobbled (rather successfully for once) out of two TV episodes. The first depicts bloody and brutal action on the front when Indy finds himself at the Battle of Verdun in 1916. He serves first as a motorcycle courier, zooming important messages between the horrors of the front and the luxury of the officers’ lives. The epic scope and impressive budget of the series are well demonstrated by a spectacular chase in which Indy, on his motorcycle, is pursued by a German biplane armed with machine guns and bombs, while the show’s intimacy and artfulness are visible in a well-cut montage at a moment when Indy must make a crucial decision. We also see Indy’s first spy work when he’s assigned to crawl across No Man’s Land and listen at the wall of the German bunker.

The second half of this feature may be the series’ finest moment. Directed by the great Nicholas Roeg (The Man Who Fell To Earth) from a script by Carrie Fisher and story by George Lucas, it depicts Indy’s brief involvement with Mata Hari while on furlough from the front. It’s very risque for 90s TV, with typically Roeg-ish slow motion shots of Indy and Mata in bed together (yes, the famous adventurer loses his virginity to the notorious spy) and even some full frontal nudity of models in an art class. The episode isn’t just adult in content, however, but in themes as well. Fisher scripts Mata as a very three-dimensional character (fleshed out beautifully by actress Domiziana Giordano), and weaves a complex May-December relationship between her and Indy, bringing out an especially good performance from series star Sean Patrick Flannery. Their final scene together, a shouting match that ends tenderly in which he denounces her as nothing more than a prostitute and she calls him out for what he is: a child pretending to be a man, is as good as any you’ll find on TV of that decade. Despite its admirable educational mandate, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was not just a kids’ show.

Lucasfilm’s exemplary extras are equally adult. "Flirting With Danger - The Fantasy of Mata Hari" treats its subject very seriously, and doesn’t skirt around her central skill set. "I like making comparisons between diverse nations," they quote Hari as saying about sleeping with the officers and diplomats of varied European countries. The documentary portrays Hari as the victim of a witch hunt by men suspicious of a successful and promiscuous woman more than of a legitimate espionage trial. Various experts point out that spies convicted on far more tangible evidence than her managed to escape the firing squad, and that the only evidence that Hari was a spy at all is the fact that she accepted money from both the French and German intelligence services. Then again, they argue, that’s what she did. She accepted money from men.

"Reading the Enemy’s Mind - Espionage in World War I" is a shorter but no less fascinating or informative documentary. "What you’re seeing in a way with intelligence during the first world war is how modern intelligence is born," says one expert, and indeed we do see it. The featurette conveys how ill-prepared all nations were for espionage going into WWI (especially the United States), and covers subjects I’ve always found captivating, like German sabotage in America and the notorious "Zimmerman Telegram" sent by Germany seeking Mexico’s help against the US. There are twenty-seven more such documentaries on this set, as well as seven more feature-length films, each comprised of two TV episodes. I can’t wait to delve further into revisiting this childhood favorite, and most spy fans should be delighted to find this set underneath the tree come Christmas. In addition to the espionage content, this volume also features some familiar faces, such as Christopher Lee and some blond guy named Daniel Craig, exhibiting even then (albeit briefly!) the swagger that would one day make him famous.

More Details On Young Indiana Jones’ Adventures In The Secret Service

LucasFilm has released full press information on all three sets of Young Indiana Jones DVDs, including some promising glimpses at the episodes and extras on Volumes 2 and 3. It looks like Volume 2 (coming in December) will be a must for spy fans. Not only will it contain the bulk of Young Indy’s espionage adventures, but it also features Bond stars Daniel Craig and Christopher Lee and several exciting documentaries about spies. (Craig even features on the cover, despite the brevity of his role.)
The “episodes,” it should be noted, are not the original hour-long versions that aired on ABC from 1992-93, with bookends featuring George Hall as a very old Indy recollecting his adventures. They are re-edited ninety-minute movies, each one comprised of two of the original episodes, or, in some rare cases, one episode plus footage that was shot later and will be seen for the first time on DVD. The “Old Indy” narration is dropped altogether, and those segments are not even available as deleted scenes. Some of these movie versions were released on VHS in 1999, and others are making their debut in this format in these sets.

Volume 2's “Demons of Deception” finds Indy on leave from the Belgian army (which he joined seeking adventure prior to America’s entry into WWI) in Paris, where he falls in love with the most notorious spy of that era, Mata Hari. The episode was written by Carrie Fisher and directed by Nicolas Roeg. Two of the accompanying historical documentaries (which are said to be amazing, the culmination of almost a decade’s worth of work) should fascinate espionage aficionados: Flirting With Danger: The Fantasy of Mata Hari and Reading the Enemy’s Mind: Espionage in World War I.

“Adventures In the Secret Service” compiles two standout escapades from Indy’s spy career. In one, directed by frequent Bond second unit director Vic Armstrong and written by Frank Darabont, Indy is sent on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines into the palace of Emperor Karl of Austria in an attempt to bring about an early end to the war. Christopher Lee guest stars in the most typically “spy movie” entry in the series. In the other, Indy’s espionage work takes him into Russia, which is on the brink of revolution. He must infiltrate a Bolshevik group and ultimately choose between his friends and his duty. I remember this as being a particularly good episode.

In “Espionage Escapades,” Indy engages in a pair of more comic spy missions, going undercover as a ballet dancer in order to discredit German diplomats with the aid of three bumbling agents, and then finding himself thwarted in a very simple assignment by a Kafka-esque web of bureaucracy... with only Franz Kafka himself to assist him! His spy career continues in “Daredevils of the Desert,” in which he must again go undercover, this time with beautiful lady spy Catherine Zeta-Jones in Turk-occupied Beersheba. Future 007 Daniel Craig has a small part as a mustached officer.

Volume 3, due sometime next spring, presumably to coincide with the theatrical release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, contains two more episodes in Indy’s espionage career. “Tales of Innocence” offers up some more light-hearted cloak and dagger work in Italy and North Africa, while “Masks of Evil” contrasts that with two of the series’ darkest tales. Indy has a tragic love affair in an Ashenden-esque Istanbul-set adventure dealing with a plot ot assassinate French agents, and has his first encounter with the supernatural when he comes face-to-face with Vlad Dracula in the only story in the series to completely throw history to the wind. There are plenty of other good episodes in Volume 3, but they take place after WWI, and after Indy’s days as a spy are over. One, however, "The Mystery of the Blues," is notable for featuring future Felix Leiter Jeffrey Wright as jazz legend Sidney Bechet. (The same episode guest-stars Harrison Ford as a fifty-something Indy telling the tale.)

The sets progress chrono-logically, and Volume 2 contains most of Indiana Jones’ espionage adventures, but all three sets of this wonderful show should definitely be worth getting, not just for the series itself, but also for the new historical documentaries. I really can’t wait to have this show on DVD.

Book Review: HURRICANE GOLD by Charlie Higson (2007)

Book Review: Hurricane Gold

Under a shiny gold cover, Charlie Higson’s third Young Bond novel finds the 14-year-old James Bond far from the safety of Eton, where his adventures usually begin. James is accompanying his aunt Charmian (a Fleming creation mentioned in You Only Live Twice, but fleshed out by Higson to be an anthropologist) on an expedition to Mexico in 1934. A powerful storm forces Charmian to deposit James in the company of two bratty siblings, JJ and Precious Stone (I’m surprised Fleming himself didn’t think of that one!), while she flies off into the jungle with the children’s father, WWI air ace Jack Stone. While James is holed up with the spoiled siblings, a vicious gang of thieves break into their house in the middle of the storm and take Precious and JJ hostage in a Key Largo scenario. And all that happens in just the first few chapters!

Hurricane Gold could be seen as Higson’s homage to Doctor No, with most of the action taking place on the run through the jungle, culminating in a diabolical obstacle course very similar to that of the good doctor. However, it ultimately owes more to Indiana Jones (specifically Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) than to any James Bond book or film. One breathless escape leads directly into another, filling the book with pretty much wall-to-wall action. The plot of Higson’s last Bond novel, Double or Die, was driven by a complex puzzle, a coded message that James and his friends needed to decipher. Clearly, the author wanted to go in the exact opposite direction with his next book, requiring no puzzle-solving–and very little thought whatsoever!–of his young hero, who is whisked along on a breathless thrill ride, primarily driven by external forces. Throughout Hurricane Gold, and in stark contrast to Double or Die, James is required to react far more often than he is to act. That formula makes for a pulse-pounding page turner, as they say, but ultimately a less rewarding read than the previous book.

In one breathtaking sequence, James helps Precious and her little brother escape the storm–and the gang. They try to move inland, away from the ravaged coast, only to be literally thrown backwards by a rising river in another spectacular action scene. In the aftermath of the ensuing flood, they once more run into the gang, which is led by an enigmatic American named Mrs. Glass.

James and Precious are again taken prisoner, again escape (getting separated from third-wheel JJ in the process), and again run into a member of the gang. Eventually they escape from him, only to once more be recaptured. One of Ian Fleming’s more memorable villains once analyzed his recurring run-ins with the adult James Bond thusly: “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but a third time it's enemy action.” Auric Goldfinger understood that only so much could be chalked up to coincidence, as did Fleming, who divided the villain’s eponymous book into three sections, appropriately entitled “Happenstance,” “Coincidence” and “Enemy Action.” There’s only so much coincidence a villain–or a reader–will accept. Higson seriously strains credibility this time out by allowing a third and fourth instance of coincidence before James and Precious finally take some not particularly well thought-out action against their enemy. Their action leads them directly into the clutches of another villainous type, known as El Huracán.

We meet El Huracán in the book’s first chapter, wherein we also get our first glimpse of his deadly, critter-filled obstacle course, La Avenida de la Muerte. El Huracán runs a haven for criminals on the run–provided they have lots of loot and are willing to live out the rest of their days on his island paradise. Throughout the book we occasionally cut back to El Huracán and his island, setting up the inevitable confrontation between El Huracán and James Bond, and young James’ equally inevitable ordeal in La Avenida de la Muerte. Unfortunately, since James and Precious are not on a course that will naturally lead them to El Huracán, we also resign ourselves that this meeting will have to be manufactured, and these “teaser” chapters have the unfortunate effect of making all that leads up to that meeting seem a bit like treading water. (Exciting water, nonetheless!)

All of Higson’s other Young Bond novels have had a clear mission for James, even though it’s not one officially assigned to him by a government agency, as in Anthony Horowitz’s rival teen spy series. In SilverFin, James had to discover what happened to his friend Red Kelly’s missing cousin. In Blood Fever, he had to save the captured sister of a fellow Eton student. And in Double or Die, he had to locate and rescue his kidnapped professor. His only goal in Hurricane Gold is survival, for himself and for Precious. Survival is a perfectly good goal for adventure stories, but it somehow doesn’t feel as Bondian.

Among the many threats to that survival, James encounters every imaginable sort of reptile and disgusting insect. These include scorpions, wasps, mosquitoes (with which James has already tangled in Blood Fever) and army ants. The latter provide that particularly gruesome death scene for a baddie that’s become a staple of the series when a column of the unstoppable fiends cut and bite their way through a paralyzed thug. All of the above-mentioned insects provide plot points, but for good measure Higson also throws in botflies, who provide nothing but some extra grossness that the author seems to believe (correctly, I suppose) that his young male readers crave. I suppose if you’re crafting a boys’ adventure story set in the jungle, you need to include the real-life version of the popular urban legend about insects laying eggs in people’s skin for the maggots to later feed on and burrow out of. Don’t make the mistake of reading the botfly chapter while eating lunch, as I did!

Overall, Higson has really embraced that “boys’ own adventure” mantra this time around. Judging from the popularity of the series in England, he seems to know what boys want, but in Hurricane Gold that mentality unfortunately leads the series away from roots that feel Bondian and steadfastly toward the more gross-out elements of serial-inspired adventures like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Despite my criticisms, there is still plenty to like in Hurricane Gold. Once again, Higson manages to slyly sneak plenty of nearly undetectable education into his action, and it’s all fascinating stuff. (Fleming himself, a professional journalist, was a master of this, but he didn’t have to be quite as sly about it as his intended audience–at the time, anyway–wasn’t young boys.) Kids will learn about pre-war geopolitics, Mexican history and jungle zoology. Even though they’re not specifically designed to educate, like The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, the Young Bond adventures offer far more information than a lot of Young Adult literature.

Readers are also treated to another cavalcade of memorable characters. Even though James’ stable of Eton friends (who we just got to know a lot better in the last book) sit this one out, he encounters a number of memorable allies and enemies. American gangsters Strabo, Whatzat and Manny the Girl are all well-drawn antagonists, and worthy predecessors (or successors, depending on how you look at it) to Fleming’s many gangster types, like Shady Tree, Whisper, Slugsy and Horror. (Fleming always seemed fascinated with eccentric American gangsters.) There’s a Japanese semi-villain named Sakata (in a nice tribute to the Oddjob actor) who teaches James some of his first lessons in hand-to-hand combat, and a proto-Marc-Ange Draco/Kerim Bey figure who straddles the line between good and evil, and makes young James a tempting offer at a very different life than the one he goes on to lead. Finally, Precious Stone is a wonderful creation. Whereas all the other Young Bond Girls have been very (almost anachronistically) capable, self-sufficient, even tomboyish lasses, Precious is a very girly girl. She starts out a lot like Temple of Doom’s Willie Scott, but actually undergoes a more believable transformation over the course of the book, not only growing as a person, but becoming a more likable character.

Hurricane Gold may be Charlie Higson’s weakest entry so far (Blood Fever is his best), but it’s still a fast-paced, action-packed adventure, and certainly not an embarrassment to the James Bond brand. Even at its weakest, the Young Bond series is still first rate YA fiction, and first-rate James Bond. All of Higson’s books so far have managed to rank among the very best of the 007 continuation novels, and even if its target audience is children, I can’t recommend the series highly enough for adult Bond fans.

More pictures of the golden hardcover first edition.

Read my review of Double or Die.

Read my review of the Young Bond Rough Guide To London.

Order Hurricane Gold for half price from Amazon.co.uk.

Young Indiana Jones On DVD

One of my favorite TV shows of all time is finally coming to DVD starting this fall, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! George Lucas’s epic series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles certainly isn’t a spy show through and through, but it did feature a good number of fantastic espionage-themed adventures. A teenaged version of Harrison Ford’s globetrotting archaeologist (played to perfection by Sean Patrick Flannery) cut his teeth on cloak and dagger missions in WWI. One episode (written by Carrie Fisher no less) of the historically based series found young Indy crossing paths with (and losing his virginity to!) that most famous of spies, Mata Hari. Another (written by Frank Darabont and later titled "Adventures In the Secret Service" for home video), had him embroiled in Austrian and Prussian court intrigue when tasked with delivering a secret treaty from one European royal family to another at the behest of guest star Christopher Lee. (That one had trains, illicit border crossings, shadowy European alleyways... everything you want from a good spy movie!) There was a wonderfully tragic episode where Indy was assigned as station chief for the British secret service (I think) in Istanbul that reminded me a lot of W. Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden stories. Those are some of the spy episodes I remember off the top of my head, but there were even more. I can’t wait to rediscover this childhood favorite on DVD!

According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, the first of three sets comes out October 23 from Paramount. The second batch is due in January, and the third timed to coincide with Indy’s latest theatrical adventure (which is set during the Cold War and rumored to have a spy angle itself) next May. The only problem with that release pattern is that if they go chronologically, most of the first batch will feature the even younger version of Indiana Jones, Cory Carrier, instead of Flannery, and those episodes tended to be not as good and not as spy-oriented. On the upside, Lucasfilm has been busy for years creating hundreds of hours of historical documentaries as bonus material for this release, so it shouldn’t disappoint!

"If I fail to report, '008 replaces me!"

Looking Back On 2'007

Well, the year of 007 has come to an end, and neither the James Bond publishers nor movie producers took advantage of the number. (Ironically, the year of Bond’s frequently-threatened replacement, 2008, looks to be much more promising for the British superspy.) In fact, the only people who did take advantage of the year, weirdly, were the cover designers of the Cool McCool DVD set! (Which has now managed to date itself, I suppose.) Without a new entry in The Moneypenny Diaries series, it was up to Charlie Higson’s Young Bond to represent 007 in his year, which he did admirably (in not one, but two new books), but in adventures set long before James earned his deadly prefix. Both Casino Royale and the remastered boxsets of Bond DVDs were released in 2006, so the only Bond movie event of this past year was the release of Casino Royale on DVD, and Sony even failed to capitalize on the fortuitous year in the marketing for that! But with 007 M.I.A., 2007 still proved to be a fantastic year for spies. Here’s my Top 7 of ‘007:

1. The Bourne Ultimatum
2007 brought us the best action spy movie in years, a truly fantastic achievement for director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon despite straying so far from their Robert Ludlum source material.

2. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
The classic American spy show, long demanded by fans, was finally released on DVD–and in lavish style courtesy of Time-Life. The 40-disc set contained all four seasons packed in an elaborate attache case box along with six discs’ worth of terrific bonus material!

3. Double or Die
Charlie Higson continued to reward Bond fans with another excellent entry in his series of "Young Bond" novels, which has proved to be far, far better than such a far-fetched premise ever had any right to be. The novel was accompanied by a very impressive companion piece, The Young Bond Rough Guide to London, which served as a guidebook to all the locations James visits on his breakneck chase across the British capital. Fans were surprised and delighted by the arrival of the follow-up novel, Hurricane Gold, in the same year, but that one, while still entertaining, failed to live up to the high marks set by Double or Die and Blood Fever.

4. Breach
This unassuming little reality-based spy drama proved a surprise treat espionage spy fans early in the year, and turned out to be a better movie–and DVD–than Universal’s much more flashy, more highly-budgeted spy epic The Good Shepherd. Chris Cooper gave a peerless performance as FBI turncoat Robert Hanssen, one certainly deserving of Oscar consideration if only the Academy members can be bothered to remember a movie from February....

5. Burn Notice
Another surprise treat. USA’s escapist summer spy show started its debut season as entertaining fluff most notable for the presence of co-star Bruce Campbell, but ended up compulsory viewing for fans of the genre as series star Jeffrey Donovan won us over with his appealing, sarcastic voice-over and ability to move effortlessly from action to drama to comedy.

6. Tie: Mission: Impossible: The 3rd TV Season and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Vol. 2
In addition to U.N.C.L.E., we also got the best season yet of another Sixties TV chestnut, Mission: Impossible. Season 3 is the perfect starting point for anyone thinking about sampling this excellent series for the first time. On top of that, spy fans were spoiled with even more great TV-on-DVD, foremost among them the long-awaited DVD debut of another fantastic spy series, this one from the Nineties and rarely thought of as a spy series at all. Still, Young Indiana Jones spends the better part of this nine-disc set in the employ of French and Belgian Intelligence, and we're also treated to some great documentaries on WWI espionage and its most infamous practitioner, Mata Hari.

7. Left On Mission
Another out-of-the-blue surprise! Chip Mosher and Francesco Francavilla’s beautiful and well-paced comic book mini-series provided more intrigue, exotic locations, and rich characterizations than most new spy novels or movies in 2007.

A special mention should also be made of Tim Lucas’ long-in-the-making tome, Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark. While the percentage of spy material in this mammoth volume (devoted mostly, like Bava’s career, to the horror genre) is too low to merit a place on a best-of list devoted specifically to spies, Lucas still manages to give us the most insight yet published on the Italian film industry of the Sixties that spawned the whole Eurospy genre, and thoroughly in-depth accounts on the making of two such movies, Bava’s masterpiece Danger: Diabolik and disasterpiece Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. The latter is a very insignificant entry in the Eurospy cycle, but I suspect the account of its making to be fairly universal for that genre.

So what’s ahead? Most of the highlights of 2007 came as surprises, but it’s fairly easy to telegraph the spylights of 2008 from this vantage point. As the Centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth, ‘08 promises to be the kind of Bondian year that ‘007 should have been, by all rights. In addition to Sebastian Faulks’ eagerly-anticipated, Cold War-set continuation novel, Devil May Care, we’ll also get Charlie Higson’s final Young Bond novel, the first Young Bond graphic novel (an adaptation of Silverfin), and the one that I’m personally most looking forward to, the conclusion of Samantha Weinberg’s Moneypenny Diaries trilogy, Final Fling. On top of all that, the Centenary will also bring us some more books about 007 and his creator, some cool exhibits (if you’re lucky enough to be in London this summer), a nifty line of British postage stamps and, oh yeah, a new movie starring that Daniel Craig guy! The movie will no doubt be accompanied the usual slew of Bondian publications that come out whenever a new film debuts, ensuring that both spring and fall burn holes in the wallets of Bond aficionados...

In addition to the still-untitled Bond 22, ‘08 will bring us the bigscreen version of Get Smart (as well as a direct-to-DVD companion movie), Tom Tykwer’s Interpol adventure The International, starring Clive Owen, Ridley Scott’s contemporary spy drama Body of Lies, and plenty of other spy movies. Even James Bond’s most famous cinematic progeny returns to the screen after nearly twenty years, when Indiana Jones throws his hat into the Cold War spy arena taking on Russian agents instead of Nazis. Of course, on top of all that we’ve got to expect and look forward to, there could be more of those nice surprises in store as well. What will be 2008's Burn Notice or Left On Mission? I look forward to finding out!

In conclusion, I want to wish a Happy New Year to all Double O Section readers. I hope that 2008 proves to be a great year for all!

Spy DVD News Roundup

New James Bond Discs On The Way

Readers who frequent the various big James Bond websites will probably already be aware of some exciting new releases coming this fall from MGM and Fox, but they're certainly worth mentioning here as well... and perhaps I can even add a few small details.

Amazon recently added listings for two new items, "The James Bond Monster Box" and a "Casino Royale 40th Anniversary Edition," both due out (according to the site) on November 6. Fan site MI6.co.uk has reported that the new Casino Royale (that's the '67 version, of course)has been delayed until early 2008, but the truth is there has still been no official press release on either of these products and the studio won't yet confirm a release date, so for now all we have to go by is what Amazon says. And Amazon has been wrong before!

A complete Region 1 set of all the Bond movies has been in the offing for a while from Fox, but has gone through several iterations. A prototype was created this past summer for an attache case containing the two-disc versions of all twenty movies that were released from MGM in the four individual sets last fall in the main portion, and Sony's two-disc release of the 2006 Casino Royale on the flip side. This packaging would have been similar to Australia's well-received attache case collection. But when the Amazon listing went up, a different design was originally pictured, which was basically just a big box. (The box art said something like "The Complete Collection" and nothing about "Monster Box," which seems to be a term only being used by Amazon.) That art has since been removed from the retail site, however, so maybe things are in flux once again. Personally, I hope Fox (who release MGM's DVDs) will re-evaluate the attache case design, as that sounds pretty cool! What is known for sure about the set is that it will contain 42 discs, so it would seem that it's still set to include the two-disc special editions of the movies, which with the exception of Casino Royale, are currently available only in four collections. The individual editions contain just one disc and omit most of the special features.

While the 40th Anniversary Edition of the 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale, the famously troubled production starring David Niven, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen (among many, many others), also has yet to be confirmed, there is a little more information available for it. The disc will again be produced by well-known Bond expert and former chairman of the Ian Fleming Foundation, John Cork, whose Cloverland Productions also produced the last, non-special edition of the film for MGM, as well as all of the excellent Special Editions of the legit Bond movies. (Cork also co-authored a number of officially licensed books on 007, the latest of which, The James Bond Encyclopedia, is due out next month.) According to CommanderBond.net, Cork will team up with fellow Bond expert and author of the first encyclopedia on the subject, Steven Jay Rubin, for a commentary track. The site lists the following special features:

“Bond James Bond” featurette
“A 3 Ring Circus” featurette
“More Directors, More Stars” featurette
“The Big Climax” featurette
“It’s a Wrap!” featurette

Hopefully all of these featurettes will come together to form as definitive a documentary on the making of this film as all of Cork's other impressive James Bond making-of docus! I'd argue that Casino Royale actually has the most fascinating production history of any Bond film, and a well-done documentary on the subject could easily be more entertaining than the film itself, especially if the producers were able to get interviews with any of the surviving participants. Speaking of interviews, the one with co-director (among at least five) Val Guest that was included on the last DVD of Casino Royale is not listed among the extras for the new one, but it may well have been re-purposed and used in the featurettes. Also not yet announced is the best special feature on that last release, the black and white 1954 TV version of Casino Royale, starring Barry Nelson. I really hope this is included, although I suppose it's possible that copyright issues could preclude it. The other possibility, of course, is that Fox/MGM is planning a separate release down the road, giving this version its own special edition! Wouldn't that be great? If they are, I hope they managed to record a commentary with Nelson prior to his passing last spring. Genre specialists Spy Guise planned to put out a special edition DVD of the '54 version several years ago, but were forestalled in their efforts by EON and MGM.

Anyway, Amazon lists the retail price for Casino Royale: The 40th Anniversary Edition at $19.99. Thankfully, the packaging seems more in keeping with Fox's last wave of "Classic Spy Films" rather than the ugly artwork found on the current editions of the Bond DVDs. CBN points out that "James Bond" is mentioned nowhere on the cover, no doubt to keep the Broccolis pleased! Furthermore, Fox impressively managed to dig up a version of Robert McGinnis' iconic "tattooed girl" artwork for the movie that I've never seen before anywhere! Usually, she has the words "Casino Royale" tattooed onto her back, obscuring the many characters and scenes from the movie depicted on this version! None of the international variations on the poster artwork included in Tony Nourmand's fairly comprehensive book James Bond Movie Posters show these details, and the original painting included in McGinnis' own Tapestry contains the words. I suppose Fox could have commissioned new artwork, but since the trend in new DVD artwork is toward bad Photoshopping and not painting, that seems highly unlikely. If anyone knows the origins of this cover artwork, please let me know!

New Edition Of Hot Fuzz

No sooner did I complain about the lack of extras on the single disc American release compared to the two-disc British release of Hot Fuzz (co-starring Timothy Dalton) than Universal trumps even the Brits and announces a three-disc special edition coming to America this fall! DVDActive has a list of all the impressive features, which seems to cover everything on the UK edition (including the much-missed commentary track with Dalton!), everything on the existent American version, and more, including an extended version of "Fuzzball Rally," the featurette documenting the filmmakers' US press tour! The new edition is due out November 27, and retails for $34.99. I can see why some consumers who already purchased the single disc edition might be upset, but I've come to accept double-dipping as a necessity of the market, and I'm just glad we're getting the best edition possible without having to import from Region 2. So save your money, and don't get one of those Wal-Mart exclusives that are now going for $50 or more on Ebay!

Young Indy Press Release

LucasFilm has issued a press release with further details on the upcoming first volume of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (or The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, as they're now calling it). It won't actually contain any of the espionage episodes I mentioned before, and it won't contain the Daniel Craig episode that Zencat pointed out in a comment on that post, but it will contain some great episodes! Going chronologically, this set focuses primarily on Indy as a young boy, as played by Corey Carrier. I was never as into those episodes when the series initially aired, but there are quite a few of them I haven't seen, so I'm looking forward to them. The Carrier episodes included in this set are:

"My First Adventure," set and shot in Egypt
"Passion For Life," in Kenya and Paris
"The Perils of Cupid," in Vienna and Florence
"Travels With Father," in Russia and Greece
"Journey of Radiance," in China

Bear in mind that each "episode" here is actually two hour-long episodes from the original run on ABC, combined into one feature-length adventure. So we also get four episodes starring Sean Patrick Flannery as a teenaged Indy (some of my very favorites, in fact), combined into two features:

"Spring Break Adventure," in Princeton and Mexico
"Love's Sweet Song," in Ireland and London

Each adventure gets at least one disc to itself, and some get two. The whole set is 12 discs. Each adventure has a slew of documentaries on the historical situations or locations featured therein, with topics as varied as "Easter Rising—The Poets’ Rebellion," "The Mystery of Edward Stratemeyer [creator of Nancy Drew]," "Powder Keg—Europe 1900 to 1914," "Theodore Roosevelt and The American Century," "Braque + Picasso: A Collaboration Cubed," "Howard Carter and the Tomb of Tutankhamun," "Colonel Lawrence’s War: T.E. Lawrence and Arabia" and "The Passions of William Butler Yeats," among many others. And each of those is actually topical and relevant to the series! I have very high expectations for these documentaries, as they've been a passion project for George Lucas and he's had his people working on them for years, since before there was a format capable of containing them all! There's also a twelfth disco of additional bonus features.

Unfortunately, with all this space devoted to the history involved, there are no featurettes on the making of the series itself. Since the press release touts the fact that the series shot in thirty-five countries over four years, and "was the first television series to use digital production, pioneering processes that would pave the way for Lucas' own Star Wars prequels," I know there's a fascinating behind-the-scenes story to be told! In fact, I've read about it in other places, and producer Rick McCallum even claims, "Young Indiana Jones was one of the most ambitious and complex projects that had ever been attempted for television." So some making-of featurettes would be welcome companions to the historical documentaries. Hopefully, that will be covered in Volume 2 or 3.

Upcoming Spy DVDs

Executive Action

Somehow I missed this title when it was announced, but that makes it all the sweeter now, because it's just around the corner! Warner Bros. will release the well-regarded but previously hard-to-see 1973 Burt Lancaster conspiracy thriller Executive Action on October 23, the same day The Company and the first volume of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (which is what they're now officially calling The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) come out. That's shaping up to be a huge day for spy discs! Executive Action focuses on the Kennedy assassination and presents a plausible alternative to the official Warren Commission account. Retail will be $19.99.

Help! Is On The Way!

EMI have pushed back the long-awaited DVD premiere The Beatles' spy parody Help! by one week. The highly-anticipated double-disc set will now debut on November 6, 2007. I've updated my original story to reflect the new date.

The Name's Hope. Bob Hope.

Bob Hope is not really a name one readily associates with spy movies, but MGM's upcoming Bob Hope MGM Movie Legends Collection actually contains quite a few movies of interest to spy fans. In They've Got Me Covered (1943), Hope plays a reporter trying to crack a Nazi spy ring in Washington, D.C. Dorothy Lamour plays his girlfriend. Reading the plot description, I suddenly realized that I've seen this. I loved this movie as a kid, and have sometimes recalled scenes and tried in vain to remember what movie they were from. I guess I'll have my chance come December 4! (I hope it lives up to those memories...) The Road To Hong Kong finds frequent travelling companions Hope and Bing Crosby as vaudevillian con men caught up with Cold War spies. This last (and many would argue least) of the Road To movies was made in 1962, and predates the epic Sixties spy craze ushered in by 007 that same year. (Even at the bottom of their game, Hope and Crosby were ahead of the curve!) Spy stars Peter Sellers, Joan Collins, Robert Morley and Walter Gotell also appear. Boy, Did I Get the Wrong Number (1966, available on DVD for the first time ever in this set) co-stars sultry spy siren Elke Sommer as a European actress (quite a stretch!) famous for her bubble bath scenes who's grown sick of Hollywood. The Bob Hope MGM Movie Legends Collection will contain seven films total and retail for just $39.99.

Random Intelligence Dispatches For Thursday, August 23, 2007

Young Indy Cover Art

TVShowsOnDVD has scored the disappointingly underwhelming artwork for the first volume of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, due October 23 from Lucasfilm and CBS/Paramount. They've also got information on some of the discs' massive amounts of bonus content. As for the cover, I like the color and the braided edges, but I hate the photoshop artwork. I also miss the series' original logo, which looked better than simply adding a "Young" to the regular Indiana Jones logo. Still, with the fourth movie on its way, I supposed brand recognition is very important. But when it comes down to it, they could package this set in blank cardboard and I'd still buy it!

Sam Jackson On Nick Fury

Perhaps Samuel L. Jackson won't be playing one-eyed superspy Nick Fury in Iron Man after all? In an interview with AintItCoolNews, who first broke the story that he would be donning the eye patch, Jackson seems to have no idea what the interviewer is talking about when asked about the role. Is he serious, or is he dodging the question, as the AICN interviewer speculates? Jackson acts like he thinks he's being asked about the long-in-development Nick Fury movie, and not about a cameo in Iron Man. He does confirm that he's at least had talks about such a movie: "[Marvel] keep saying it and I keep looking forward to that happening and I keep running into [former Marvel honcho] Avi [Arad] and asking him, 'Is it going to happen?' He keeps saying, 'Well, we hope so… we hope so…' So that’s all I can do too."

Long Lost Avengers Reunion Discovered

It's long been reported that The New Avengers (the Seventies incarnation of the Sixties classic) came about because of a French champagne ad that reunited Patrick Macnee and his final partner Linda Thorson. But there didn't seem to be any copies of the commercial in existence, so some doubted that claim. I had always heard that it was a print ad, and not a TV ad. Recently there has been some very exciting activity on The Avengers.TV International Forum, and an Super8 film print of the commercial has been found, thus proving its existence! (Credit for the discovery must go to a Yahoo SecretAvengers Group member named "avengersteed" who contacted the champagne company, Laurent-Perrier.) David K. Smith has put together a comprehensive page on the subject on his excellent The Avengers Forever website, complete with a screen capture. The clip was briefly available on YouTube, but has since been removed. Hopefully it will one day find official release on a future DVD!

New Spy DVDs Out This Week - Updated

It's a big week for DVDs, with another one hot on its heels as next week sees the release of the James Bond Blu-Rays...

Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection

Today sees the release of that awesome new Hitchcock box set from MGM, The Premiere Collection. This one includes new versions (with different extras) of the long out-of-print (and very pricey) Criterion titles Notorious, Spellbound and Rebecca, as well as The Lodger, The Paradine Case, Young and Innocent, Sabotage and Lifeboat. Complementing these fantastic titles is a slew of new extras, including "audio commentaries, featurettes, screen tests, still galleries, vintage radio interviews, an AFI Tribute to Hitchcock, a 32-page notebook with trivia, production notes and more about the legendary director and more." Every film also has at least one commentary track. The specific spy movies included here are Sabotage (adapted from Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent) and the masterpiece Notorious. The latter boasts two commentaries by film historians, an isolated music and effects track, "The Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious" featurette, "Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster" featurette, an AFI Tribute to Hitchcock, a 1948 radio play starring Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman, a Peter Bogdanovich audio interview, a second audio interview with François Truffaut interviewing Hitch, a restoration comparison, a still gallery and a four page booklet. Whew! This set makes the ideal companion to Universal's and Warner Bros.' Hitchcock sets.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

While they're all indebted to (and often one-up) the James Bond series, Crystal Skull is the first Indy movie that can really be called a spy movie, since the antagonists are KGB agents led by Cate Blanchett's ice-cold Agent Irina Spalko. No, it's not as good as the original trilogy, but it's still a great adventure movie in its own right, and Harrison Ford doesn't miss a beat stepping back into his famous fedora-ed role almost two decades after The Last Crusade. The late fifties time period will also appeal to fans of classic spy flicks, best showcased in a stunning car and motorcycle chase through New Haven. The two-disc version is loaded with extras, as expected.

Additionally, Best Buy is offering all three sets of Young Indiana Jones DVDs (in which Indy spends much of WWI as a spy) for just $49.99 each to tie in with Crystal Skull's debut. This is a considerable discount over their $100+ retail price.

The Unit

Fox releases The Complete Third Season of its covert ops drama The Unit today, loaded with extras. This series, masterminded by David Mamet and Shield creator Shawn Ryan is an interesting look at the military side of spying.

Sweet Sixteen

Fans of The Avengers will also want to be on the lookout this week for the 1983 horror movie Sweet Sixteen, in which Patrick Macnee plays the father of a promiscuous teenage girl, all of whose male conquests suddenly turn up dead immediately after sleeping with her. The new director's cut DVD comes courtesy of Code Red.

Tradecraft: Piloxing Teen Witch Gets a Passport

So Proctor & Gamble, that consumer goods behemoth that makes everything from Old Spice to Bounty to Duracel to Tampax, encompassing brands as disparate as Pringles and Dolce & Gabbana, also dabbles in movies.  Family-friendly television movies.  They've aired three so far on NBC as time buys, meaning that the company pays for a whole two-hour chunk of advertising time, but mixes in some original programming amidst the commercials.  These movies are all envisioned as backdoor pilots, meaning that they could potentially spawn their own series, but so far none of them have.  It was only a matter of time before P&G got around to the spy genre, and sure enough, they're plunging in now with Passport starring Robyn Lively.  Despite a consistent career including guest stints on shows as high-profile as JAG, 30 Rock, The X-Files and Psych, many people probably still remember Lively best from her title role in the 1989 cult classic Teen Witch, or her part in Twin Peaks. Not me. To me, she'll always be proto-Nancy Drew Nancy Stratemeyer, Indiana Jones' high school sweetheart on The Young Indiana Jones Chroincles. But now she's Piloxing amateur spy Meredith... oh, I better start at the beginning.

This is one of those loglines that simply beggars belief—especially considering that the date on this Deadline article is April 1. I'm gonna guess it's for real, though, because Deadline doesn't seem like the sort of site to go in for April Fooling. According to the trade blog (presumably quoting an official synopsis), "Passport stars Robyn Lively as Meredith, an expert chef skilled in Piloxing (Pilates mixed with boxing) who is raising her teen kids alone because of her geologist husband Simon's (Loren Dean) erratic travel schedule. When Simon doesn't return home from his latest trip, Michelle [surely they mean Meredith?] launches an investigation and discovers that he has been leading a double-life as a covert intelligence operative with CAD (Clandestine Activities Division). Along [with?] her teenage daughter (Skyler Day), she travels to Europe to save Simon, who was abducted during his latest mission and must work together with his captor to bring down a traitor at CAD." Sounds sort of like Meet Jane meets Missing with... Piloxing?  And a dab of Salt for good measure? (The pilot script for Missing, by the way, is awesome, and I probably do it a disservice by mentioning anywhere near a nonsense word that's partially made out exercise trend.) Oh, who am I kidding? I'll give it a watch...

Ian McKellen To Play Auric Goldfinger!

...on the radio.  Remember that news item last October when we first heard that EON Productions had sanctioned a follow-up to the "Dr. No" radio adaptation that aired on the BBC in celebration of Ian Fleming's Centenary?  Well, now there's a press release from Ian Fleming Publications revealing the spy star-studded cast of the new radioplay!  (Thanks to CBn for spreading the news on this.)  The great Ian McKellen (most recently seen as Number Two on AMC's remake of The Prisoner) will star in the title role, while Die Another Day alumni Toby Stephens and Rosamund Pike will reunite as James Bond and Pussy Galore, respectively.  (Stephens is reprising the 007 role from the "Dr. No" radioplay.)  Tim Piggot-Smith (Quantum of Solace, Spooks, Johnny English) plays Mr. Solo, and we'll get to hear former Saint Ian Ogilvy deliver the lecture on gold as Col. Smithers.  Lloyd Owen, who essayed Sean Connery's role of Professor Henry Jones, Sr. on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, will play Felix Leiter, and Tom Hollander and Hector Elizondo round out the cast.  Quite a line-up!  The radioplay (a dramatisation of Ian Fleming's novel, not the film) is from producers Jarvis & Ayres, the same people behind "Dr. No."

I'm really excited to hear McKellen as a Bond villain.  Surely they'll keep the famous film line, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" even though it's not from the novel?  I can hear his delivery already!  I really wish the filmmakers would cast McKellen or someone of his ilk as a villain.  I miss the day of older, distinguished villains who could really relish their villainy.  I know that in the Brosnan era it was decided that younger villains, more equal physical matches for 007, were better, but I don't wholly agree.