Double O Section 10th Anniversary: Top 7 Spy Movie Set Pieces of the Last Decade

Spy movies, perhaps more than any other genre, are known for their setpieces. I would say we have Alfred Hitchcock to thank for that mainly, but the Bond movies certainly solidified the expectation of at least one great setpiece in any spy movie. A good setpiece can transcend a bad movie (Moonraker isn't many people's favorite Bond film, but who would dare claim that the midair fight over a parachute isn't spectacular?), or even ruin a good one (I realize I'm in the minority here, but I was more or less on board with Kingsman up until that ugly and misanthropic—but undeniably well-shot—church scene insinuated itself into my mind as the movie's truly indelible legacy). A classic setpiece (even one borrowed from another film) can define not only a movie but a franchise, as happened when Brian De Palma riffed on Topkapi for the famous dangling sequence in the first Mission: Impossible feature. So while some of these setpieces come from spy films I selected as the best of the last decade, I still feel that they deserve a list of their own. So on that note, and continuing the celebration of the Double O Section's ten years on the Internet, here are...

My Favorite Spy Movie Setpieces 2006-2016

1. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Opera Sequence (2015)

Brian De Palma may have built a career on (quite ably) creating his own distinctly Hitchcockian setpieces, but Christopher McQuarrie did him one better in the fifth Mission: Impossible movie with a sequence in which Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) must prevent an assassination from the wings of a performance of "Turandot" at the Vienna State Opera. Guided by the same gimmick that gave structure to one of Hitch's most memorable setpieces in his second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, the action builds logically to the piece of music being performed on stage ("Nessun Dorma"), its inevitable violent conclusion punctuated by a circled note in a musician's score. Into this McQuarrie organically weaves good looking actors in tuxedos and gowns, a gun disguised as a bass flute, a fight literally informed by stage business, and even moments of unforced comic relief. It's the most beautifully staged sequence in any spy film during the last decade.

2. Casino Royale Parkour Chase (2006)

There was little typical about Martin Campbell's James Bond reboot Casino Royale, and the signature action sequence that would normally come before the credits instead unfolds just after them, the pre-credits moments having been used, quite effectively, to show the new Bond (Daniel Craig) earning his Double O status. The Madagascar-set foot chase boldly lays out a new direction of the venerable franchise, declaring quite forcefully that 007 can not only compete in an arena becoming crowded by challengers like the kinetic Jason Bourne or the extreme xXx; he can still dominate. It also firmly established what we could expect of Craig. As much as I loved Pierce Brosnan's performance as James Bond, it's impossible to imagine him in his fifties convincingly keeping pace with freerunner Sébastien Foucan, the real-life athlete who plays the bomb maker Bond is chasing. This is a fantastic example of when the Bond producers see something spectacular (like a car executing a barrel roll or a skier parachuting off of a cliff) and make it their own, and demonstrated that Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli could do that just as well as Cubby. Although parkour had been utilized in Luc Besson's niche District B13 French action movies, it was not then as ubiquitous as it has since become thanks to Casino Royale. After Austin Powers and Jason Bourne, 007 was at risk of becoming passe. But when Daniel Craig crashed through a wall to even the distance with his quarry, it became immediately clear that the venerable character wasn't going anywhere.

3. The Bourne Ultimatum Tangier Rooftop Chase (2007)

Paul Greengrass may have established his seemingly chaotically immersive put-the-viewer-in-the-middle-of-the-action style in The Bourne Supremacy, but he finessed it greatly in The Bourne Ultimatum. Nowhere is that better demonstrated than in the film's breathtakingly exciting rooftop chase through Tangier. The North African city, with its romantic blend of African and European architecture, has long been an iconic spy location, and this chase scene achieves the ideal symbiosis between elaborate action and exotic setting. Greengrass and cinematographer Oliver Wood take full advantage of the city's distinctive rooftops, bristling with antennas, as Bourne (Matt Damon) pursues an assassin named (perhaps prophetically) Desh on motorcycle and on foot. It's impressive watching Ludlum's amnesiac agent ride the motorcycle up as well as down the city's narrow staircases, but the really exhilarating moment audiences all remember comes when, in one especially spectacular shot, the hand-held camera leaps after Bourne from one upper storey window into another in the middle of the foot chase! If I had to pinpoint one moment during this decade that spy (and action) filmmaking changed, that would be it. Greengrass took action photography to a new level, and we've seen that move (which featured prominently in the movie's trailers and TV spots) copied again and again ever since, in everything from Quantum of Solace to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Just as the Wachowskis' famous "bullet-time" shot from The Matrix had defined the previous decade of action cinema, this one did the next.

4. SPECTRE Pre-Credits Sequence (2015)

If you ever doubted that competition was good for the marketplace, just witness the sometimes hostile oneupmanship that's gone on between the Bond and Bourne franchises since 2002. Here is another sequence that offers its own variation on Greengrass's iconic window-to-window leap, but raises the stakes. While Greengrass's camera stayed on his hero for that single breathtaking moment, Sam Mendes and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema kept their camera on Daniel Craig's James Bond for a full four minutes, culminating in action sequence much larger in scale than jumping through a window. This is an example of a setpiece that's greater than the movie that contains it. The entire pre-title sequence, from its striking production design to its stunning Mexico City location to that Touch of Evil-style tracking shot, is the most memorable part of SPECTRE. I've watched the opening far more times than I've watched the whole movie since buying the Blu-ray.

5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Guillam's File Theft (2011)

Of course, a great spy movie setpiece doesn't have to involve action. Van Hoytema also shot an equally striking, equally thrilling sequence for Tomas Alfredson's 1970s-set Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Like McQuarrie, Alfredson channels Hitchcock in making a trip to a library as exciting as Tom Cruise dangling from something. It may sound like heresy to some fans, but one scene in which the BBC's Tinker, Tailor miniseries always let me down was in its translation of the most suspenseful scene from John le Carré's novel in which Smiley's right-hand man, Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) is tasked with removing a file from the ultra-secure registry of the Circus. Smiley is an outsider, and requires the file for his investigation into which of the cabal currently in charge of British Intelligence is a Soviet mole. Alfredson actually improves upon the sacred text of the miniseries in this sequence. His careful camera movement and deliberate, beautifully composed shots all make visual the paranoia that Guillam is feeling as he betrays his bosses for the greater good. It's another perfect marriage of cinematography, production design, direction and acting, and to me it's the film's iconic scene.

6. Jason Bourne Greek Protest Chase (2016)

And here we are once again returning to Paul Greengrass and Jason Bourne. The fourth Bourne movie with Matt Damon is regrettably not nearly as good a film as Ultimatum, but it still boasts an incredible setpiece—easily the best I've seen this year. Once again Bourne is on a motorcycle, this time weaving through increasingly angry crowds of protesters at an anti-austerity rally in Greece. It's the perfect backdrop for a spy chase in our present time, turning the social unrest currently boiling over all around the world into an obstacle and cover for our hero. Furthermore, while his imitators seem to get worse and worse, Greengrass just keeps getting better at doing what he does. As in Green Zone, you feel like you're right in the middle of this dangerous protest as shots ring out making it even more dangerous. This time Bourne is the prey rather than the pursuer, and the sense of danger is palpable. It might not be the best entry in the series, but Jason Bourne is well worth seeing for this incredible sequence alone!

7. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Burj Khalifa Sequence (2011)

Yes, I keep returning to the same several franchises. But there's a reason that they're the top box office draws in the spy genre, and the reason is their amazing setpieces. Tom Cruise seems driven to top himself in each Mission: Impossible entry by performing a wilder stunt that takes him further off the ground than he was in the previous film. Since dangling was clearly established as his character's thing in the original Mission: Impossible movie, dangling from the world's tallest building was probably too tempting an opportunity to resist. With Tom Cruise there's an extra layer at play in an action setpiece, because we all know that he's pretty much nuts and loves to put himself in physical danger. In Bond movies we generally take it for granted that it's a stuntman performing the more improbable feats, and that's never detracted from them one bit for me. But there's an extra frisson in knowing that you're watching the movie's actual star in peril. The circumstances that demand that Cruises's Ethan Hunt go mountaineering about outside the famed Dubai skyscraper are quite ingeniously concocted, and director Brad Bird achieves spectacle by going the opposite direction as Greengrass. Instead of putting the camera close up, right behind the star's head, he opens it up wide, showing us the entire vista and making the deadly geography immediately clear. And home viewings will never match the added spectacle of seeing this film in an IMAX theater, where the image itself opened up from scope to fill the entire large format screen from top to bottom. The dizzying vista was literally breathtaking.

So what were your favorite setpieces of the last decade? Please feel free to weigh in in the comments below! And check back all week for more lists and some great contests!

New Jason Bourne Poster

Universal has released a new international poster for Jason Bourne, Matt Damon's eagerly anticipated return to the titular Robert Ludlum character. Frankly, it's a pretty boring poster, if you ask me. (Especially compared with the simple, but exciting, teaser.) It looks like someone Photoshopped Damon's head onto a Taken poster... or lazily rehashed the worst James Bond campaign, from Die Another Day. That said, the movie itself (which also heralds the return to the franchise of director Paul Greengrass) looks characteristically fantastic! And it's nice to see Oscar winner Alicia Vikander getting a more prominent spot in the film's advertising than she did for her last spy movie, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Jason Bourne opens July 29 in the United States.

New Poster: Jason Bourne

Here's the second teaser poster for Jason Bourne, the fourth movie starring Matt Damon as Robert Ludlum's amnesiac superspy, and the third directed by Paul Greengrass. Jason Bourne opens July 27, 2016 (two days earlier than previously announced). Watch the latest trailer here. View the first poster (same slogan, full body) here.

Trailer: Jason Bourne

We got our first glimpse in nine years at Matt Damon in action as Jason Bourne during the Super Bowl spot for the eponymous new movie. Today, Universal has released the full trailer, and it looks pretty spectacular! Damon re-teams with his Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum and Green Zone director Paul Greengrass, and the results are exactly what you'd expect of that team. Jason Bourne (which bodly abandons the traditional Robert Ludlum title structure) opens July 29.  Alicia Vikander (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.), Vincent Cassel (Agents Secrets), Tommy Lee Jones (Criminal) and Julia Stiles (reprising her role from previous Bourne movies) co-star.



Read my review of Paul Greengrass's The Bourne Ultimatum here.

Read my review of Tony Gilroy's The Bourne Legacy here.

Read my review of the 1988 miniseries of The Bourne Identity here.

Read my review of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity here.

Read my review of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Supremacy here.

Read my review of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Ultimatum here. 

Trailer: Matt Damon's Jason Bourne Returns in... Jason Bourne

In a bit of a shocker, the new Paul Greengrass/Matt Damon Bourne movie will not follow the standard Robert Ludlum title convention of "The Bourne ______." Instead, it will simply be called... Jason Bourne. While it makes sense to make the title so personal now that Damon's former amnesiac has remembered all of his past at the end of 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum, I'm not really a fan of the "hero's name" school of title that gave us Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher and John Carter. (I still think we're incredibly lucky that the first 007 picture didn't turn out to be called James Bond of the Secret Service! Imagine if the producers had ended up beholden to that formula?) But not only does Jason Bourne strike a personal chord (though shouldn't it really be David Webb if that's what they're going for, since that turned out to be the character's real name?), but it also sends a clear message that this movie really is about Jason Bourne, the hero we want to see, played by Matt Damon, and not about some random stand-in like Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross! (Don't get me wrong; despite not particularly liking The Bourne Legacy, I'd still like to see an Aaron Cross follow-up, just not misrepresented as a Bourne movie.) So here is our first look at the man himself, Jason Bourne, back in action, in, as expected, this Super Bowl spot.



Jason Bourne is scheduled to open on July 29. Alicia Vikander (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.), Vincent Cassel (Agents Secrets), Ato Essandoh (Elementary), Tommy Lee Jones (Yuri Nosenko, KGB) and Julia Stiles (reprising her role from previous Bourne movies) also star.

Read my review of Paul Greengrass's The Bourne Ultimatum here.

Read my review of Tony Gilroy's The Bourne Legacy here.

Read my review of the 1988 miniseries of The Bourne Identity here.

Read my review of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity here.

Read my review of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Supremacy here.

Read my review of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Ultimatum here. 

New Bourne Title, Trailer Expected February 7 During Super Bowl

According to Dark Horizons, Bourne continuation novelist Eric Van Lustbader (who took over after Robert Ludlum's death even though the original author had very neatly tied up his trilogy about the amnesiac assassin) posted on his Facebook page that the first trailer for the new Jason Bourne movie, re-teaming Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Supremacy), will air during the Super Bowl on February 7. There's no sign of any such post on his page now, so this shouldn't be taken as gospel. But it does seem likely that he let the cat out of the bag early and tried to stuff it back in. With the trailer will come the reveal of the film's title, which hasn't yet been announced. Tony Gilroy's Damon-less (and Bourne-less) spinoff movie The Bourne Legacy utilized a title (but not plot) from one of Van Lustbader's continuation novels, so if Van Lustbader is teasing the new one it seems logical to assume that the new movie will as well. (It would be hard not to. Van Lustbader has written about a billion Bourne novels by now, compared with Ludlum's three, so he's already put just about every espionage-related word that one can after the name "Bourne!" His latest, due out this summer, is called The Bourne Enigma.) Whatever it's called, the next Damon/Greengrass Bourne movie is probably my own most anticipated spy movie of 2016, and I can't wait to get a glimpse of what they've got in store! Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, Vincent Cassel and series veteran Julia Stiles co-star.

First Picture of Bourne Back in Action

Bourne series producer Frank Marshall Tweeted the first photo of Matt Damon back in action as Jason Bourne from the set today. Damon, 44, slips back into the role of Robert Ludlum's formerly amnesiac superspy Jason Bourne for the first time since 2007. (Jeremy Renner kept the series warm for him with a disappointing spinoff in 2012.) And, clearly, he's gotten himself super ripped for the occasion. The new, still untitled Damon Bourne movie, re-teaming the star with his Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass, was previously slated for release next July, but Deadline reports that it is now unscheduled. Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, Vincent Cassel and series veteran Julia Stiles co-star.

Tradecraft: Julia Stiles Returns to Bourne

The next Bourne movie, featuring the long awaited return of Matt Damon to the role of Jason Bourne, Paul Greengrass to the director's chair, and Jason Bourne himself (absent from The Bourne Legacy) to the series whose titles bear his name, is finally casting up. Deadline confirms that Julia Stiles will reprise her role from the first three movies as CIA agent Nicky Parsons. I've often suggested that Nicky would make a good stand-in for Marie (regrettably killed off in the movies) should the filmmakers ever decide to actually adapt Robert Ludlum's terrific novel The Bourne Supremacy, of which they only used the title for the second movie, not the plot. She is, as far as we know, the only other woman that the Bourne of the films cares about enough that her kidnapping might stir him to action. But that's just my own fantasizing; the trade provides no details on what Damon, Greengrass and co-writer Christopher Rouse (Greengrass's frequent editor) have in store for her character. Last month we heard that The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s Alicia Vikander is also up for a role, but that hasn't yet been confirmed.

Additionally, The Wrap's Jeff Sneider tweeted last week that Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises) has been offered a "bad guy role" in the film. Should he accept, that would be pretty damn cool! The Bourne movies haven't really had traditional "villains" (Clive Owen, Karl Urban and Edgar Ramirez, respectively, played antagonists with almost no lines in the first three films), but CIA officials tracking Bourne (played by the likes of Chris Cooper, Joan Allen, Brian Cox and Edward Norton) could also qualify as "bad guys" in these films. It will be interesting to see what kind of role they have in store for Mortensen. I'd love to see Bourne go up against a more clearly defined enemy. (Again, Ludlum's Bourne Supremacy provides such a character. As do his other two Bourne novels in the form of Carlos the Jackal. It would be very cool to see Mortensen play some sort of Carlos analogue, and to see the films explore that fascinating side of the Bourne story!) When David Cronenberg was attached to direct Ludlum's The Matarese Circle for MGM way back when (how freaking great would that have been?), I had hoped that he would cast his frequent collaborator Mortensen as the Russian agent opposite Denzel Washington's American spy. Instead, Tom Cruise became attached in that part. But I'd still love to see Mortensen end up in some sort of Ludlum role, so I hope he accepts. The still untitled next Bourne movie, Damon's first in nine years, is slated to open July 29, 2016.

From U.N.C.L.E. to Bourne? Alicia Vikander Sought for New Matt Damon Bourne Film

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. star Alicia Vikander (The Fifth Estate) may soon be defecting to another spy franchise. Deadline reports that the in-demand Swede is being sought for the female lead in Paul Greengrass's new Bourne film, the one that sees Matt Damon return to the fold in the title role. Greengrass and Damon are currently writing the script with Christopher Rouse (who edited Greengrass's two previous Bourne movies, as well as Green Zone), and Universal is eyeing a July 29, 2016 release date. Damon and Greengrass are also producing, alongside franchise newcomer Gregory Goodman (X-Men: First Class) and Bourne veteran Frank Marshall. But Vikander, who stars in eight films this year and is already generating Oscar buzz for her terrific turn in the A.I. hit Ex Machina, is apparently wanted by everyone. According to the trade, she's also in talks for Assassin's Creed, opposite Michael Fassbender, and The Circle, opposite Tom Hanks. Right now it's looking like she'll have to walk away from the latter, but her Bourne involvement is not yet confirmed.

Tradecraft: Paul Greengrass Ponders Some Serious Tunneling

Paul Greengrass is amassing quite a stack of espionage scripts on his development pile. As previously reported, he's already hard at work on an adaptation of the non-fiction spy memoir Agent Storm, and this summer he made the surprise announcement that he was reconsidering his long-held stance on never returning to the franchise that really put him on the map and would (hopefully) re-team with Matt Damon on a new Bourne movie which he would be writing himself. Yesterday Variety reported that the Bourne Ultimatum and Green Zone director has added a Cold War Berlin story to his growing pile. According to the trade, FilmNation Entertainment has acquired the screen rights to a book proposal (that's right; it's not even a book yet, just a proposal!) by journalist Greg Mitchell called The Tunnels. Mark Gordon (The Matador, The Man Who Wouldn't Die) will produce. The Tunnels is purportedly an "untold" true story of a harrowing escape from East Berlin during the days of the Wall about a group of West Germans funded by American news networks on an expedition to get their loved ones out of the East. (The trade doesn't say so, but I'm guessing the plan involves tunnels.) I hope this one happens. Personally, I love Wall-Crossing stories, and we don't get nearly enough of them nowadays.

Tradecraft: Paul Greengrass Returns to Spies for Agent Storm

He may have forsworn any further Bourne movies (causing Matt Damon to do the same, saying he won't return to the role without his director), but Paul Greengrass will still be returning to the spy genre. Deadline reports that Sony has acquired the forthcoming non-fiction book Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA by Morten Storm, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, for Greengrass to direct and Scott Rudin to produce. (Greengrass and Rudin previously teamed on last year's Best Picture nominee Captain Phillips.) According to the trade, Agent Storm follows follows Storm, a member of a Danish motorcycle gang turned Islamic radical as he becomes a double agent for the CIA and British and Danish intelligence. (Storm penned the memoir blowing his own cover because he felt betrayed by his handlers.)

Matt Damon's Still Grumpy About Bourne

I love Matt Damon in the Bourne movies. But boy is he grumpy! He seems to be emulating Sean Connery's post-Bond attitude about 007, though after just three movies as opposed to Connery's eventual six (in the official line-up), I'm not sure he's earned it. He first got grumpy right after The Bourne Ultimatum, saying on the press tour for that film that "we have ridden that horse as far as we can" and adding that he felt like "a bit of a prostitute" for going as far as he did with Bourne (along with the Ocean's sequels). Later, promoting Invictus, the actor declared that he flat-out wouldn't return to the role without director Paul Greengrass at the helm. (Greengrass had already passed on a fourth film.) He's stuck with that ultimatum, but now taken to badmouthing the direction the franchise has gone in without him while he's at it. (Damon and Greengrass had a very public feud with Tony Gilroy, the screenwriter who contributed to all three Damon films and went on to write and direct this summer's spin-off The Bourne Legacy.) Even though Gilroy was hopeful earlier this summer that Damon would return to the series to face down or team up with Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross (and went out of his way in interviews to praise and placate Damon), the original Bourne star does not seem eager. Last month he rather dismissively told Movieline that he hasn't seen The Bourne Legacy, but, "from what I understand, it kind of relives [Ultimatum] from a different perspective. What that means, because they use our actors and characters, is that whatever they said [in Legacy] is true and so we'd have to acknowledge it in any Bourne movie that we'd do. And that makes it really tough." According to the website, he then laughed and added,"I don't think we can do the Dallas it-was-all-a-dream scenario. I don't think the audience would go for that after they paid money to see a movie," before finally acknowledging that, "I'd really love to do another one because I love the character."

Of course, if Damon ever gets around to watching Gilroy's film, what he'll learn is that Gilroy bent over backwards not to impact the events of the Damon/Greengrass movies, much to the detriment of Legacy, which ultimately offers zero forward momentum in the series. It would be a shame if the producers went to such lengths to leave the door open for the return of Damon and Greengrass only to have them refuse forever, but as of now that seems to be Damon's stance. He went on to tell the interviewer that it would be "a real struggle" to continue the adventures of his character, since Bourne's motivation in the first three films was to find his identity, which he finally did. "Where do you go next?"

Well, personally, I'd offer him the answer that I always bring up in these stories: go back to the books! There are two and a half whole entire Ludlum plots that the movies haven't touched, since neither Supremacy nor Ultimatum remotely resembled the novels. There are also huge chunks of the first book yet to be explored, including its primary antagonist, the international assassin Carlos the Jackal. While the real-life Carlos was finally captured in the 1990s, it would be easy enough to create a fictional present-day analogue, wouldn't it? I think it would be amazing if the films returned to the much more detailed plot of that first novel, and revealed that there was a whole other layer to Bourne's missing memories than he's yet discovered, and that what he thinks are answers may only lead to more questions. With a little finesse, I think they could pull that off. Ludlum's Supremacy might be easier to tackle, however, since the story more or less stands alone and takes place primarily in the Far East, which is new territory for Damon's mostly Europe-bound Bourne. (It's a slight problem that the films killed off Marie, who plays a major role in that book, but with a little creativity surely the filmmakers could substitute Julia Stiles' character, Nicky?) The primary mover away from the books was Tony Gilroy, who publicly disparaged them. Therefore, it's very easy for me to side with Damon and Greengrass (not that I know the ins and outs of the dispute) over him as curators of the series' future. But Damon really needs to stop being such a grump about it all the time!

Tradecraft: Paul Greengrass Boards Fox Series About Intelligence Community

Tradecraft: Paul Greengrass Boards Fox Series About Intelligence Community

Deadline reports that two-time Bourne director Paul Greengrass has come aboard former CIA officer Joe Weisberg's untitled drama about the U.S. Intelligence Community that we first heard about a few weeks ago. Greengrass will executive produce alongside Weisberg and Brian Grazer (24), and it's possible he might also direct the pilot. That prospect excites me. I praised Doug Liman for bringing his put-you-in-the-middle-of-it Bourne sensibilities to the cramped conference rooms and cubicles of Langley in the more realistic spy movie Fair Game (review here). I'll equally welcome Greengrass's signature style applied to a similarly realistic scenario, which is what it sounds like Weisberg is developing. The trade blog describes this new series, from Fox Television, as "a high-stakes character-based drama centering on the young assistants of high-ranking officers in the U.S. Intelligence community. The show takes place within the walls of the CIA, as well as the DIA, NSA, FBI and the intelligence components at the White House." If it turns out to be a West Wing of the spy world with Greengrass's urgent camera work rushing us from crisis to crisis amidst petty office politics and inter-agency in-fighting, then I will be very happy to watch! I haven't read Weisberg's novel An Ordinary Spy, but I ordered it from Amazon (where it's super cheap) after first learning about this series, and I'm looking forward to reading it. I'm very keen to see how this one develops. While I detest most of Greengrass's imitators, I enjoy his own spy movies immensely, particularly The Bourne Ultimatum (review here) and Green Zone (review here).

The Best Of 2010

Happy New Year!  So I'm a week late with this post, but it was worth it. I enjoyed my unintended blog vacation leading up to the real New Year, and now I'm back fully refreshed and ready for another great year of blogging, starting with a wrap-up of the past year and then continuing tomorrow with a look ahead at all the great spy stuff in store for 2011. 

The Best Spy Movies of 2010

2010 really spoiled spy fans; it was nothing if not a year full of movies in our genre!  And even ones that weren't quite spy movies themselves (like Inception, Iron Man 2, The A-Team and The Expendables (review here) to name just a few) tended to feature heavy spy aspects.  It was, however, a somewhat surprising year.  Going into 2010, Salt was probably the spy movie I was most eagerly anticipating, and it turned out to be a disappointment to me. (Read my full review here.) After covering its long and winding road to production, I also fully expected The Tourist to be a likely candidate for this year-end Best Of list, with its truly impressive pedigree including director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others, one of my favorite spy movies of the past decade), the incomparable Timothy Dalton and probably the two hottest stars in the world, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.  I didn't hate The Tourist like a lot of people did.  Far from it, in fact; while I fully recognize and understand why so many people had bad reactions to it, I enjoyed it.  But not on the level that I expected to this time last year.  Not on a level that will earn it a place in this post. 

Conversely, some movies that I didn't have much hope for ended up entertaining me quite considerably. From Paris With Love was a real surprise.  The trailers had me really expecting the worst, as did John Travolta's mere presence.  I really saw it out of obligation (I can't pass up a spy movie... except Killers, I guess; I missed that one), but ended up having a great time and especially loving Travolta's performance.  (Read my full review here.) Likewise, Knight and Day's trailers never really gelled for me, but found the movie itself quite enjoyable in a light and fluffy way. (Review here.) I wasn't alone in that, either: Knight and Day didn't manage to crack my own Top 10 movies of the year (below), but it made Quentin Tarantino's Top 20!

So what were my favorite new spy movies last year? With one exception, I tended to gravitate toward grittier, more serious fare this year than the light-hearted stuff like Knight and Day and From Paris With Love and RED (review here), another one I definitely enjoyed.

1. Green Zone
It was an early favorite, and remained my favorite spy movie of the year at the year's end.  Bourne star and director Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass re-team for their best collaboration yet.  Despite the historical setting (well, 2004, which is actually the same year their first Bourne movie, The Bourne Supremacy, took place–and that wasn't a period piece...), Green Zone might as well be a fourth Bourne film.  It's got all the action and all the nail-biting suspense of that series, along with a plot that, like the Bourne films, tricks you into thinking its meatier than it really is, but turns out to be the perfect frame on which to hang spectacular setpieces.  I don't enjoy the shaky camera, put-you-in-the-middle-of-it style in anyone else's hands other than Greengrass's, but he has truly mastered that technique.  Each film he makes in the action/spy genre is an improvement on the one that came before it. I loved The Bourne Ultimatum (in fact, it's the only film in that series that I've truly loved), but Green Zone is even better.  If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you do.  Read my full review here.

2. OSS 117: Lost in Rio
This hilarious send-up of Sixties spy movies meticulously recreates the era not only in costume and set decoration, but also in filmmaking techniques. It's the rare sequel that's almost as good as its predecessor, and one of the funniest spy comedies ever.  Really, I've written so much about this movie in the last two years (it came out in France in 2009) that readers are probably sick of hearing about it, but if you haven't yet seen it, be sure to seek out the DVD.  Read my DVD review here and my full film review here. 

3. The Ghost Writer
It took a second viewing for me to recognize this as truly one of the best of the year, but Roman Polanski's moody thriller is as solid a suspense film as it is a character study. It also features Pierce Brosnan's best performance since The Matador, and I really hope he gets a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for it (though it seems like a long shot). Read my review here.

Honorable Mention: Fair Game
Bourne Identity director Doug Liman hones in on what's always struck me as the real drama of the Valerie Plame affair: the spy story at the heart of the issue.  What makes this film remarkable, though, isn't its subject matter or even the riveting lead performance by Naomi Watts; it's the way that Liman manages to redefine the serious side of of the spy genre sometimes referred to as the "Desk Spy" story. Using the same sort of hand-held techniques that put us in the middle of a car chase in his Bourne film, Liman lends the same immediacy and urgency to scenes in cramped Langley conference rooms–and it's exciting. I'd love to see this guy take a crack at Le Carré.

So where do these three spy movies rank overall? Just for fun I'm going to also post my Top 10 movies of the year–spy or otherwise.  There are a few biggies I still haven't seen, but from what I have there were easily enough to fill out ten spots. A lot of people are complaining this year as they do every year that it's been a lousy year for movies.  I couldn't disagree more.  In the last few years I've tried to make a Top 10 list (not posted here), I haven't been able to come up with ten. This year I could easily go to fifteen. 2010 wasn't just a great year for spy movies; it was a great year for movies.

The Best Movies of 2010

1. Black Swan
2. Inception
3. The Social Network
4. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
5. Green Zone
6. The Ghost Writer
7. True Grit
8. OSS 117: Lost in Rio
9. The Kids Are All Right
10. Fair Game

Honorable Mention
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Toy Story 3

The Best Spy Television of 2010

1. Archer
I just love everything about this show. On one level, it's a very funny (and very offensive; as I've said before, it's definitely not for all tastes!) adult workplace comedy about a very dysfunctional family of spies. On another, it's a great spy send-up. And on a third (and my personal favorite), it's a beautifully designed, beautifully animated retro spy show. I just love the look of Archer! The FX animated sitcom takes place in a sort of Cold War Never-Never World, where modern computers co-exist with Cold War tensions (the ideal backdrop for a spy story, in my opinion) and the style of the day is anything that looks good, from Sixties suits of the sorts Connery wore to Eighties Aston Martins like Dalton drove. Archer is one stylish comedy!

2. Covert Affairs
It's funny, but both of my favorite spy shows in a year fairly rife with spy shows approach the genre from a workplace perspective. Archer is a workplace comedy, and USA's Covert Affairs is more of a workplace dramady, focusing as much on Annie Walker's (Piper Parabo) relationships with her co-workers and their sometimes skillful navigation of bitter office politics. And the best thing about Covert Affairs (and a rarity on American TV shows) is that when I say "relationships with her co-workers," I don't mean it in a sexual sense! On Alias, everyone in the CIA's Los Angeles bureau (another thing I like about Covert Affairs is that it's a rare show that actually situates the CIA in Langley and not the scenic and convenient West Coast!) was either family or sleeping together. And on 24, the soap opera drama between co-workers was absolutely ludicrous, and actually ruined many a season of the show for me.  Covert Affairs doesn't ring as true as UK shows like The Sandbaggers or Smiley's People, but it rings much truer than you would ever expect from USA, a network known primarily for its escapist fare. (And Covert Affairs does offer that side, as well.) I'm really looking forward to Season 2. Read my review of the pilot here.

3. Sherlock
This was probably my favorite TV of the year overall, but since the spy aspect is fairly minimal I couldn't rank it as the top spy show. With Steven Moffat and the great Mark Gatiss (author of the Lucifer Box spy novels I enjoyed so much) at the helm, I fully expected to love this show... and it delivered on my every expectation and then some! The notion of setting Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in modern London is brilliant in its simplicity. It worked wonderfully for Basil Rathbone during WWII; why shouldn't it work now? In fact, it works even better now. While the Rathbone films (which are wonderful) basically ignore their contemporary times except for the Nazi bad guys they afford and keep the characters in adventures that might as well be Victorian, Sherlock embraces the modern age and all of the technology it brings with it–all while managing to remain as true to Conan Doyle as any adaptation to date. It's quite an amazing feat! Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman play Holmes and Watson–sorry, Sherlock and John–absolutely true to the text, and without the distraction of Victorian trappings, those timeless characterizations really shine. The spy aspect comes (as it does in the books) from Sherlock's brother, Mycroft, who occupies a mysterious government position. Sherlock is great television and great Holmes. My only gripe is the ridiculously short (even by British standards!) season length of a mere three episodes!

Most Improved: Rubicon and Nikita
Instead of "Honorable Mention," I've opted for "Most Improved," because neither of these very different spy series started out particularly promising. As with Undercovers, I went easy on Nikita's generally lacklustre pilot (review here) because I saw some potential. Unlike Undercovers, Nikita's producers eventually figured out how to mine that potential. Halfway through they year, I'm definitely glad that I decided to stick with Nikita. It's never going to be top-tier spy television, but it is quite entertaining and much more complex than I initially expected from The CW. Whereas Nikita is sexy, ephemeral spy TV, AMC's Rubicon was intelligent, slow-paced spy TV. Perhaps too slowly paced. The first half of the season moved like molasses, and it wouldn't be too much of an understatement to say that nothing happened. But the characters were great as were the actors, so I stuck with it, and again I was rewarded. There was a change of showrunner and the cliched, boring conspiracy storyline (which never really went anywhere) eventually took a back seat to the far more interesting day-to-day operations of a private New York-based intelligence think tank, which was interesting. The last three or four episodes were genuinely riveting... but that's just when AMC decided to cancel the series. Too bad. Thanks to the improvements along the way for Season 1, a second season promised to be great.

Least Improved: Undercovers
Sadly, J.J. Abrams' Undercovers, which I had been quite excited about, failed to significantly improve and has subsequently been cancelled.  The pilot (review here) was a definite letdown, but I didn't hate it.  I saw some potential, but the show's writers never really exploited that.  Some of the most recent episodes, like "Leo's Lost Night," did actually show some improvement, but not nearly enough. Undercovers was probably the big disappointment of 2010 in the spy genre. 

The Best Spy DVDs of 2010

Best Overall DVD: Callan: The Monochrome Years
Network's Region 2 PAL release of the earliest surviving episodes of the seminal Sixties UK spy series Callan, starring Edward Woodward, is–rather atypically for the company–bereft of any significant special features. Yet it still gets my pick for the best spy DVD release of the year, purely because its momentous historical significance in the genre. Network's set includes all surviving episodes from the first two seasons of the series, plus the original pilot which aired as part of Armchair Theatre.These early black and white episodes have never had a legitimate home video release before anywhere in the world–and they're some of the best spy television ever filmed. Or rather, videotaped. This release is a godsend for spy fans everywhere. With television this good, you don't even need special features. Read my full review here.

Best Region 1 DVD: Scarecrow and Mrs. King
And for best R1 release, I'm also going with something without special features, surprisingly. There just weren't any amazing, feature-laden spy DVDs along the lines of that Casino Royale Collector's Edition this year. Scarecrow and Mrs. King is not an essential series like Callan (and certainly not as good), but it is a fun, fluffy series that I was very happy to see for the first time on DVD. It's pretty much the only hit American spy series of the Eighties, so it does have historical value too.  It's a show I thoroughly enjoyed, and I never would have had the chance to do so were it not for this Warner release. I can't wait for Season 2 coming in 2011! Read my full, epic review of Season 1 here.

Best Special Features: The Avengers Special Editions Series 3-6
Now it may be somewhat controversial to list releases that have been so rife with technical flaws on a Best Of list, but when it comes to special features, I find no fault whatsoever with Optimum's amazing remastered Avengers seasons. Furthermore, getting my own copies a few months after the release dates in each case, I've managed to avoid the rather extreme audio and visual hiccups that have plagued set after set. (It's also my understanding that Optimum has been very helpful in issuing replacement discs to people who did purchase the afflicted copies.) Despite the problems, I fully believe that Optimum cares a lot about these titles, as they've unearthed or created many spectacular bonus features for their sets starting with 2009's The Avengers: Series 2 (which also included the few surviving episodes from Season 1). Fans have been treated to documentaries, commentaries, advertising material, scrapbooks, reconstructions of lost Season 1 episodes and my personal favorite: rare early TV appearances of the series' stars like Patrick Macnee in excerpts from "The Importance of Being Earnest" or the complete Diana Rigg TV play, "The Hothouse."  To be fair, I haven't actually gotten the final two sets yet, but I know what's on them feature-wise, and I also know how much I've enjoyed the bonus material on the first three sets. This is how you do special features for classic television! I hope some American company snaps up the rights to The Avengers and licenses Optimum's excellent extras for new Region 1 releases. For UK fans and others with multi-region players, you might be wise at this point to wait for The Complete Avengers 50th Anniversary Collection coming out in March, which is sure to include the corrected discs of all the sets.

Notable Trend of the Year: MOD
It's true that the Warner Archive has been churning out made-on-demand (MOD) DVDs for a few years now, but the success of that program has inspired a wave of imitators in 2010. (Columbia, Universal and MGM all now offer similar programs.) Like many fans, I have a love/hate relationship with MOD releases. I wish we could get full-blown DVD Special Editions of titles like Otley and The Executioner and Tarzan and the Valley of Gold, but the fact is we can't. Maybe in 2002 we could have, but not in this depleted consumer market. Therefore, I'm grateful for the studios' MOD programs, which have afforded us the chance to finally own these movies in nice widescreen versions. My MOD pick of the year has to be Otley. Not for any special features and certainly not for good packaging (Columbia is way behind Warner Bros. in that department; every Columbia Classics MOD title I've yet bought has not only ugly packaging but an off-center spine), but just for being Otley, one of my very favorite Sixties spy movies, and finally being readily available in some format! Every spy fan should own this title. Here's hoping we see more spy rarities pop up on this format in 2011.

Special Prize: 1980s British Miniseries: Codename: Kyril, Glory Boys, The Contract
This was an unlikely trend. By coincidence, 2010 ended up being the year of the Eighties British spy miniseries. There were a few months in the middle where I was watching one of these every week thanks to releases from Acorn here in the US (A Cold War Spy Collection) and Network in the UK (Codename: Kyril). And, let me tell you, those weren't a bad few weeks. Britain sure knew how to make a good spy miniseries in the 1980s. There's a format I'd love to see come back. Long-form television (as it used to be called) is really the perfect format, in fact, for complex spy stories, and it's great to have all of these obscure miniseries on DVD. Read my reviews of Codename: Kyril, Glory Boys and The Contract.

People We'll Miss

Finally, in wrapping up the year, it's time for some remembrances. 2010 was an especially hard year for spy fans, as we lost some true legends.  The death of Mission: Impossible star Peter Graves hit me the hardest, but I also mourn the losses of other true greats like I Spy's Robert Culp, The Persuaders!' Tony Curtis, Modesty Blaise creator Peter O'Donnell, the incomparable Leslie Neilson (whose spy career was actually much broader than just Spy Hard and Night Train to Paris if you delve into low-budget 70s fare), composer Johnny Dankworth, Ingrid Pitt (beloved for her horror movies, but also known to pop up in spy fare as diverse as Jason King, The Adventurer and Smiley's People), and directors Claude Chabrol (who made his mark with Eurospy movies like The Tiger Likes Fresh Meat and Marie-Chantal vs. Doctor Kha before going on to become synonymous with twisty thrillers), Irvin Kersner (Never Say Never Again, S*P*Y*S), Ronald Neame (A Man Could Get Killed, The Odessa File), Jean Rollin (better known for his better horror movies, but known to dabble in spydom with the likes of Sidewalks of Bangkok) and the brilliant Blake Edwards, creator of the sublime Pink Panther franchise and director of The Tamarind Seed.
Thanks to reader "luvnjustice" for the U.N.C.L.E. champagne image!

Tradecraft: Tony Gilroy To Direct Fourth Bourne Movie

Deadline reports that Tony Gilroy, who wrote or co-wrote all three Jason Bourne movies to date, will take the directing reins on the next film in the series. Bourne 4 is tentatively titled The Bourne Legacy, but seems unlikely to bear Eric Van Lustbader's continuation novel of that name any more resemblance than the existing movies to to Robert Ludlum's original novels.  Gilroy was hired to write the script in June, after two other writers, George Nolfi (who co-wrote The Bourne Ultimatum) and Josh Zetumer (who did uncredited script work on Quantum of Solace) had prevously developed "parallel scripts."  It's unclear whether anything from either of their drafts will be incorporated into Gilroy's.  Having worked on all the previous Bourne films and directed two critically acclaimed features of his own, Gilroy seems like an obvious choice to replace Paul Greengrass.  Greengrass brought an exciting new style to his first film in the franchise, The Bourne Supremacy, which (for better or for worse) changed the face of action filmmaking.  If The Bourne Supremacy was something of a laboratory for Greengrass to experiment with this style, he perfected it in The Bourne Ultimatum and his non-Bourne follow-up collaboration with Matt Damon, Green Zone.  However, while in post-production on Green Zone, Greengrass begged out of directing another Bourne movie.  Damon, in turn, very publicly stated that he wouldn't return to the franchise without Greengrass.  Gilroy, meanwhile (who is rumored to not get along with Greengrass, and vice versa), went off to direct Duplicity, a very entertaining spy caper that I never got around to properly covering here on the Double O Section.  Duplicity sadly tanked at the box office, but abely demonstrated that Gilroy has what it takes to make a good spy movie (particularly a fascination with tradecraft procedures) in a potentially very different style from that of Greengrass.  And after two quick-cut, shaky-cam movies, I think that's exactly what the franchise requires. 

Don't get me wrong: I believe Greengrass's action verite style was exactly right for the two films he directed, and, as I said, the results in The Bourne Ultimatum and Green Zone were nothing short of thrilling.  But while Greengrass has mastered that style, others have failed in trying to imitate him.  Marc Forster's disasterous attempt in Quantum of Solace should prove particularly instructive for Gilroy on what can happen when a director not experienced with action scenes to begin with attempts it.  Personally, I think that even though Greengrass redefined the genre on the second Bourne movie, what the franchise needs now is a new approach.  I hope Gilroy sticks to his own style rather than trying to emulate Greengrass's.  And I have a feeling he will. 

Of course, the other thing this franchise undeniably needs is Matt Damon.  He's said "never again" as many times as Sean Connery by now, displaying a similar disregard for the role that made him an action star.  Hopefully he'll see reason or dollar signs or both and decide to return to the part once again, Greengrass or not.  It's clear that Universal intends to proceed with or without him.  Let's hope it's with.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week (And Last)

There are two very high-profile spy titles of note out this week, from Universal and Criterion. Uni unleashes what's for my money the best spy movie of the year–and best movie, for that matter (so far)–on DVD and Blu-ray: Green Zone.  Hopefully it will do better on home video than it did in theaters.  The generous DVD special features include a commentary with star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, deleted scenes, featurettes ("Inside the Green Zone", "Matt Damon: Ready for Action"), and a that stupid digital copy of the film that all the studios are still so crazy about. The Blu-ray release includes all that plus additional BD-Live and U-Control features.  Hopefully more people will discover this amazing action movie on DVD than saw it in the theaters.  As I said in my review, fans of Greengrass's Bourne movies are likely to love Green Zone; the thrust-the-viewer-in-the-thick-of-it action scenes are just as good as those in the awesome Bourne Ultimatum (and far, far superior to Mark Forster's attempt to replicate the style in the lacklustre Quantum of Solace). And, just to be clear, Green Zone is a propulsive spy action movie, not a grim antiwar drama or a political diatribe, as some would suggest. Read my full review of Green Zone here.

As I mentioned just last week, today [er, next Tuesday, that is] also sees the release of one of the terrific spy films of the Forties long absent from DVD, courtesy of The Criterion Collection: Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich, starring Rex Harrison and The Lady Vanish's Margaret Lockwood. Lockwood isn't all that this decidely Hitchcockian comedic thriller has in common with The Lady Vanishes, either.  Besides a train setting, the two movies also share a couple of screenwriters (Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat) and the cricket-loving comic relief characters Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, who also played the roles in a second feature included on Criterion's Lady Vanishes DVD).  Night Train to Munich (1940) follows Harrison as a dashing British secret agent accompanying a Czech scientist and his daughter across war-torn Europe as they attempt to evade Nazi spies.  Besides the first-rate transfer Criterion is known or, DVD features include a "new video conversation between film scholars Peter Evans and Bruce Babington about director Carol Reed, screenwriters Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and the social and political climate in which Night Train to Munich was made" and a booklet with an essay by film critic Philip Kemp.

EDIT: Whoops!  Looks like I jumped the gun on this one. I guess that's what happens when you try to sneak in updates while on vacation.  Night Train to Munich isn't out until next week.

There were also a few notable spy releases last week that I didn't get around to posting about. 

Many industry pundits were surprised when Sony opted to forgo theaters and release the Samuel L. Jackson counter-terrorism thriller Unthinkable directly to DVD (and Blu-ray). Despite favorable reviews, however, that's exactly what happened, and here it is.  Jackson plays a counter-terrorism agent who clashes with Carrie-Anne Moss's by-the-book FBI agent when he resorts to torture techniques that would make even Jack Bauer blush when interrogating a terrorist (Michael Sheen) who has planted bombs in multiple American cities.

Anthony Valantine (Callan's psychopathic cohort Toby Meres) takes on an equally rakish but altogether more charming role as the ultimate Victorian anti-hero in Raffles: The Complete Collection, out this week from Acorn Media. Cricketer by day and high society cat burglar Raffles and his partner in crime Bunny were conceived by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law as the anti-Holmes and Watson.  The episodes themselves are Holmsian enough that Raffles would be right at home in an episode of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, but it's lucky for us that he actually got two seasons of his own TV show instead! Naturally, like many of those rivals, Raffles (who was a later member of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) also finds himself dabbling in espionage when he's contracted by Her Majesty's Government to steal some sensitive documents during the second season.  Raffles has been on DVD before (though it's long out of print), but Acorn's collection represents the first time ever that the pilot episode (which proves to be quite good) has been available on home video.  If you like Sherlock Holmes (or, more to the point, perhaps, if you like his Rivals), then you'll probably enjoy Raffles.  If you're not sure, why not check out the pilot as Video On Demand from Amazon?

Tradecraft: Tony Gilroy's Bourne Again
UPDATED!

Deadline Hollywood and Variety are both reporting that Tony Gilroy, who worked on the scripts for all three Bourne movies before going on to critical but not commercial success directing Michael Clayton and Duplicity, is now back in the Bourne fold.  Following drafts by Bourne Ultimatum co-writer George Nolfi and uncredited Quantum of Solace contributor Josh Zetumer, Universal has now turned to the man they rightfully recognize as the cinematic Bourne mastermind to pen a fourth film in the franchise.  (Presumably he was unavailable earlier.)  Following the pattern with Robert Ludlum's second and third novels, they are currently using the title of Eric van Lustbader's continuation novel The Bourne Legacy (which is a good title!) but not the story.  Gilroy is also working on a "Bourne bible" for the studio, presumably a guide to the universe for future writers and directors.  Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass are not attached right now.  We all know how much Damon likes talking about not returning to the series, but then again Sean Connery said the same thing after You Only Live Twice. Perhaps Damon should follow Connery's example and never say never.  Greengrass has also declared his intention not to return (and his involvement is critical to Damon's), but since then he's left the project he was going to helm, a remake of Fantastic Voyage, so he does seem to be available again.  A commentor at Deadline Hollywood makes a provocative reference to a feud between Greengrass and Gilroy, but I have no knowldege to substantiate or deny his claim.  Personally, I remain hopeful that at least Damon and possibly Greengrass too will return to the series.  For now, though, I'm glad that Gilroy is on board.  Universal is being aggressive and targeting a 2012 release.

UPDATE: Read Jeremy's comment below for some fascinating further information!