The Double O Section is 11 Years Old

I haven't had too much time to post lately, but I still wanted to follow tradition and mark this blog's 11th anniversary. It's kind of odd that I don't remember beginning this rather time-consuming but thoroughly enjoyable hobby at Halloween time, but I think that was probably the same year I first wore my Prisoner costume, which I've trotted out again and again many times since. So there was probably some spy synergy in the air. Well, there definitely was, since Casino Royale was right around the corner, along with a batch of Special Edition James Bond DVDs we were all quite excited about. For a nostalgic look at what spy things were exciting eleven years ago, take a look at my very first series of posts--a list about exactly that. Of course there are lots more great spy things to be excited about now, and I look forward to blogging about all of them! I expect to be posting a lot more in November than I was able to in October. Happy Halloween, and thanks for reading all these years!

Double O Section 10th Anniversary: Top 7 Spy Scores of the Past Decade

The score is an integral element of any movie, but for me even moreso in a good spy movie. As a genre, spy movies have a more distinctive sound than just about any other popular genre—yet there are endless variations on what we think of as that "spy sound," as evidenced by this fairly eclectic list of....

My Favorite Spy Scores 2006-2016

1. Daniel Pemberton: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Urged by director Guy Ritchie to avoid the brassy, bombastic spy tropes of James Bond music for his 1960s-set film version (review here) of the classic TV show, Daniel Pemberton drew instead from slightly more obscure corners of Sixties spy music and ended up creating the most enjoyable soundtrack of the decade. He comes out of the gate offering not horns, but bongos and flutes, setting the precedent for an eclectic score that evokes more than anything the somewhat obscure Eurospy scores of the decade (and their close cousins, Spaghetti Westerns) by the likes of Ennio Morricone and Piero Umiliani. His inspired use of a cimbalom also recalls not only Morricone’s Arabesque, but some of John Barry’s great non-007 spy music, like The Ipcress File and The Persuaders!, as well as Edwin Astley’s harpsichord-heavy ITC music. What it doesn’t especially recall is Jerry Goldsmith’s original U.N.C.L.E. music, and his theme from the show is basically absent. Would I have liked to have heard a new version of that theme in the movie? Sure, of course I would have. But I find it impossible to complain when what we’ve got is the most creative spy score of modern times! Pemberton’s music is the perfect accompaniment to Ritchie’s movie, which is a finely-crafted love letter to the same sorts of Sixties cinema from which the composer draws.
                                                                                                                                           
2. David Arnold: Casino Royale (2006)

David Arnold had done wonderful things with The James Bond Theme in his Pierce Brosnan-era Bond scores, but by deciding to withhold that famous theme (other than a few well-deployed bars) until the end of Casino Royale (review here), he demonstrated exactly how capable a composer he is for this franchise. The recurring "You Know My Name" melody throughout not only recalls the way John Barry used to incorporate the theme song into each score, but also serves as a fine theme for the character on its own. This is a Bond score that doesn't need the Bond theme, and that's a very impressive feat! In fact, I'm a little bit disappointed that "You Know My Name" didn't become a secondary recurring theme for Craig's Bond the way "007" was in the Barry days. Casino Royale is a spectacular Bond score, and would also be a spectacular score and theme establishing an entirely new character or franchise.

3. Michael Giacchino: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

Michael Giacchino really upped his game in his second Mission: Impossible score. He made ample use of the Lalo Schifrin themes fans want to hear  (“Mission: Impossible Theme” and “The Plot”), but also created a lot of riveting original music that felt like a logical expansion of those themes rather than something so contemporary it felt at odds with the classic material. Best of all were the localized variations on the main theme. I absolutely love the track, “Mood India,” a terrific piece of local flavor music that slowly morphs into a Bollywood take on the famous theme. Likewise, the Middle Eastern-flavored “A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai” subtly incorporates Schifrin material into the sort of epic local flavor music that characterized the best Bond scores of the Sixties and Seventies. And he even gives us a take on “The Plot” with a Russian chorus that sounds out of The Hunt For Red October for the Kremlin sequence!

4. Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

For Kingsman (review here), Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson went the opposite route from Daniel Pemberton on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. While he sought to intentionally avoid brassy Bondian bombast, they revel in it. While distinctly contemporary, this is an unrepentant pastiche of classic Bond scores, and quite a successful one at that. (If only the movie had been as good!) The epic sound does a lot to make the film’s budget-conscious setpieces feel bigger than they are, and tries its best to make digital mattes like the Kingsman underground hangar feel as spectacular as we wish they looked. The album is a great listen outside of the film itself that simply screams, “spy!”

5. Herbert Gronemeyer: A Most Wanted Man (2014)

Herbert Gronemeyer’s very contemporary score for this taut John le Carré thriller is another one that manages to say “spy” without the traditional musical vocabulary of the genre. It does so through its wonderfully downbeat tone (utterly appropriate for the le Carré material), which always makes me feel like it’s raining when I hear it out of the context of the movie, and with its impeccable sense of place. The score not only convey’s “Hamburg” very effectively; it specifically conveys the Muslim community within Hamburg when called upon to do so. Some of the more ambient tracks, like “Text from Jamal,” are downright Eno-esque. Gronemeyer's score is completely modern, but it's the perfect 21st century compliment to Sol Kaplan's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold soundtrack.

6. Ludovic Bource: OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies (2006)

While I was initially disappointed (as with The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) that this comedic Eurospy revival (review here) didn't make use of Michael Magne's infectious original OSS 117 theme, my disappointment was quickly mitigated by what an awesome job Ludovic Bource did capturing the spirit of the era in which the film is set. His score perfectly matches the mise-en-scene, special effects, fight choreography and all the other behind-the-scenes elements that meticulously recreate early 1960s filmmaking. The movie is a comedy, but the score plays things completely straight, as scores must in a successful parody. (Spy, Johnny English and Austin Powers all also delivered straight, good faith spy scores.) Even the scene in which star Jean Dujardin ends up flinging chickens at an opponent is scored earnestly—or at least in the manner of the era. With its hip, lounge-y vibe (my favorite cue is the ultra-chill "Froggy Afternoon"), North African local flavor and occasional legit action number, Bource most directly evokes Henry Mancini's Sixties Pink Panther music. It accompanies the film perfectly, and makes for a great listen on its own.

7. John Powell: Fair Game (2010)/Green Zone (2010)

Reflecting my own tastes, the majority of my choices on this list are deliberate throwbacks. But this pair of 2010 scores by Bourne composer John Powell ring with a thoroughly contemporary spy sound. Powell is the first composer to completely redefine what audiences think of as “spy music” since John Barry defined the sound to begin with in the Sixties. Both composers worked within a wide spectrum of sub-genres, from outlandish fantasy (You Only Live Twice in Barry’s case; Knight and Day for Powell) to grounded, serious action (From Russia With Love; the Bourne films) to gritty drama full of bureaucratic hurdles (The Ipcress File; Fair Game), applying their signature motifs across the board. While many great composers have worked in the spy genre over the last several decades (and some have experimented with totally different sorts of scores), no one has so exhaustively overhauled the sound of spy movies as Powell. Barry’s jazz-infused style remained the expected and accepted soundtrack of the genre up until the 2000s (when it may have been partially done in by George S. Clinton’s spot-on pastiche in the Austin Powers movies). Now it’s propulsive percussion–which offers somewhat less room for variation, but perfectly compliments the high-energy spy movies being made today–and Powell brings that in spades to Fair Game (review here) and Green Zone (review here), signaling “spy” to the audience as loudly as Barry-like trumpet flourishes did in the past.

VARGR contest code word: AMBER

Double O Section 10th Anniversary: Top 10 Spy Novels of the Past Decade

While I haven't seen all the spy movies to be released around the world over the past ten years, I have certainly seen the majority of them. The same can't be said for spy novels. There are simply too many published every year to possibly keep up with all of them. But I do read a whole lot of spy fiction, and try to stay on top of the new stuff. Here are ten of my favorite spy novels published during the past ten years.

My Favorite Spy Novels 2006-2016

1. The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer (2010)

If you haven't read this book, it's a bit unfair of me to list it as the best spy novel of the decade, because it can't really be read as a one-off; it actually requires you to read three books. The good news is... all three are fantastic! The Nearest Exit is the middle novel in Steinhauer's Milo Weaver trilogy, which begins with The Tourist (2009) and ends (for now, anyway) with An American Spy (2012). It's tough to pick a favorite of those (especially between the last two), but when it came out The Nearest Exit blew me away with the best "knot," to use Connie Sachs' term, since Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The characters are compelling; the tradecraft is impressive, and the espionage plot is ingenious. Publishers absolutely love to label any new spy novel with a variation on "le Carré meets Ludlum" (odd as those particular bedfellows are), but Steinhauer really delivers on that, combining exciting action of the latter with the rich characterizations, complex plots and moral uncertainty of the former. It astounds me that these books have not yet been filmed. Perhaps if Steinhauer's new TV show Berlin Station proves successful, that will be remedied.

2. A Most Wanted Man by John le le Carré (2008)

Speaking of le Carré, the all-time master of this genre is still as sharp as ever in his eighties. Not only has he remained prolific (I don't begrudge his contemporary Len Deighton enjoying his retirement, but oh how I wish he were still publishing as well!), but he's remained topical. Le Carré may have written about the Cold War better than just about anyone else, but that period was hardly the limit of his outrage. If anything, he's gotten angrier as he's gotten older. Some of his later books might suffer a bit from getting overly polemical, but A Most Wanted Man is the perfect concoction of literary fury. It's not only the best novel of the "War on Terror," but easily among the best in the author's justly celebrated oeuvre, featuring some of the most memorable characters he ever created. How many authors are still producing some of their best work in their eighth or even ninth decades? Le Carré is a towering talent still at the top of his game. His follow-up novel, Our Kind of Traitor, was also fantastic, as was his memoir this year, The Pigeon Tunnel. I can't wait to see what he does next.

3. Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (2013)

Proving once again that spies and authors draw from similar skill sets, former CIA officer Jason Matthews penned as impressive a debut novel as you're ever likely to read in this compelling tale of the spy games very much still being played between America and Russia. The novel follows Russian SVR agent Dominiki Egorova and up and coming CIA officer Nate Nash first separately, and then as their paths ultimately converge. While most of us will never be able to judge a spy novel for its accuracy, Matthews certainly lends an air of authority in his descriptions of tradecraft and Agency politics that feel incredibly realistic. Red Sparrow was the first in a trilogy, and unfortunately the second novel, Palace of Treason, was a serious letdown, but I'm holding out hope that Matthews will bounce back with his third novel and cement himself a spot among the great spies-turned-writers like le Carré, Greene and Fleming.

4. The Devil in Amber by Mark Gatiss (2006)

Before Mark Gatiss shot to Internet superstardom as co-creator of the BBC's terrific Sherlock, he penned a trilogy of fantastically fun spy/adventure novels featuring the unlikely secret agent "by appointment to His Majesty" Lucifer Box. Box is a sort of debonair, bisexual mash-up of Sherock Holmes, James Bond and Oscar Wilde, and as witty a narrator as you could ask for. In my review here when this second book in the Box trilogy came out, I wrote that it gave me "just about the most pure enjoyment I’ve gotten out of any book in a long time." All these years later, it still stands out for that. Granted, I must admit that that might have something to do with my specific tastes, which seem to be nearly identical to Gattiss's. Into this supernatural John Buchan/Dennis Wheatley pastiche,/parody, he mixes healthy doses of James Bond, Hammer horror, Adam Adamant, Doctor Who and P.G. Wodehouse. For me, that adds up to sheer joy. Anyone who enjoys Gatiss's work on Sherlock and Doctor Who should definitely seek out The Devil in Amber (as well as its precursor, The Vesuvius Club). Read my full review here.

5. The Last Run by Greg Rucka (2011)

For his work on the sublime spy series Queen & Country (comprised of both comics and novels), Greg Rucka made that very first list that started this blog ten years ago, so it's not surprising that he's making this one too. What is a bit surprising (and disappointing), is that he hasn't written more spy novels since then! But the one new Queen & Country novel to come out in the past decade was more than worth the five year wait that led up to it. This is by far my favorite of the subgenre of contemporary espionage that Lee Child memorably and humorously dubbed, "something about Iran." Rucka uses Iran to tell a very contemporary twist on the classic Cold War spy novel. His field heroine, Tara Chace, finds herself on the run deep in enemy territory (quite a Quiller predicament), while his desk hero, Paul Crocker, is faced with that age-old dilemma of trying to figure out whether a potential defector is too good to be true. You don't have to have read any other entries in this superb, Sandbaggers-inspired spy series to enjoy The Last Run, but if you have, it rewards on multiple levels. I really, really hope that Rucka returns to the Queen & Country universe again, be it in a new novel or a new comic series. In fact, that's one of my dearest spy fan-related hopes. Read my full review of The Last Run here.

6. A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming (2012)

Along with Olen Steinhauer, Charles Cumming is probably my favorite contemporary spy writer. He reliably delivers a great read every time, but A Foreign Country, the first of his novels featuring British agent Thomas Kell, is my favorite of his to date. Though the stakes (involving the first female head of MI6) are incredibly high, the story itself is relatively small for contemporary spy ficiton, and I found that appealing. It's also a great example of one of my favorite type of spy plots, the secret war between friendly nations. In this case, that secret war turns deadly. Like Jason Matthews, Cumming is a master at describing tradecraft with a palpable sense of realism, and a lengthy shadowing operation with a very limited surveillance team is the highlight of this novel. This was optioned by Colin Firth's company back in 2013 as a potential starring vehicle for the actor (who I think would be great as Kell). Earlier this year it was reported that the project is still alive, but might take the form of a miniseries rather than a movie. That's something I would love to see!

7. The Moneypenny Diaries: Secret Servant by Kate Westbrook (2006)

When The Moneypenny Diaries concept was first announced, it sounded like a terrible idea. It seemed like a blatant attempt by Ian Fleming Publications to capitalize on the then zeitgeisty success of Bridget Jones' Diary... which seemed like an odd zeitgeist to capitalize on for the heirs of Ian Fleming. So who would have predicted such an odd experiment would produce the best James Bond continuation novel of the last decade? Unfortunately, it was so under the radar that hardly anyone outside of hardcore Bond fans ever found out about it. But the second book, in particular, in Samantha Weinberg's really quite brilliant trilogy definitely deserves a larger audience. Weinberg, writing as Kate Westbrook, actually wrote a Bond novel with the potential to appeal to the sorts of spy fans who don't normally give 007 the time of day. She penned a Bond novel, with Miss Moneypenny as the protagonist, set in John le Carré's world—mixed with actual history. In Secret Servant, we see Bond's Service torn apart by a mole and M acting like Control in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Add to that real-life traitor Kim Philby and his wife Eleanor, and you've got the makings of a Bond novel unlike any other and a treat for Bond fans and fans of the "desk" half of the spy genre alike. Read my full review of The Moneypenny Diaries: Secret Servant here, and my interview with Weinberg here.

8. Double or Die by Charlie Higson (2007)

The Moneypenny Diaries wasn't the only seemingly bad idea by Ian Fleming Publications to strike unlikely gold in the past decade. The announcement that they would explore the adventures of James Bond as a boy in a series of Young Adult books seemed like an equally blatant Harry Potter (and Alex Rider)-inspired cash-grab, and initially provoked consternation among many fans. But author Charlie Higson improbably made this unlikely premise work, and ended up penning some of the very best James Bond continuation novels to date, as well as some of the best of the very rich trend of Young Adult literature in the early 2000s. It's a toss-up for me whether Blood Fever (which pre-dated this blog) or Double or Die is my favorite, but there is no question that the latter is a fantastic read. In attempting to decrypt a secret code, James and his Eton friends find themselves on a scavanger hunt across pre-WWII London involving gambling, Soviet spies and a nascent Bletchley Park. It's a great Young Adult adventure that feels authentically Bondian, and a fantastic read. Read my full review of Double or Die here.

9. Restless by William Boyd (2006)

William Boyd eventually became a James Bond continuation novelist himself, and penned a decent 007 entry with Solo. But it wasn't nearly as good as his original spy novel Restless, a literary thriller about a young woman in 1970s Britain searching for the elusive truth about her mother's past as an agent of William Stephenson's British Security Coordination during WWII. The BSC makes a fascinating backdrop for a spy novel, dealing again with that theme of spying between friendly nations. In this case, that spying includes the real-life historical efforts of Stephenson's organization to draw America into the war to aid Britain. But both the 1940s and 1970s storylines are compelling (unlike in the miniseries, which gave short shrift to the Seventies one), and Boyd creates two terrific heroines. It should be noted that there's an excellent audio version read by Bond Girl and Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike. Boyd's masterpiece is Any Human Heart (a novel that features a little bit of spying—and Ian Fleming as a character—but which isn't really a spy novel), but Restless is also well worth reading.

10. Dead Line by Stella Rimington (2008)

Stella Rimington is another former spook turned successful author, and like Jason Matthews, she lends credence to the theory that the two professions rely on some of the same skill sets. Like Matthews, the former Director General of MI5 brings an air of undeniable authenticity to her Liz Carlyle spy novels. Dead Line is among Rimington's best, and expands the tapestry a bit from her previous books. Rather than focusing on Carlyle and her antagonist, she follows many different agents working for different countries and different branches of the British intelligence community this time around. While it isn't immediately clear how all of these storylines are related, the converge in a most satisfying manner, culminating in an assassination attempt at a peace conference in Scotland. Rimington also proved prescient (again, not surprising given her former profession) in predicting the significance of Aleppo in world affairs. Read my full review of Dead Line here.

Those were ten of my favorite spy novels of the past decade, though I could easily make a list of fifty! (Well, maybe not easily. These things take time to write!) What were some of yours? I'd love to get some recommendations for my reading pile.

Addendum: I cannot believe that I forgot to include Jeremy Duns' excellent debut novel, Free Agent! It was easily among my favorites of that period, but for some reason I had thought it came out sooner.

The contest code word is: AMBER.

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!

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!

Looking Forward...

The New Year has me feeling a bit listy what with all the typical best of stuff, so why stop with yesterday’s list of looking back? Why not another list looking forward? But not to the stuff I mentioned yesterday, the stuff we know is happening, to the unknown! What would I like to see in 2008 in terms of spy media? Well, I’d like to see Devil May Care be good (fingers crossed), but that’s already written and waiting for our voracious consumption, so I won’t waste a wish on something so esoteric. Here’s my wish list for 2008, of the spy products I’d like to see appear:

Top 7 Spy Wishes For 2008

1. Kim Possible seasons on DVD
Come on, Disney, make it happen! They’ve been steadily releasing all their classic Disney Afternoon animated shows, and I think some of the recent ones like Lizzie Maguire even have season sets, so why not Kim, now that her run of new episodes is complete?

2. More Eurospy DVDs
I hope Dorado manages to get back on schedule and put out some of the other Eurospy titles in their catalog, like Assignment K and the long-promised Fuller Report, and I hope that other niche labels get in on the act and cash in on this largely untapped market. I’d really, really love to see Retromedia (or someone) put out a second volume of Kommissar X movies. I know it doesn’t help that sales weren’t great for the first batch, but I think with the right marketing approach someone could really find a way to exploit the abundance of titles out there. There are even some owned by big studios! Wouldn’t it be great to see a few Eurospy double features make it into Fox/MGM’s next wave of Midnite Movie double features?

3. Guillermo Del Toro’s Champions
Ever since that tantalizing, out-of-the-blue announcement, I haven’t been able to quell my excitement for the Pan’s Labyrinth director’s version of this ITC classic. Del Toro has stated in many interviews that his schedule is in constant flux, and there are clearly other projects that he’d rather make next. But The Champions’ basic concept (spies with superpowers) is one that could definitely do it, and based on his work on Hellboy and Blade 2, I’d say that Del Toro could pull it off, even if he seems an odd fit. There’s the potential for greatness here...

4. More A&E Spy DVDs
For years, A&E was in the forefront of releasing classic British spy shows on DVD in America. They’re still the only label anywhere in the world to issue the entire run of The Avengers! But in the past few years, they haven’t offered anything new. They’ve repackaged their Danger Man DVDs in a very appealing megaset, but where is The Champions, Vol. 2? Where are the rest of the black & white episodes of The Saint? Don’t leave us hanging, A&E! Finish putting those series out on DVD and then you can bundle them as megasets and sell them all again. It’s very frustrating to have incomplete runs of these series here as other countries and other regions get the whole thing. If a Del Toro Champions movie ever actually happens, I’m sure that would inspire A&E to finally finish that series. But don’t make us wait till then!

5. James Bond comics
Why have there been no original James Bond comic books since Dark Horse lost the license in the mid-nineties? 007 seems like a natural for the four-color treatment! There are probably more licensed character books on the market now than ever before, but no James Bond. The martini-swilling superspy would seem like a natural for Dynamite’s stable of quality licensed books (The Lone Ranger, Army of Darkness, Battlestar Gallictica, Darkman, Zorro), though I’d love to see him end up back at Dark Horse where they did such a good job with him in the Nineties. (The Moench/Gulacy Serpent’s Tooth (pictured) is a high water mark for 007 in comics.) The company is reviving their other dormant licensed superstar, Indiana Jones, in 2008, so why not Bond? With Daniel Craig having rejuvenated the film series, and Sebastian Faulks hoping to do the same with the books, it only makes sense!

6. Nick Fury comics
Not only do comics fans have no James Bond books on the shelf; we don’t even have the comic world’s equivalent! Marvel’s one-eyed superspy (created in the Sixties to cash in on the popularity of Bond and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) sat out all of 2007 and most of 2006 thanks to big, dumb crossovers like "Civil War" and "World War Hulk." S.H.I.E.L.D. is omnipresent in the modern Marvel Universe, but it’s being run by Tony Stark (Iron Man) now, and its most famous agent is nowhere to be found. It’s time to bring him back! There have been rumors that this will happen in ‘08. I hope it does, and I hope Fury gets his own book again!

7. A Casino Royale Special Edition
The DVD Sony gave us, despite continuing to set sales records worldwide, is pretty bare bones. The only special features on Disc 2 are short featurettes and made-for-television promotional pieces. Where are the deleted scenes (we know from the trailers some exist!) and the audio commentaries with Martin Campbell, Michael G. Wilson, and Paul Haggis? (I really, really doubt Craig would do one.) Campbell has stated several times that a Special Edition was in the works, but it has yet to materialize. It would make sense for its release to coincide with the theatrical release of Bond 22 next fall, except that as I understand it Sony only has a narrow window left of DVD distribution for the title before it reverts back to MGM and Fox. I’m worried that if they don’t issue a Special Edition soon, they’ll end up deeming it financially unfeasible. So let’s see it, already, Sony! Take our money!

"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!

List

For the first entry, to let potential readers know where I’m coming from, I’ll do a Top (double-oh) Seven list of people in the world of fictional spies to keep an eye on. People who are relevant right now. Such lists are by nature entirely arbitrary, and, for me, constantly changing. I’ll probably forget a bunch of people today that tomorrow or any other day might easily make such a list. But the point of this one is to let you know what kind of spy fan I am, what my tastes are. And to cram in a bit of news and some early reviews as well.

7. Elke Sommer
6. Mark Gatiss
5. Charlie Higson and Anthony Horowitz
4. Nick Fury
3. Greg Rucka
2. Roger Moore
1. Daniel Craig