Book Review: HURRICANE GOLD by Charlie Higson (2007)

Book Review: Hurricane Gold

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More pictures of the golden hardcover first edition.

Read my review of Double or Die.

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

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

New Spy Books Available From DK

DK released two new fully-illustrated, large-format hardcover tomes this week of interest to spy fans: the long-awaited James Bond Encyclopedia and 24: The Ultimate Guide. It’s kind of odd to see 24 given the DK treatment, since their Ultimate Guides are usually for more family-friendly franchises like Spider-man or Star Wars. But author Michael Goldman has managed to compile the best guide book to the series yet, fully illustrated in that somewhat incongruous DK style. The book is divided by seasons. John Cork and Collin Stutz’s James Bond Encyclopedia isn’t quite as user-friendly, as it’s organized by categories instead of in the purely alphabetical format one expects of an encyclopedia. It takes some getting used to, but there are advantages to the unusual format. For example, gadget-lovers can entertain themselves by reading that section in its entirety instead of slogging through entries on Girls, Villains and Vehicles to find what they’re looking for. And most of all, the way this book is organized goes a long way towards separating it from Stephen Jay Rubin’s fifteen-year-old tome, The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia. I’m sure that was important to the authors.

Tradecraft For October 12, 2007

Clooney Spies Tourist

George Clooney just can't stop spying. Following his role as an assassin in the Coen Brothers' comic CIA thriller Burn After Reading, he might write, direct and/or star in another espionage role. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he and his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov have picked up the rights to an upcoming novel by Olen Steinhauer entitled The Tourist. The trade reveals: "Picked up in early manuscript form, the story is described as being a contemporary international thriller in the vein of John le Carre and Graham Greene and follows a spy who must risk everything to reveal a conspiracy after he's suspected of a murder he didn't commit."

Roger Moore Makes Bio Official

Roger Moore's agent revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that the actor is indeed writing an autobiography, as has been rumored all week. The British tabloids first reported the story, but as usual they got it wrong. The Sunday Mirror claimed (in typical sensationalist style) that the "explosive, warts-and-all" memoir would tell of the actor's "colourful sex life" and "his romps with Bond girls." That didn't sound like Moore, who's always been the very picture of class and didn't seem the sort to kiss and tell. Sure enough, the trade reports that "Moore said in a statement that he would like to write 'a warm, amusing, and maybe even slightly emotional volume.'" Doesn't sound very "explosive," but it's sure to be a great read. Moore's biographer and long-time assistant Gareth Owen, who also penned the recently updated Pinewood Story, will ghost-write the book and told Reuters, "He is a great raconteur." Anyone who's heard any of the actor's audio commentaries on the Bond DVDs or The Persuaders knows that's true. Sir Roger's book deal is said to be worth £1 million. Moore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week, and turns 80 in just a few days.

Van Houten Lies Too

Star of last year's WWII spy thriller Black Book Carice Van Houten, rumored to have been in contention for a Bond Girl role in Bond 22, has joined the cast of another spy movie instead. The Hollywood Reporter reports that she'll play Leonardo Di Caprio's love interest in Body of Lies, "an Iraq-set spy thriller being directed by Ridley Scott." Like all Scott movies, Lies co-stars Russell Crowe. It's written by Oscar-winning Departed screenwriter William Monahan and based on the book by David Ignatius.

Spies For Tots

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Disney Channel has gone into production on a new Playhouse Disney pre-school series titled Special Agent Oso starring Sean Astin as the voice of Oso, a fuzzy, lovable, bumbling special agent-in-training who enlists the help of viewers at home to complete his missions." The show, created by Ford Riley, will debut in fall 2008. Each episode will be comprised of two eleven minute adventures.

Roger Moore Receives Star On Walk Of Fame

Sir Roger Moore was honored today with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fans crowded the street to witness an impressive ceremony presided over by Honorary Mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant. As former James Bond co-stars like Richard Kiel, Lois Chiles and Gloria Hendry mingled with other showbiz types and signed autographs for eager onlookers on the other side of the barriers, Moore's Escape To Athena co-star (and girl from U.N.C.L.E.) Stefanie Powers (of whom Moore speaks quite fondly on his Live And Let Die DVD commentary) introduced the man of the hour. Two-time Felix Leiter David Hedison (who very graciously signed lots of autographs before the ceremony) then spoke warmly about his friend, recalling the first time they met, in Cairo, long before the pair acted together on The Saint, Live And Let Die or Ffolkes.

Hedison claimed that Moore had gotten him more acting jobs over the years than his agent or manager, and without demanding ten percent. Actress Ruta Lee, who worked with Moore on his pre-Maverick TV series The Alaskans in 1959, joked about her lifelong crush on the actor, praised his wife Christina, and lauded Moore for his extensive charity work with UNICEF and other organizations.

After being presented with some sort of proclamation and a loaf of bread by a local politician, Sir Roger himself addressed the crowd, in his usual charming, self-deprecating manner. "I've had a love affair with Hollywood for many, many years," he confessed. "Which is why I'm thrilled that I have this star down here that people can walk on." He told a few choice stories about his early years in Hollywood, then recalled his tenure as James Bond: "I did seven and then, sadly, I had to retire from the Bond films because the girls got too young. Or maybe I got too old... I can't remember which, but either way, it was disgusting." Yes, Sir Roger is as funny in person as he is on his DVD commentaries, and presumably will be in his recently announced autobiography (for which I can't wait, even if it is being ghost-written).

Moore's well-deserved star is appropriately located at 7007 Hollywood Blvd (outside a touristy trinket shop whose windows are lined with tiny porcelain crucifixes and movie star photos), a block west of the famous Graumann's Chinese Theater and a little over a block east of Pierce Brosnan's star. His sidewalk neighbors are Rory Calhoun and Bugs Bunny. Much was made of the address, and of the year in which the ceremony occurred.

Upcoming Spy DVDs

Executive Action

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

Help! Is On The Way!

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

The Name's Hope. Bob Hope.

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

Tradecraft: HBO Developing Spy Sitcom

The Hollywood Reporter reports that HBO is developing "a workplace comedy about an elite counterintelligence unit hidden undercover as disgruntled civil servants" called Intelligence. The show is created by Michael Patrick Jann, who recently directed the brilliant Lord of the Rings episode of HBO's Flight of the Conchords. Alias alumnus Bradley Cooper and certified comic genius Patton Oswalt (Amazing Screw-On Head) are both attached to star and co-executive produce along with Jann.

Fall TV Watch: Chuck

I thought the second episode of Chuck was much better than the first. The show is a lot more comfortable in its own skin now; it’s a spy comedy, and it’s happy to stay that way. Episode 2 was definitely funnier than the pilot, but still action-packed. It’s a good blend.

The supporting cast is also starting to gel better. Chuck’s odd family unit comes together well in the second episode (very reminiscent of the Cohens in co-creator Josh Schwartz’s The O.C.), and we get a better sense of his sister Ellie’s personality. It’s interesting to see how all the outsiders fit into their group, too. Best friend Morgan still annoys us almost as much as he annoys Ellie, but at least he’s settling down. The two special agents protecting (or trying to kill, depending on the orders of the day) Chuck each manage to worm their way into the family too, with varying results. I like the relationship that’s developing between Chuck and CIA agent Sarah, and she’s developing enough of a clear character that actress Yvonne Strzechowski manages to overcome those generic qualities I mentioned in my first review of the pilot. Her antagonistic relationship with the show’s breakout, scene-stealing star, Adam Baldwin (NSA Agent Casey), is probably the best one going so far. All of their moments together were great, and Baldwin got a lot of humor out of his new cover job at the Buy More where Chuck works. Let’s just say you don’t want to shoplift at that particular Buy More. The whole setup turns out to have been a means of getting three spies (two of them professional, one a total outsider) working together at a mini mall, which is a great idea. I can’t think of many missions that would have mandated such humorous covers. By working these schlub jobs, the super-agents are now regular people like us viewers, and it makes them easier to relate to.

The villain wasn’t much to speak of this week, but he was pretty tangential to the story anyway. This episode was about building character relationships, and he was just a means to that end. (And also served to conveniently explain away any hopes Chuck might have of getting rid of all the secret information now embedded in his brain.) I liked the choice of Iggy Pop’s "Lust For Life" as a theme song (although it seems like the opening music may change each week), and I liked that Chuck has access to ABC secrets in that billion dollar brain of his, not just NBC! (He knows what really happened to Oceanic Flight 815!) Chuck is an entertaining show, and I’m still sticking with it.

The third episode airs tonight at 8 on NBC. You can catch up on episodes you missed by watching them online at NBC.com.

Movie Review: The Kingdom (2007)

Peter Berg’s The Kingdom is an incredibly frustrating movie because it can’t ever decide just what kind of movie it is. Ultimately, it’s a very good action movie wrapped inside a very bad Message Movie (which doesn’t even seem to know what its message is), and the mix just doesn’t work. It goes out of its way to establish itself as a Syriana-like serious examination of Middle East politics, even going so far as to open with a five minute documentary on the history of America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. The documentary is necessarily slight, but it’s well executed. Unfortunately, it sets the tone for an entirely different film than the one to come.

The Kingdom begins in earnest with a massive terrorist attack on an American housing complex in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia. Among the hundreds dead is an FBI agent. Back in Washington, Jamie Foxx briefs a team of other FBI agents on the attack, and they have a discussion on "why do they hate us?" I realize that the filmmakers need to get their exposition across somehow, but doesn’t the FBI circulate weekly memos on such issues so that schoolyard-level discussions among its rapid response teams are seldom necessary? Foxx pulls strings to have his team on the ground in Saudi Arabia to conduct an investigation of their own. The role of FBI agents overseas is a very interesting topic for a spy movie, and one rarely addressed realistically (although some Eurospy flicks had G-men inexplicably doing the job of the CIA). Despite a promising premise, though, The Kingdom quickly drops all pretense of realism.

The team, consisting of Foxx, Jason Bateman and spy stalwarts Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner, con-duct a sub-CSI investi-gation despite poor initial cooperation on the part of the Saudis. They don’t need to do any sort of impressive analysis to break the case wide open, or to demonstrate any kind of Sherlock Holmes deductive reasoning. All they need to do is dig part of an ambulance out of a watery hole, and then read the name of the hospital that’s written on it. They essentially follow their clue to a nest of terrorists in a wholly unfriendly neighborhood and then proceed to kill everyone, Rambo-style.

If The Kingdom were content to be a solid but disposable shoot-em-up, I would have no problems with its many lapses in credibility. But since it strives to present itself so seriously (and begins with that documentary!), those moments become inexcusable. For example: after fighting hard to do the impossible and get his team cleared to be on Saudi soil, which we’re told is a huge diplomatic hurdle, Foxx responds to an unhelpful Saudi general by punching him out! I’m pretty sure that would not only undo all the good will he tried hard to establish, but possibly lead to war. His team is no better. Jennifer Garner insists on wearing tight, "booby-revealing" T-shirts, and gets offended when she’s asked to cover up. Wouldn’t an FBI field agent as well-trained as her character is supposed to be at least know and respect the customs of her host country, even if she didn’t agree with them? The newswomen who report from that part of the world all manage to dress in a respectfully conservative manner! When the Saudi customs officials give Jason Bateman’s character trouble because he has Israeli stamps on his passport, he gets surprised and offended, and immediately cops an attitude. Since anyone who watches a little TV knows to expect such trouble, I would imagine the FBI would also know, and refrain from sending an agent who traveled frequently to Israel. (Or at least issue him a different passport that didn’t reflect that fact!)

The action comes mainly in a self-contained forty-minute section near the film’s end, and it’s good action. It’s not quite up to the intensity of The Bourne Ultimatum, but it’s close, and shot in the same gritty, "put the audience right in the middle of it" style. It bears all the stylistic hallmarks of Michael Mann, which should come as no surprise since he produced The Kingdom. Still, it represents remarkable steps forward for Peter Berg as an action director in his own right. (If only this was an action movie!) Alias fans will be glad to see Jennifer Garner in full ass-kicking mode again, after a string of romantic comedies. Her hand-to-hand (and every other part) confrontation with one of the terrorists is the highlight of the whole movie.

Despite the appealing grittiness of the action, there still isn’t a trace of realism. A very small group of Americans invades an entire neighborhood of RPG-firing Arab terrorists and kills enough of them to satisfy even Sylvester Stallone. In the ultimate stab at escapist Hollywood wish-fulfillment, they also manage to net an Osama bin Laden-like mastermind in the process. If that was the kind of movie Peter Berg wanted to make, I really wish he had just made it. I have nothing against mindless Rambo-like action, just as long as it doesn’t put on airs. The Kingdom wants to be Rambo with morals. It doesn’t work. If it had kept its sights low brow, I would have enjoyed it. Instead, we go from all this shoot-em-up stuff to a pretentious wrap-up which attempts to pinpoint the cause of all the violence in the Middle East. The Kingdom desperately wants to appear smart when it would have made a much better movie had it been content with being dumb.

Some critics have taken The Kingdom to task for shamelessly co-opting horrific images out of recent and current events in the news for entertainment, and suggested that these events should remain off limits to action filmmakers. I disagree. Take The Kingdom to task for doing it badly, by all means, but not for attempting to make an action thriller against a modern-day geopolitical backdrop. The Cold War proved an extremely fertile setting for movies about international intrigue and espionage, even when the danger seemed most real. Though Bond and Bourne and Mission: Impossible have carefully avoided the very threats that keep real-life spies so busy these days, I think it’s certainly possible to make an accessible, mainstream action movie based on contemporary events. The Kingdom isn’t it, but hopefully something like Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies will manage that trick with more success.

Roger Moore To Get Star On Hollywood Walk Of Fame This Week

Sir Roger Moore will be honored with a well-deserved star on the world-famous Walk of Fame in Hollywood, CA this coming Thursday, October 11, at 11:30am. Moore's will be the 2,350th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star will appropriately be located at 7007 Hollywood Blvd, off of Orange Avenue. Stefanie Powers and two-time Felix Leiter David Hedison (who also worked with Moore on The Saint and in Ffolkes) will be guest speakers at the ceremony. Pierce Brosnan is the only other James Bond actor with a star on the Walk of Fame, at 7083 Hollywood Blvd. (Someone please get Sean Connery a star ASAP!)

Sir Roger will also host the World Magic Awards this week, which will be broadcast on MyNetwork TV in the U.S. later this fall.

See full coverage of Sir Roger's acceptance ceremony here!

Ang Lee's New Spy Movie In Theaters This Weekend

Fall always means Oscar contention for distributors, which means that the spy movies get more serious. Gone are the summer action extravaganzas; here come the thought-provoking examinations of history, current events and the psychological toll of being a spy. Will this year bring another Lives of Others? Only time will tell. Last week's The Kingdom (which really belonged in the summer) certainly wasn't it, but maybe Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee has a shot.

Lee's new NC-17-rated epic, Lust, Caution, is being advertised as "an erotic espionage thriller." Based on a short story by Chinese author Eileen Chang, the film stars newcomer Tang Wei as a shy drama student recruited into an assassination plot in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. At the behest of her new controllers, she transforms herself in order to seduce a Japanese collaborator to orchestrate his assassination. But unused to living a life of deception, she soon finds herself falling in love with her target.

Lust, Caution won top honors at the Venice Film Festival last month. I hope that bodes well for the film. I'm a fan of most of Ang Lee's work, and I'm definitely looking forward to his shot at the spy genre. The trailer looks great.

Comic Review: Left On Mission #4

After suffering some of the unfortunate delays that seem a given with indy comic publishing, BOOM! Studios’ Left On Mission #4 finally hit comic shops last week with no loss of momentum whatsoever. Issue 3 was primarily an interlude in the action to focus on character development through a lengthy flashback. Number 4 thrusts those characters, in whom we’re now more emotionally invested than before, right back into the thick of it, guns (literally) blazing. It also features the return of one of the more compelling supporting characters, the ambitious, possibly psychopathic Agent Painter.

Reactivated CIA agent Eric Westfall has tracked his former flame, Emma (now gone rogue, though possibly for noble and topical reasons) to Morocco. Like in the best spy movies, writer Chip Mosher, artist Francesco Francavilla and colorist Martin Thomas (whose contributions still add immeasurably) take some time to let us explore this exotic setting. This has been a particular strength of this series since Issue 1, and once again Francavilla manages to evoke another well-selected thrilling location in beautiful detail. He gives us the visual, and Mosher gives us the smells, through Westfall’s instructive dialogue to Painter. Together, the creators do a great job of putting the reader in the heart of North Africa.

Westfall demonstrates some handy tradecraft with all the finesse of Michael Weston, allowing a potentially explosive transaction to play out. Each party believes themselves to be in command of the situation, which Francavilla sets up very nicely with a two-page splash providing a fish-eye view of all the participants and their rooftop sniper backup. The story still churns along at a very brisk pace, but Mosher understands the importance of the set-up. From conveying a great sense of place to constructing a believable playing field for the eventual action to unfold upon, each issue of Left On Mission builds to a satisfying climax and another cliffhanger ending. Like most comic book miniseries, the story will probably read best when collected together in trade paperback (which it will be this December), but it’s also the rare modern comic that delivers the goods with each individual issue as well. Fans of Burn Notice and The Bourne Ultimatum will find a lot to like here.

Movie Review: SABOTEUR (1942)

Review: Saboteur

Saboteur is not top-shelf Hitchcock, and certainly not his best black and white spy movie, either, but even the master’s lesser efforts are preferable to almost anyone else’s attempts at the man-on-the-run subgenre. Robert Cummings plays Barry Kane, a worker at a Glendale, California airplane factory who finds himself wrongfully accused of starting the arson fire that killed his best friend. Only he can identify the true saboteur (played with excellent menace by Norman Lloyd), a man the police don’t even believe exists. Barry follows his only clue and embarks on a cross-country journey to prove his innocence and bust open a ring of Nazi spies.

Saboteur was made shortly after America’s entrance into WWII, and the British director lays on the propaganda thickly, packing in enough American patriotism to give Michael Bay a run for his money. In the course of his odyssey (and it is a literal Odyssey, adhering somewhat loosely to Homer’s epic), Barry learns valuable lessons about America and what makes it great. Essentially, why it’s worth fighting for at all costs. When he stumbles into the cabin of an old blind man after escaping police custody, still wearing handcuffs, the sightless seer takes him in, offers him food and warmth, and reiterates the Constitutional concept of "innocent until proven guilty," teaching the concept to his niece, Pat (Priscilla Lane), who was ready to condemn Barry and turn him in to the police. And when Barry and Pat (now dragged into Barry's plight against her will) are caught stowing away aboard a traveling circus caravan, the freaks educate them - and us, the audience -on the merits of democracy by voting on whether or not to allow them to stay aboard. (The primary dissenting voice in the matter is a midget with a none-too-subtle Hitler mustache.) And the wholesome Pat, an all-American model whose pretty face graces every billboard they pass, teaches Barry the value of patriotism itself.

It’s not just the characters who hammer home the patriotic message, but the locations as well. Barry’s journey takes him past majestic purple mountains and amber waves of grain, past the mighty Hoover Dam, presented as a spectacular example of American ingenuity (and endangered by the Fascist saboteurs), and finally to the Statue of Liberty herself. Yes, the symbolism is constant and heavy-handed, but it’s admirable how whole-heartedly Hitch threw himself into the war effort. And the story moves along at a brisk pace, too, with plenty of action scenes, including a desperate all-or-nothing leap from a bridge into churning rapids to escape the police, which I suppose Andrew Davis (who remade Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder as A Perfect Murder) must have been homaging in The Fugitive.

The movie’s two most memorable setpieces come towards the end. Barry follows the saboteur all the way to New York, to an upscale party thrown by the prominent, wealthy Nazi sympathizers behind the sabotage plot. Exposed, Barry and Pat find themselves trapped out in the open. In a lengthy, tour-de-force shot that prefigures the director’s "single take" movie Rope, the camera moves with the couple as they dance an entire song, discussing their escape options. The shot remains steady on them as the background (always fully in focus) swirls around. Again, not subtle, but highly effective. Barry tries first to escape by dramatically informing another guest that the party is "a hotbed of spies and Fifth Columnists!" but the guy thinks he’s drunk. Next he tries making a public spectacle of himself to ensure safe passage out, but the trick doesn’t serve him as well as it does Cary Grant a decade-and-a-half later in North By Northwest. The other memorable setpiece, and the film’s most famous sequence, comes in the final reel as Barry finally confronts the real saboteur atop the Statue of Liberty. Suffice it to say, one of them falls off, plunging to his doom in the shadow of Liberty.

Fortunately, there are enough thrills in Saboteur that it holds up as more than mere propaganda. And it’s aided by a sharp script co-written by Dorothy Parker that crackles with the pithy witticisms she’s known for. (The spy ring is composed primarily of wealthy New Yorkers, a circle with which Ms. Parker was imminently familiar!) For a top-notch example of propagandist, wartime Hitchcock, and an action movie decades ahead of the birth of the genre, watch Foreign Correspondent. But for an entertaining way to pass an hour and a half from an era when patriotism was pure and carried none of the stigmas it’s acquired since, you could do a lot worse than Saboteur.

Tradecraft: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Scripter

Buried at the end of Variety's article about writer Peter Morgan's follow-up to The Queen is the news that the British scribe is also working on a new movie version of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for Working Title. No further details are given on the project.

Le Carre's book was famously (and many would argue perfectly) adapted into a TV miniseries in 1980 starring the incomparable Alec Guinness as Le Carre's antihero, George Smiley. It was followed by a sequel, Smiley's People, in 1982. Denholm Elliott stepped into the role for the 1992 TV movie A Murder of Quality, but it was difficult for even a great actor like him to fill Guinness' shoes. I imagine whoever plays the part in the new movie will face the same challenge, but there are a lot of intriguing possibilities out there. Jim Broadbent, for one, leaps to mind. Rupert Davies played Smiley prior to Guinness in the 1965 film The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.

Peter Morgan won acclaim last year for a pair of royal scripts; he wrote both The Queen and The Last King of Scotland. The Queen was the second movie in his "Tony Blair trilogy" with actor Michael Sheen playing the PM. Sheen will reprise the role for Morgan's follow-up, focusing on Blair's relationships with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Morgan is also doing a polish on the script for the American remake of acclaimed British political thriller State of Play, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.

R.I.P. Lois Maxwell

Very sad news. One of the defining faces of the James Bond fanchise has passed away. The original Miss Money-penny, Lois Maxwell, died yesterday at the age of 80 in Free-mantle, Australia (near Perth), where she had made her home for some time. According to the AP obituary, her friend and frequent co-star Roger Moore said she'd been suffering from cancer.

Born in Canada with the name Lois Hooker (changed for obvious reasons when she entered show business), Maxwell toiled in relative obscurity for fifteen years before finding international fame in the Bond series. During that time she made her spy debut in the 1956 movie Passport To Treason, directed by future Saint producer Robert S. Baker, and even won a Golden Globe for "Most Promising Newcomer" for her role opposite Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple in That Hagen Girl (1947). Despite wholesome, girl-next-door looks that ran counter to the femme fatale image of the genre, she seemed destined for spy stardom. Maxwell guest-starred on TV shows O.S.S. and Danger Man before being cast in the first Bond film, Dr. No in 1962.

Thanks in part to the crackling script by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood, she imbued the character with a spark not found in Fleming's novels, and elevated the role from window dressing to essential co-star. Her running flirtatious banter with Connery's 007 captured the public's imagination so much so that more than four decades later Fleming's literary estate commissioned a series of novels focusing on Moneypenny, written by Samantha Weinberg under the nom de plume Kate Westbrook. Even though the books are clearly set in Fleming's literary world, there's no doubt that the inspiration was the Moneypenny of the films, the Moneypenny of Lois Maxwell.

Maxwell sealed her association with the role by reprising it in From Russia With Love, which features what is probably the quintessential Bond/Moneypenny interplay. Throughout the Sixties, besides a small role in The Haunting and her continuing contribution to the ongoing, wildly popular Bond series, she worked mostly in TV, guesting on many more spy shows. She re-teamed with Robert Baker for two episodes of The Saint, where she worked with Roger Moore for the first time. (The two already knew each other from drama school, and remained fast friends.) She was cast against type as a killer in her first Saint guest spot, "Interlude In Venice," and also played an evil nun on The Avengers. Besides those roles, she made a tour of virtually all the British spy/adventure shows of the decade, including The Baron, Department S and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). She also appeared (in a very Moneypenny-ish role) in the Italian Bond spoof Operation Kid Brother, starring Sean Connery's brother, Neil. So did Bernard "M" Lee. According to Maxwell, Connery was furious with them for participating in a film that he saw as exploiting his brother, and never fully forgave either colleague.

In the Seventies, Lois Maxwell worked again with her old friend Roger Moore on The Persuaders shortly before he took over as the new James Bond. She continued to play Moneypenny throughout his tenure, acting in a total of fourteen Bond films (a record surpassed only by Desmond Llewelyn as Q) opposite three lead actors. When Timothy Dalton was cast as the fourth 007, it had become necessary to recast the part with a younger woman, and Caroline Bliss filled in for two films. Samantha Bond played Pierce Brosnan's Moneypenny, and the role was sorely missing from Daniel Craig's debut in Casino Royale.* Pamela Salem (looking very Maxwell-ish) filled in in Connery's non-canonical encore Never Say Never Again. But no matter who has played the part since, or will in the future, Miss Moneypenny is forever associated with Lois Maxwell. She is the originator of the role, and sure to remain the longest-running player in the part. She is to Moneypenny what Sean Connery is to James Bond, and was arguably as big a part (along with Llewelyn) in defining the series as he was.

I met Ms. Maxwell once in 1995, and found her to be extremely friendly and gracious. The screen has lost one of the great supporting players of all time, and she will be remembered forever through her incalculable contribution to the James Bond franchise.

*Even though Barbara Broccoli has publicly stated that there are currently no plans to reintroduce the Moneypenny character into the series, I think it would be a wonderful tribute to Maxwell if they did so in Craig's second outing. Lois Maxwell created a character who has seeped into the public consciousness almost as much as Bond himself , and the character deserves to live on.

TV Review: Burn Notice Season Wrap-Up

USA’s summer spy show Burn Notice wrapped up its premiere season last week, and I have to say, it was a pretty stellar season. Burn Notice started out as an agreeable way to pass an hour, aided immeasurably by Bruce Campbell in a supporting role, Miami eye candy (of the scenic and bikini-clad varieties), and threat-of-the-week plots that resolved themselves in an hour and didn’t require the viewer to have seen everything that had come before to know what was going on. All the necessary ingredients for escapist summer fun. But as it ran its course, Burn Notice revealed itself to be more than just the sum of its very appealing parts. The fact that it’s the first episodic spy series in a long while that doesn’t dangle dozens and dozens of ongoing plot threads for the viewer to keep track of definitely helps. It’s not 24 or Alias, wrapped up in its own dense and impenetrable continuity. But unlike the mighty Eighties action hours it emulates so well (Magnum P.I., The Equalizer, Remington Steele, etc.), it does have an ongoing storyline, and in that paradox lies its genius. Creator Matt Nix managed to sustain the first season with a single serial aspect, the burning question of who "burned" ex-spy Michael Weston. This plot was doled out in manageable, bite-size nuggets all season long. In each episode, Michael got another small piece of the puzzle that got him closer to discovering the truth, but the pieces were so small that it didn’t matter if a viewer missed one or had never even seen another episode. Yet they were big enough to keep record audiences (for USA) tuning in week after week, eager for the next piece, but probably more eager to spend some time with a group of likeable characters.

In my review of the pilot, I was a little critical of Michael’s frequent voice-overs. But as the show went on, I really grew to love them. It was a good device to let us in on the thoughts of a very guarded character, and it doled out what sounded like good, practical advice for carrying out spy work. And that’s exactly why people watch spy shows, isn’t it? Because a part of all of us yearns to be a spy? (Of the exciting, fictional variety, at least.) Having Michael tell us how week after week really tapped into that collective desire. Jeffrey Donovan delivered these bits of narration quite well, too, in a laid-back, conversational-but-instructive style. I wasn’t sure about him as a leading man to begin with, but, like the show itself, he thoroughly won me over. As did Gabrielle Anwar as the feisty Fiona, Michael’s gun-crazy on and off girlfriend. (I suppose their relationship was another serial plotline, but all shows have that. And even if you do count it, two plots to keep track of is a lot less stressful than all the balls Lost has in the air!) I’ll confess an attraction to Ms. Anwar ever since her sexy spy debut in If Looks Could Kill, but she played a well-written role well, and drew me into her character well beyond the skimpy tropical outfits. Some of my favorite moments were the ones she shared with Bruce Campbell. Those two supporters displayed very good chemistry together.

Bruce himself did a great job too. Of course, as a fan of his work ever since The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., it was his presence that originally drew me to this series, but I was disappointed that his part, Sam, seemed both underwritten and underused at first. As the series progressed, however, either the writing for him improved, or Bruce managed to do more with less. I’m not really sure which, but Sam was a much better character by the end of the season. This was thanks in large part to those scenes with Anwar, and also thanks to an expanded role in the final three or four episodes. I like that Sam may be the comic sidekick, but he’s no bumbler. He’s an ex-spy too, and he proved himself thoroughly capable when he put down his beer, left the pool-side, and picked up a sniper rifle in some of those final episodes. (It is too bad, however, that he didn’t get to share any scenes with his former Xena co-star Lucy Lawless when she guest-starred!)

In twelve episodes, Burn Notice sort of resolved its season-long arc, but left us hanging with an inevitable (and satisfying) cliffhanger. I’m looking forward to Season Two, and I hope Nix is up to the challenge of continuing the story without ruining it, of staying fresh as well as familiar. I’ll definitely be tuning in next June to find out.

As for Nix, he seemed to come out of nowhere. But a recent LA Times profile dispelled that notion: "After more than eight years writing feature scripts that may have sold but were rarely produced, Matt Nix learned this summer that it’s true what they say about Hollywood: It takes 10 years t to be an overnight success." The article goes on to reveal that he’s 36, and not 20 (which is about how old he looks), so frustrated screenwriters can stop hating him!

Nix claims that Michael Weston is basically him, but if he’d been a spy. Who got burned. So... not really him, but the sarcastic voice is his, through and through. So much so that he’ll stop staff writers from making good jokes that he wouldn’t come up with himself. "I’m responsible for making the show sound like it’s supposed to sound. It either needs to feel like something I wrote or something I wish I wrote," he says. On the subject of network compromises, he shares that Burn Notice was originally set in Newark, NJ, which seems like a much more miserable city to be trapped in than Miami. But USA kept insisting that relocating to Miami would lighten things up, and eventually they just told him to switch. Now Nix is happy with Miami. "It’s so much more fun to have this dark character highlighted against this background. Nobody’s ever done a show about a guy in a tropical vacation wonderland who hates being in a tropical vacation wonderland."

The writer also weighs in on the thorny, age-old TV issue of "will they or won’t they?" and his decision to allow his on-again/off-again leads to have sex with each other so early on. (In the past, pundits have claimed such unions have ruined shows like Moonlighting, Remington Steele and The X-Files. Others have been frustrated that the leads never did get together onscreen in shows like The Avengers. You couldn’t win.) "The conventional answer on television is that people with rocky relationships can never have sex. Then the tension is gone," he admits. "I realized in my experience people with on-again/off-again relationships are always having sex. Having sex doesn’t release any tension at all; it makes it worse." You know what? He was right. I’d say there’s even more sexual tension in Michael and Fiona’s relationship now.

Finally, the Times article tantalizingly discloses that Nix is currently working on a "European version of the show." I’m not sure why Europe can’t simply take the American version; it worked with all the action hours in the Eighties. But the idea of a Euro-set remake intrigues me, so I’ll be keeping my ears open for more information on this...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tradecraft For Thursday, September 27, 2007

Robert Redford Spies Again

According to Variety, Robert Redford will direct an adaptation of former U.S. terrorism czar Richard Clarke's scathing memoir, Against All Enemies. The trade says "Jamie Vanderbilt penned the screenplay, which centers on Clarke, the counterterrorism adviser to three presidents, who charged in his book that the Bush administration prioritized Iraq above threats from Al Qaeda both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks." Casino Royale/Bond 22 co-writer Paul Haggis was at one point attached to this project.

New Bond Cinematographer

The Hollywood Reporter slips this nugget of information into an article about Bond 22 director Marc Forster's new film, The Kite Runner: Forster's frequent collaborator, director of photography Roberto Schaefer, will shoot the next Bond movie. The trade says this: "Schaefer is teaming with Forster again on the next film in the James Bond franchise. The cinematographer is location scouting for the tentatively titled Bond 22, for which shooting is being planned in the U.K., South America and Italy. Production is scheduled to begin on or around Dec. 10." Schaefer has shot all of Forster's features since Monster's Ball, including Finding Neverland and last year's Stranger Than Fiction, as well as Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration. Nothing on his filmography suggests he's ready to shoot 007, but hopefully a fruitful collaboration with Dan Bradley will result in a good-looking action film. Phil Meheux shot Casino Royale and GoldenEye, David Tattersall shot Die Another Day and Adrian Biddle lensed The World Is Not Enough.

Huge U.N.C.L.E. News!

After months, years of speculation, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is finally, officially coming to DVD. (Doesn't that sound familiar? How many times have I reported it in various stages?) As previously announced, it will be available exclusively from Time Life, and exclusively online, starting Nov. 27, 2007. And now, TVShowsOnDVD has the full press release, listing all the features, and displaying a nice, big picture of the whole set in all its deluxe packaging glory! It's all housed inside an attache case, and it looks good. Imagine if MGM/Fox had realized their own plans to put the complete Bond collection in an attache case as well? Wouldn't those two sets have complemented each other nicely? Oh well.

Besides great packaging, the set boasts all kinds of cool bonus features. As far as I can tell, though, it doesn't list commentaries, which is too bad because we know that Robert Vaughn recorded some for Anchor Bay way back when that company was planning to release the series. It does, however, include Ian Fleming's original notes on the series, which should be cool to see. Head on over to TVShowsOnDVD for all the details, or to Time Life to order the whole set now for $249.99.

Tradecraft For The Week Of August 24, 2007

Animal Commandos...

AintItCoolNews noticed a blurb in Variety about a new Jerry Bruckheimer movie called G-Force. In it, actor Gabriel Casseus will play "an NSA agent tracking a group of genetically enhanced animal commandos." Has anyone noticed how the NSA suddenly replaced the CIA a few years ago as the go-to branch of the Intelligence community for movie agents to work for? There was xXx, Die Another Day, various other movies and TV shows, and now this. I was under the impression (largely due to James Bamford's excellent book on the subject, The Puzzle Palace)that the NSA spent a lot of time analyzing satellite intercepts and cracking codes, but apparently what they actually do is recruit extreme athletes and, um... track animals. All kidding aside, though, this could be a pretty fun movie. The folks at AICN have done all the legwork and also provide a link to another Variety story with more details: "G-Force's team of genetically enhanced guinea pigs working as spies for the U.S. government [looks] likely to bring home the bacon in this live-action/CG family adventure. Combining good clean fun with comedy and cutting-edge effects, this project puts former vfx supervisor Hoyt Yeatman (Crimson Tide) in charge of directing.

...And Commandos Named After Animals

Variety reports that 300 producer Gianni Nunnari will remake the cult favorite 1978 Roger Moore action epic The Wild Geese. The original packed near-toxic levels of testosterone with Moore, Richard Burton, Richard Harris and Hardy Kruger as mercenaries. It was made during - and largely responsible for - the brief strangely popular mercenary sub-genre of the late Seventies and early Eighties. Perhaps the recent Blackwater scandal in Iraq has put soldiers of fortune back in the spotlight. Commercial and video game director Rupert Sanders is attached to direct. Euan Lloyd, producer of the Andrew V. McLaglen-directed original, will exec produce the new version. There's no word on whether or not Daniel Craig is being sought to play the Roger Moore role, but how could he not be? Seriously, he might be more suited to play the Richard Burton part, but if you're making a new movie about very British manly men, you're gonna need Craig, right? Unless of course they're making the guys American this time 'round... I don't know, but to me mercenaries become a lot less appealing when they're American. Maybe it's the Blackwater taint.

Roger Moore contributed a typically entertaining commentary track to last year's Region 1 Special Edition DVD of the original, and for further Bond connections, OHMSS director Peter Hunt helmed the 1985 sequel.

"Damn It!"

I don't generally cover the personal lives of spy stars, but The Hollywood Reporter posits that Kiefer Sutherland's off-screen antics might affect the show, so that makes news. The trade says, "the show faces an uncertain future as the actor's arrest violates a five-year probation, something that might send him to jail for up to a year." Sutherland was arrested for DUI in West Hollywood earlier this week. Fox has picked up 24 through 2009, so a jailed star could unfortunately put a serious crimp in their long-term plans. The actor's arrest hasn't affected the current production schedule for Season 7, which will reportedly find his character, Jack Bauer, on trial for his sometimes overzealous methods in protecting America from terrorists.

Television Review: Chuck Pilot Revisited

Well, I’m changing my mind after watching Chuck a second time tonight. I liked it quite a lot. I still think that Chuck himself is a bit sub-Seth Cohen, but he’s appealing nonetheless. The supporting characters are good too, even if the best friend is better in small doses.

The basic premise finds a professional nerd (as in "Nerd Herd," the fictional equivalent of Best Buy’s "Geek Squad" computer technicians) named Chuck transformed into a spy by... well, that’s not important and it barely makes sense. But average Chuck suddenly finds himself in some extraordinary circumstances, such as the aforementioned ninja fight (which is still funny, despite being severely trimmed since the Comic-Con version), a car chase (somewhat reminiscent of The Bourne Identity) and defusing a bomb. Zach Levi plays baffled well, and Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin are amusing as the rival secret agents keeping tabs on him.

Director McG handles all the action scenes with style and skill (which is hardly a surprise), even on a TV budget. It will be interesting to see if producers manage to keep every episode as action-packed as the pilot. Speaking of action scenes, Chuck kicks off with an exciting parkour sequence, in which a burnt spy attempts a daring escape. I think this scene is a testament to how large James Bond still looms over the genre. After GoldenEye, all wannabe spies needed a bungee jump scene. And after Casino Royale, it’s parkour that’s become shorthand for thrilling espionage action. Pay attention, those who claim that Bourne has usurped Bond’s spot atop the pile of spies!

NBC's new spy lineup continues Wednesday night with the all-new Bionic Woman.

NBC Spy Series Chuck Debuts Tonight

Chuck, the first of NBC's several new spy series this season, debuts tonight at 8PM Eastern. I saw the pilot down at Comic-Con this past summer, and found it to be pleasant, but not amazing. I seemed to be in the minority though. The audience loved it, wildly cheering for the cast as they came out to do a Q&A afterwards. The last show that got that kind of reception at Comic-Con was Heroes, so perhaps Chuck is NBC's newest hit. If it were, it would definitely be a good thing. I enjoyed Chuck's blend of comedy and espionage-related action, and I'd like to see more shows and movies brave enough to attempt this mixture. Tonally, it was similar to executive producer McG's Charlie's Angels movies.

Adam Baldwin was particularly good as an NSA enforcer, but the two leads, Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski, were kind of bland. Levi seems desperate to channel Seth Cohen, the breakout geek star of Chuck creator Josh Schwartz's first show, The OC. But in the pilot, he came off a little heavy on the desperate and light on the Cohen. Strahovski was perfectly good (and certainly looks good!), but just comes off as sort of generic. A generic TV blonde. In person, she was very charming, largely thanks to her Australian accent. I wish the producers had let her keep in on the show!

The pilot does have some very good scenes, though, including an exciting car chase, a deadly dance and a very funny fight with a ninja. These scenes alone are promising for the series, and I'll certainly be sticking with it... for a few more episodes at least.