Movie Review: The International (2008)

Here’s another modern movie that fits all the criteria of the Eurospy genre–rugged agent, beautiful blonde, fantastic European locales and slam-bang action–but one of a slightly more respectable pedigree than Taken or the Transporter films. The International is a suspenseful thriller about a disgraced Scotland Yard detective turned agent for Interpol (Clive Owen) who teams up with the New York City District Attorney’s Office (in the very appealing form of Naomi Watts) to take down a powerful international bank that dabbles in arms dealing, assassination and revolution in their greed-fueled quest to control the debt that such ventures create. It’s directed by Tom Tykwer, the director of such myriad visual spectacles as Run Lola Run, Winter Sleepers and Perfume. The International is the most straightforward movie he’s ever done, but his touch is certainly felt in the arresting compositions and perfectly-constructed setpieces.

The movie opens with Agent Louis Salinger (Owen) witnessing the gruesome death of his partner. When he tries to save him, Salinger himself is cut down by traffic, resulting in a recurring ringing in his ear (that happens to poor Clive a lot in his movies). Salinger awakes in the hospital and immediately demands to see his partner’s body. Performing his own examination of the corpse, Salinger concludes that the man was poisoned by a minute prick to the back–despite the coroner’s official ruling of a heart attack. He makes his case to his boss back at Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France, and accuses the bank that they were investigating of the murder. When Salinger flies to Luxembourg to question the bank’s CEO, he instead encounters his smarmy lawyer (the British Office’s Patrick Baladi) and discovers that they’re one step ahead of him. Sure enough, he finds listening devices in his office, his flat and his boss’s house.

The only person he can trust is the New York prosecutor whose office first alerted Interpol to the case: Eleanor Whitman (Watts). The two of them pursue their investigation in Milan, Italy, where they’re once again awestruck by the bank’s capabilities, witnessing a political assassination orchestrated by the omnipresent financial institution. The assassination itself is wonderfully shot, utilizing the birds-eye view camera angles that Tykwer is so fond of to invoke Hitchcock–specifically the assassination sequence from Foreign Correspondent, also set in an exotic European city. It’s not the last Hitchcockian moment in The International, either. The entire movie appears to be something of a tribute to the master, although Tykwer is more subtle than other acolytes, like Brian De Palma.

Salinger spots the assassin escaping by car and gives pursuit on foot in a thrilling chase. Further investigation earns the ire of local authorities, but leads Salinger and Whitman to her home base of New York City. It’s here that Tykwer stages the movie’s ultimate setpiece, a ten-minute-long shootout at the Guggenheim Museum between Salinger and a hit squad armed with submachine guns. Ever since watching Run Lola Run I’ve wanted to see how Tykwer staged a traditional action sequence, and the director doesn’t let me down. (I still think he’d be a great choice for Bond–much more appropriate than Marc Forster!) This is really one of the best shootouts ever filmed, and a terrific synthesis of location and scene. The building’s unique architecture also suits Tykwer’s style and favorite visual themes, allowing for plenty of shots of concentric white circles from above and below as Owen attempts to make his way down the museum’s famous spiral ramp, past the gunmen and out the door to safety. I'm surprised that this awesome location hasn't been used for such a scene before. The only other director to use it that comes immediately to mind is Matthew Barney, and The Cremaster Cycle is hardly comparable! I'm glad that the location has somehow eluded other action movies over the years, because Tykwer clearly makes it his own.

Despite this awesome gunfight, though, traditional action fans still might not get quite what they want out of The International–because it isn’t a traditional action film. Several superbly-staged sequences of intense action notwithstanding, this is overall a character-driven thriller–and a fairly talky one at times. And after the exaggerated scope of the museum shootout, things don’t get bigger, but smaller and more introspective. Those expecting a grand, Bondian finale to top that will be let down. Instead the scale diminishes, down to a mano-a-mano standoff between Salinger and the bank’s chairman, Jonas Skarssen, impeccably played by The World Is Not Enough’s Ulrich Thomsen (whose neo-Eurospy credits also include Hitman). That’s fine by me, though, especially since there are still more thrilling locations to fill the screen with ample eye candy–including what looks like the same Italian coastal road as featured in the pre-credits sequence of Quantum of Solace, only shot in a steady and confident manner that allows the viewer to actually view it.

The finale itself takes place in Istanbul, which instantly buys a film infinite good will on my part. From From Russia With Love to That Man In Istanbul to Fury On the Bosphorus, the city is a classic Eurospy location. Here, its crowded terra cotta rooftops (reminiscent of the Tangier sequence in The Bourne Ultimatum) and the unique sidewalk that runs along them provide the perfect setting for the film’s finale.

Ultimately, Tykwer is much more interested in Salinger’s journey as a character than in the mechanics of his thriller plot. (Another similarity to Hitchcock, who repeatedly stated that the "MacGuffins" that propelled the action in each of his films ultimately met nothing.) Like the rest of the film, the conclusion is character-driven. Again, it might not necessarily satisfy action fans thirsting for a crowning setpiece... but it aptly brings to a close the story Tykwer set out to tell–and does so in typical style. If you’re a fan of Clive Owen–who does a dependably fantastic job in yet another secret agent role–of Tykwer, of Eurospy movies, of Hitchcock movies or of exotic locales, you’ll find plenty to love in The International. And the title rings true; this is the best "travelogue" spy movie since The Bourne Ultimatum. I only wish the modern Bond films spent as much time soaking up their settings as The International does! Again, I reiterate my nomination for Tom Tykwer to direct a Bond movie. And I present The International–and particularly its stunning Guggenheim shootout–as Exhibit A in this case.

Tradecraft: Gaghan Writes Dead Spy

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Syriana writer Stephen Gaghan will soon be returning to the spy genre when he pens the previously announced Dead Spy Running for director/producer McG at Warner Bros. "Based on a book by British author Jon Stock, the film is meant to be the first in a trilogy and aims to reinvent the spy genre by telling the origin story of a newly trained spy in a tone that mixes the grittiness of The Bourne Identity with the wittiness of John Le Carré's oeuvre." Every time this movie is reported on, that's the go-to line: Ludlum meets Le Carré. While Le Carré's tales are, in fact, plenty gritty on their own, and while Ludlum is capable of wit, I assume what they're really trying to say is that this will be like John Le Carré only with lots of action. Which, of course, isn't really like John Le Carré at all, so what's the point of the comparison? Then again, I love both Ludlum and Le Carré, so while I can't imagine two more disparate spy writers, any project that namechecks them both sounds intriguing to me. The book will be published in June, and the trade has a description of its opening: "[Dead Spy Running] begins with the protagonist running the London Marathon, where a fellow racer is strapped with explosives. The scenario leads to a globe-trotting adventure to clear the name of the man's father." It's foreseen as the first in a trilogy. McG is only attached to direct this one so far, but would presumably produce the sequels should the first film be a success. Combined with all the Ludlum stuff currently in development, there's a whole lot of this sort of thing in the pipeline... and I couldn't be happier about it!

Mister 8 Online Spy Comic Strip Up And Running

Armstrong Sabian over at the impressive new spy site Mister 8 (which you may have noticed in the links to the right) has a terrific twist on the spy site concept: he plans to run an ongoing adventure strip featuring a secret agent hero of his own creation, Martin Queen. That comic strip debuted this week, with another entry planned for each Monday. It's a very sleek, very professional, beautifully stylized strip–and it's set in the Sixties, so basically it had me at hello–and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of it in the future. Check it out here. And if you like Armstrong's style, you'll also get a big kick out of his portraits of Patrick McGoohan and Michael Caine, which he shares here.

Dr. No Radio Adaptation At Permission To Kill

David Foster over at Permission To Kill has done all spy fans a huge favor by posting last year's specially commissioned BBC Radio adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel "Doctor No" in its entirety! Die Another Day villain Toby Stephens plays James Bond, and TV's Poirot David Suchet assays the title role. The radio play was originally aired as part of the Ian Fleming Centenary celebrations last year, through special permission of EON Productions, who control the character's radio rights. Hurry, though; the download is only available for a limited time. Now you don't happen to have that excellent "Ipcress File" adaptation that BBC Radio did a few years ago up your sleeve, do you, David...?

REMINDER: Funeral In Berlin Screening TONIGHT In L.A.!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

As previously reported, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will screen Funeral In Berlin in their fantastic theater on Saturday, February 21 (that's tonight!) at 9:15PM as part of their series "Torn Curtain: The Two Germanys on Film" examining films set in Cold War Germany. The Guy Hamilton-directed middle installment in the Sixties Harry Palmer trilogy will be paired with Robert Siodmak's Escape From East Berlin. (That one starts at 7:30.) I haven't seen the latter, but it doesn't appear to be a spy movie. Nevertheless, the 1962 movie (which concerns twenty-nine East Germans who fled Communist rule by tunneling under the Berlin Wall) does sound pretty cool! The whole film series ties in with the museum's current exhibit "The Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures." That's a good exhibit, and well worth checking out if you're interested in the Cold War.

LACMA's got a great screen, so if you're in the area tonight I definitely recommend taking advantage of this opportunity!

Thanks to my friend Phil for first alerting me to this screening!

More Espionage From Network...

Quite literally, in fact! The UK DVD distributor extraordinaire will release The Complete Series of Espionage, the 1963-64 ITC anthology series. Network previously released a standalone disc containing the three episodes directed by Michael Powell (Peeping Tom, The Red Shoes). I picked that one up in their recent sale, but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Even so, I'm excited about having the chance to see the entire series, which to the best of my knowledge was never re-broadcast and very difficult to see. Individual black and white episodes each told a completely different spy tale each week. They were set in all different eras, and ranged from light comedic depressingly ultra-gritty in tone. Settings ranged from London to Moscow to New York to Kenya. (According to Network, the New York episode even shot on location–a real rarity for ITC at the time!) Guest stars included Anthony Quayle, Donald Pleasence, Patrick Troughton and, strangely, Dennis Hopper. The six-disc set, containing all twenty-four episodes, will be available March 3 for £58.99 (but will be available for less, naturally, on Amazon and Network's own site). Extras include script PDFs and color still galleries.

Network's also got more espionage in store for March, including the previously announced Patrick McGoohan movie The Hard Way and a soundtrack set for The Champions! (More on that one soon... )

Tradecraft: Cruise Still Championing Champions

Tradecraft: Cruise Still Championing Champions

Variety today has an article that provides an overview of the many, many projects that Tom Cruise has attached himself to lately–most of them spy movies. Five different studios are trying to get the actor to commit to their films. While most of these have been covered previously on the Double O Section, the article does mention one new relevant project in which Cruise would play "an undercover agent who gets thrown together with a woman who has man trouble." That movie, Wichita, is being eyed as a possible team-up with Cameron Diaz. The article also recaps old information on The Matarese Circle and The Tourist, as well as mentioning Cruise's possible involvement with Motorcade (the Secret Service thriller written by Breach's Billy Ray). While the star is attached to all of them, he isn't yet firmly committed to any. The most interesting bit, however, pertains to the long-percolating bigscreen revival of the ITC cult classic The Champions:

Studios expect that Cruise will do two films this year, and while some questioned his enthusiasm for finding a big project, sources said that he will likely star next year in The Champions, a feature adaptation of the British TV series about a team of government agents rescued from a plane crash in the Himalayas by an advanced civilization and given superhuman abilities.

[Christopher] McQuarrie is writing that project, and producing it with Guillermo del Toro, who originated it with intentions to direct before he committed five years of his life to two Hobbit films for MGM and New Line.

Interesting! I'd speculated that Cruise's interest in The Matarese Circle precluded his involvement in The Champions, but apparently not. In fact, the Variety article makes that one sound like the closest to a sure thing! I've definitely come around on the idea. Cruise even looks appropriately like Stuart Damon. I'm very excited for that one, so I hope it happens!

Schreiber Salted

Meanwhile, Daniel Craig's Defiance co-star and former Mr. Clark Liev Schreiber has come aboard a high-profile project famous for not starring Tom Cruise: Salt. Formerly titled Edwin A. Salt, Cruise had been attached to this project in the title role for quite a while. But he dropped out late last year only to be replaced by Angelina Jolie (which obviously necessitated a change in the character's first name and title). Variety reports that "Schreiber will play Salt's boss and friend on the Russian desk at the CIA." For those who haven't been paying attention, the trade also provides a nice recap: "The story centers on Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy. She eludes capture by superiors who are convinced she is out to assassinate the president. While trying to reunite with her family, she struggles to prove someone else is the traitor." Without knowing anything more than that (and therefore not in a position to provide any real spoilers–so don't worry and take this with a grain of, ahem, salt), I predict that Schreiber turns out to be the traitor!

WB to Distribute Darkness

Variety also reports that Warner Bros. has acquired North American distribution rights to Martin Campbell's bigscreen remake of Edge of Darkness. Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) directed the original British mini-series, which followed a detective (Bob Peck) getting caught up in a conspiracy involving the security services while investigating the death of his daughter, and he's also directing the movie, which stars Mel Gibson.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week: Body Of Lies

The only major new spy release this week on DVD is last fall's Ridley Scott thriller Body of Lies. This is actually the rare spy movie that I never got around to seeing in the theater, so I'm looking forward to checking it out on DVD. Leonardo DiCaprio and Scott's ubiquitous collaborator Russell Crowe star as a CIA field agent in the Middle East and his manipulative Langley handler, respectively. Body of Lies is available from Warner Home Entertainment in single-disc, double-disc (with that annoying "Digital Copy" thing that just won't go away) and Blu-Ray configurations. The two-disc version comes with a making-of documentary and some other features, and the Blu-Ray offers even more features, including a commentary and some sort of picture-in-picture documentary; the single-disc one is bare-bones.

Wild Wild West Contest Winner

Congratulations to Leigh Chan of California, USA for winning The Wild Wild West - The Third Season (review here) on DVD. Leigh, your set is in the mail! Enjoy it. Thanks to all the other entrants; if you didn't win this, you'll have another chance coming up to win some really cool DVDs! Be on the lookout for the next Double O Section contest soon. It's a good one!

Spy Night!

For some reason this Friday the 13th is a big spy night in the US. Tonight not only sees the release of Tom Tykwer's spy thriller The International (in which Clive Owen apparently once again makes the case that he could have been James Bond), but also the TV premiere of Joss Whedon's new sci-fi spy series Dollhouse, starring Buffy's Eliza Dushku as an operative who can be anyone, and has her memory wiped after each mission. Watch an awesome, grindhouse-style trailer for Dollhouse here. It airs at 9/8C on Fox.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Patrick McGoohan In The Hard Way

The UK's best and most prolific distributor of spy DVDs is at it again! Network has announced the 1979 Patrick McGoohan rarity The Hard Way for release on Region 2 DVD on February 18, 2009. In the dark TV movie The Hard Way, McGoohan (in between Silver Streak and Scanners) plays an Irish assassin named John Connor who wants out of the business. He tries to quit, but his controllers won't let him leave the game. Sound familiar? It's certainly a recurring theme in the actor's career. This time, however, instead of being whisked away to some mysterious Village, McGoohan's brooding character is pursued across Ireland by Lee Van Cleef. (Spaghetti Western fans my find it interesting to note that McGoohan worked with Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood, in Escape From Alcatraz, in the same year.) Extras include a trailer and a stills gallery. Network's website also points out that the movie features a score by Brian Eno–or rather ready-made selections from his sublime album Music For Films.

Tradecraft: More Ludlum News!

We truly live in a Golden Age. All through my middle school years, I tore through Robert Ludlum's million-page spy thrillers and wondered why there weren't movies of all of these books. And I desperately wanted those movies to exist. And now... they do! Or they will. Nearly twenty years later and sadly well after Ludlum's passing, Hollywood has finally discovered the potential of the late author's oeuvre. Today, his name is splashed across the front of the trades for the second day in a row!

Just a few months ago, Bourne producer Frank Marshall was saying that they planned to use Ludlum's The Parsifal Mosaic as the basis for a fourth Bourne film, having run out of actual Ludlum Bourne titles (but not plots, it should be noted, since the last two movies didn't follow the books at all). And I was a little torn about that, because while I liked the idea of The Parsifal Mosaic being filmed (it's a great book), I felt that it should be filmed on its own and not turned into a Bourne story. Well, now it appears that's exactly what's happening! (Although I had since come around on the idea, realizing how it could potentially be used to bring Franka Potente's Marie back from the dead...)

Both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are reporting this morning that Universal is exploiting its overall deal with Captivate Entertainment (formerly Ludlum Entertainment; not sure when that changed) by fast-tracking a legitimate film adaptation of Parsifal with Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment on board to co-produce. Fantastic! Bring on all the other Ludlum titles!

Listen To Duffy's "Live And Let Die" Cover Now

Listen To Duffy's "Live And Let Die" Cover Now

You can now preview the charity covers album War Child: Heroes on MySpace... the album that features Welsh singer Duffy covering the James Bond song "Live And Let Die" by Paul McCartney and Wings. As reported last fall on the Double O Section, the War Child: Heroes project involved esteemed musicians picking younger artists they like to cover songs of their choosing. Sir Paul selected Duffy, who was widely speculated to be a contender for the Quantum of Solace theme song once Amy Winehouse fell through. I'm not sure her "Live And Let Die" rendition gives us a proper hint of what an original Duffy Bond theme would sound like, though, because it's a pretty radical reimagining of the song... and all the better for it. The slowed down soul version is certainly a far cry from the Wings original or the familiar Guns'n'Roses cover, but that's what makes it interesting. I think I like it. It's certainly got Mel B's version beat, at any rate! Listen to Duffy's cover of "Live And Let Die" on MySpace now.

The album comes out on February 16 in the UK and February 24 in America.

Tradecraft: Cruise Attracted To Ludlum; Nolan Rejects Number 6 (Updated)

The Cruise Agenda

With no new Mission: Impossible picture in the immediate offing, Tom Cruise seems to be attaching him to every spy movie in development, so I guess it should come as no surprise that he's now circling the Robert Ludlum adaptation The Matarese Circle. Denzel Washington is already attached, as is director David Cronenberg. Variety says, "Cruise will go mano a mano with Washington as two bitter enemy spies who, after spending two decades trying to kill each other, grudgingly team up against the Matarese, a powerful group at the root of a conspiracy."

Presuming that Washington is still portraying American agent Bradley Scofield (as was originally reported), the other character in Ludlum's novel is Russian spy Vasili Taleniekov. But the trade reports that writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas have "contemporized Ludlum’s original Cold War premise," so maybe the other character is no longer Russian and we won't see Cruise attempting the accent. MGM is aiming for a 2010 release.

Variety reminds us that "Cruise had been mentioned as the potential star of several plum projects around town before the pairing with Washington solidified"; presumably The Champions is among those plum projects, and Cruise's commitment to Matarese means he's no longer involved in that. The trade indicates the star's next film is still expected to be The Tourist, yet another spy thriller!

The Variety story also claims that "in the original $3 million deal made for the Ludlum title, MGM also acquired The Matarese Countdown, giving the studio a shot at creating a franchise, as Universal did with Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity." This runs counter to what was originally reported, which was that the studio did not go for Ludlum's sequel, but instead hoped to develop a franchise based on original sequels to the first title.

Whether or not Tom Cruise actually signs onto The Matarese Circle, this is definitely one of the highest profile spy projects currently in development, and definitely one of the ones I'm most excited about! I'm so glad that Hollywood has finally discovered the potential of Robert Ludlum!

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter has a story on the matter, too, and they assert that Cruise will be playing Taleniekov: "Cruise is in final negotiations to take on the role of the Russian spy Vasili Taleniekov, the mortal enemy of American intelligence operative Brandon Scofield (Washington)." Of course, they could just be surmising this.

Christopher Nolan Is Not a Prisoner; He Is a Free Man

Variety also reports that red-hot Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan has chosen his next film... and, sadly, it's not The Prisoner. Instead, the Nolan will direct a "contemporary sci-fi actioner" called Inception. A movie version of the cult classic Patrick McGoohan spy series was among the other projects the director was considering. While the movie was completely unrelated to the AMC TV remake, it's possible that the existence of that Prisoner was a nail in the coffin of the potential Nolan version. Too bad. I was really looking forward to seeing a Christopher Nolan Village.

Tradecraft: CHERUB Movie Announced And More News From Berlin

CHERUB Movie in the Works

According to The Hollywood Reporter, BBC Films announced at the Berlin Film Festival that it is developing a potential film franchise based on Robert Muchamore's popular "CHERUB" series of teen spy novels. I haven't read any of the CHERUB books, but Bish over at Bish's Beat speaks highly of them--and more teen spy movies is always a good thing in my book! The trade calls the series "more Bourne than Bond" and describes it as "a kids' actioner," asserting that "the movie will include skateboard chases and lots of action." Bish says the books are "very inventive and a more grounded version of the Alex Rider spy novels."

Hopefully the first CHERUB film (which will be based on the first book in the series, The Recruit) will fare better than the first Alex Rider movie, which undeservedly failed at the U.S. box office thanks to a non-campaign by The Weinstein Company that seemed designed to intentionally sink the film rather than sell it. (Really, do Harvey and Bob have some sort of Producers-like scheme going on where they benefit more from flops than successes? All of their films are unceremoniously dumped like this! See: this year's Outlander and Fanboys, among many others.)

Network Nabs Know

In other news out of the Berlin Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that my favorite UK DVD distributor, which apparently also handles theatrical releases over there, has landed "TV, theatrical and home entertainment rights" for a new spy thriller called I Know You Know. The movie, filmed in Wales, stars The World Is Not Enough's Robert Carlyle (bald and looking rather like the Scottish Vic Mackey) as "as a highly charged undercover agent." It's about the relationship between the agent and his son, and is apparently based on director Justin Kerrigan's real life relationship with his own father. It's produced by Sally Hibbin. (I wonder if that's the same Sally Hibbin who wrote The Official James Bond 007 Movie Book back in the late Eighties?)

VALENTINE'S DAY CONTEST: Win The Wild Wild West Season 3 On DVD

No holiday says "spy" like Valentine's Day, so what better way to celebrate than to run a contest? This one feels kind of like déjà vu... A little over a year ago I ran a contest to win a copy of The Wild Wild West - The Third Season (review here). And now... I've got another copy to give away! So presuming you didn't win the last one, here's your chance! To enter, simply send an email with the subject heading "WILD WILD WEST" including your name and mailing address to the Double O Section by midnight, Pacific Time on Monday, February 16, 2009. Winners will be announced in one week's time, next Tuesday. Good luck!

One entry per person, please. Double entries will be disqualified. One winner will be drawn at random and announced on Tuesday, February 17, 2009. The winner's name will be posted here and they will be notified via email. All entries will be deleted immediately after the contest’s close, and no personal information will be retained or transmitted to any third parties. The contest is open to anyone, in any country, although this DVD is NTSC Region 1, so make sure that you have a compatible player. Unfortunately, the Double O Section cannot assume responsibility for items lost or damaged in transit.

Movie Review: The Pink Panther 2 (2009)

The really surprising thing about The Pink Panther 2 is that it’s not that bad. All things considered, that is.

Purists, stow your slings and arrows and hear me out. Of course it’s not on the level of the real Pink Panthers, the Peter Sellers/Blake Edwards collaborations. Of course not. How could it be? But the fact is that there have now just as many Pink Panther movies without Sellers as with him. (I’m splitting the difference with Trail; obviously it was made after Sellers was dead, but his presence in old footage still elevates the first half of that movie above most of what came after.) And, for better or for worse–and following in the shoes of Alan Arkin, Roger Moore and (to some extent) Roberto Begnini, Steve Martin is now the only pretender to the throne to actually essay the role of Inspector Clouseau on two occasions.

Martin is actually the biggest flaw in this new film, and that’s from an admittedly biased point of view. I just can’t shake Sellers’ definitive portrayal from my head, and he’s too different for me. Then again, I can see why he opted not to do a direct imitation. Martin doesn’t even imitate Sellers’ unique French accent (which Moore actually parroted rather perfectly); instead he creates his own version. And I find that jarring. As I say, I can see why the actor chose not to mimic Sellers, but the fact is everyone’s going to compare them already, so why not give the people what they expect? Oh well.

So we have a jarringly different Clouseau in the lead (one which seems to owe more to Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat than to Sellers), and beyond that, it’s a pretty funny movie. I found myself laughing quite a bit–which is also quite a bit more than I had honestly expected to. The Pink Panther 2 is certainly on par with Martin’s first go-round (which, granted, isn’t saying much), and to my mind a slight improvement, even.

John Cleese, for instance, is a marked improvement over Kevin Kline in filling the shoes of the great Herbert Lom as Chief Inspector Dreyfus. It’s the kind of role that Cleese can do in his sleep, but why fault a man for being perfect for his part? His first scene (opposite former James Bond Admiral Goeffrey Palmer) gives him the opportunity to perform his patented slow burn to hilarious effect. He even gets in a nice nod to Lom with the way he barks the word "Clouseau!" though he doesn’t affect Lom’s famous tic. Cleese doesn’t get a lot to do in this movie, but he elevates every scene he’s in. In fact, I kind of a little bit hope this movie does well enough to warrant a second sequel, just for the chance to see more of Cleese as Dreyfus!

There are actually quite a few references to the original series in this movie (which Martin’s first effort seemed to shy away from), and I enjoyed every one of them. At one point when Clouseau has been shot, Dreyfus says, "I wish I’d shot him," conjuring many memories of Lom attempting to do just that. And though Cato is still sadly absent, we do get to hear Clouseau mutter his famously inappropriate term of affection for his manservant, "my little yellow friend"–though this time to a Japanese detective. This leads to an amusing sequence in which Lily Tomlin’s "political correctness instructor" character tries to teach Clouseau why "we do not call Japanese people our little yellow friends."

Like its predecessors, The Pink Panther 2 plays more as a spy movie than a detective one, with Martin’s Clouseau (like Arkin's) showing a fondness for gadgets (whose use usually results in mayhem) and his case taking him out of the country to further-flung locations than Paris. The plot itself is partially recycled from the excellent Sellers effort Return of the Pink Panther, and I took this as another homage. The infamous cat burglar of the original series, The Phantom (originated by David Niven but ably played in that film by Christopher Plummer), is sadly–and somewhat inexplicably–replaced by in inferior substitute called "The Tornado." (Huh? Is that a good thing for a cat burglar to be compared to? Doesn’t it make more sense for him to disappear like a phantom than cause a ton of attention-calling racket and destruction like a tornado? Oh well.) French crooner Johnny Hallyday gets so few chances to demonstrate any Nivenian charm that we can’t really blame him so much as the script; fortunately Jeremy Irons is on hand to fill that urbane straight man role a little better.

The Pink Panther 2 is less reverent to the original series when it comes to the titular diamond. I’m not sure how what was once the national symbol of the Middle Eastern nation of Lugash has now become the national symbol of France in this post-colonial era, or even, for that matter, how a big gem last seen belonging to a soccer coach and his singer girlfriend ended up the national symbol of France. But whatever; that’s a trivial nitpick that matters not one iota in the context of the film.

The movie is refreshingly not just for kids, as the trailers would have had me believe; despite the PG rating there is a surprising amount of sexual innuendo (of a generally crasser variety than was in the Seller films, though) and even some killing. Of course, that’s not to say that it doesn’t also have plenty of the unabashedly childish humor that’s sustained the whole series from the very start, such as Clouseau interrogating the Pope in his chambers (you can imagine the results) and some good physical shtick reminiscent of Martin’s work in Father of the Bride as Clouseau sneaks around the grounds of Irons’ estate, his every move captured on closed circuit security cameras.

My point is that the movie is not as bad as you might think, and certainly not deserving of the drubbing its taking from the critics–not that it’s anything brilliant or anything on the level of the Sellers movies. Even in its funniest scenes, it elicits only chuckles, not the uncontrollable spasms of laughter that Sellers induces when he pretends to be a dentist or brings a powerful vacuum cleaner to sneak around a room with a parrot. But those chuckles were pleasant, and they were more than I was expecting. Still, I wouldn’t recommend going in with high expectations; this is by no means a great film.

The direction, for instance, is uniformly lackluster. None of the heists at the beginning have any of the pizazz of Blake Edwards’ best (like the fantastic opening of Return, played completely straight) and the jokes lack Edwards’ sure sense of comic timing. Set-ups that Edwards couldn’t have resisted are left unpaid-off. One problem carried over from Martin’s first Panther is that fact that, once again, Clouseau is too smart, making stunning deductions and solving crimes on his own. Sellers’ Clouseau always came out on top, but through sheer dumb luck–and often completely oblivious to the fact that he had solved the case. The new movie doesn’t even play fair in this department, either; all the clues Clouseau connects were off-screen and the audience never sees them. Then again, they’re not the least bit necessary for us to deduce anything; it’s obvious from the start who the culprit is!

But for all its flaws, it’s hard to be too critical of any movie that comes up with a hilarious spin on the old "bullet blocked by the thing around his neck" cliche. When Clouseau is shot, Emily Mortimer examines him, sees that the bullet has hit a medal around his neck and declares, "It’s impacted on his medal!"

Andy Garcia, playing an Italian detective, replies with the best line of the film: "Not exactly. It ricocheted off and killed the waiter."

Do you sense some ambivalence here? I know I'm sounding kind of wishy-washy, but this is the very definition of a mixed review. The best I can open with is that the movie "isn't that bad," and it isn't… but that fact came as a pleasant surprise to me. It's definitely better than it's getting credit for being. At the same time, it's far from great. I certainly can't give The Pink Panther 2 an unconditional recommendation, but if you, like me, are a fan of the franchise in general who finds something to like in every installment (even Inspector and Curse have their moments), then you'll probably find yourself laughing at this one as well–perhaps in spite of yourself.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Mission: Impossible - The Sixth TV Season

Honestly, I was getting a little bit worried that this hadn't been announced yet! But, luckily, my fears were for naught; Paramount has announced the sixth season of Mission: Impossible for DVD release this April, following the previously established twice-yearly schedule, according to TVShowsOnDVD. It's a green cover this time, as the team is reduced to four and Linda Day George joins the cast, replacing the departing Lesley Ann Warren. Leonard Nimoy and Sam Elliot didn't return for this season, either, resulting in a pared-down IMF to take on a parade of gangsters, thieves, corrupt politicians and other domestic threats. Season Six also features notable guest stars like William Shatner (pity he missed Nimoy), Billy Dee Williams and–in a rare instance of the ITC talent pool crossing over with the American TV talent pool–The Baron himself, Steve Forrest. If the release cycle continues as it has in the past, this means that we should see the finale season of the show's original incarnation in stores this fall. And then, I really, really hope Paramount continues with the 1980s revival version!

Movie Review: TAKEN (2009)

Movie Review: Taken (2009)

Taken is the latest in the neo-Eurospy genre being almost single-handedly propagated by Luc Besson’s Europa Corp. As these films start to trickle out at a rate of more than the previous one-per-year, they also begin to diversify. Even though it’s written by the same team of Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, Taken has a harder edge to it than their Transporter movies... but not much. While those movies are dedicated to extreme over-the-top action shenanigans seemingly inspired by the Roger Moore era of James Bond, Taken takes its cue from the contemporary Bourne films.

While the film ultimately amounts to a really good time for action fans, its beginning isn’t promising. Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a former CIA operative (more of a "preventor" than a spy, he claims) who’s retired in order to move to Los Angeles where he can be closer to his seventeen-year-old daughter. He feels like he’s missed out on most of her childhood, and now wants to make up for lost time. We know all this because the characters state it explicitly, again and again. The resulting conversation when three of Bryan’s old colleagues arrive at his apartment for a barbecue was aptly paraphrased by my friend T-Bone upon leaving the theater as: "Remember when we were all in the CIA together? Boy, that sure was a good time working in the CIA together. Bryan, do you ever miss working in the CIA? We sure had fun working in the CIA together." These buddies have now moved into the private sector, and recruit Bryan to help them guard a pop star, resulting in a rather awkward scene of him asking said pop star for advice for his daughter, who wants to be a singer. This shows us that he’s a caring father, in case we had trouble reading the earlier shorthand of him poring over a scrapbook of his daughter’s past birthdays.

The seventeen-year-old daughter, Kim (are all badass spys' daughters named Kim?), is played by twenty-five-year-old Maggie Grace, from Lost. Grace is horribly miscast. She attempts to rectify the age discrepancy by overcompensating in the other direction, and playing Kim as if she’s ten. She literally bounds around, propelling herself at her father like a young child and later sulking and throwing a childish tantrum when Dad won’t sign some papers allowing her to travel out of the country. (Anyone know if such papers are really necessary?) Bryan is very worried, you see, about the idea of his daughter going off to Scary Paris. And it turns out he has good cause to be! The moral of Besson’s anti-travelogue appears to be, "If you travel to Paris, you will unfailingly be kidnapped and sold into sex slavery."

Former Bond Girl Famke Janssen is criminally wasted as Kim’s indulgent mother, but she does manage to convince a reluctant Bryan to let their daughter go on her trip. As soon as Kim and her friend Amanda step off the plane in Paris, however, all of Bryan’s worst fears are confirmed. They’re met by a handsome stranger with ulterior motives who tricks them into showing him where they’re staying. Then they’re abducted by his cronies to be sold into sex slavery.

Kim happens to be on the phone with her father as this abduction takes place (at his insistence that she call him all the time), leading to the scene we’ve all seen again and again in the trailers where he instructs her to shout out all the details she can notice about her captors into the phone as she’s being dragged away. One of the captors picks up the phone, and Bryan tells him he doesn’t have any money, but he does have a very specialized skill set. And unless this guy lets his daughter go right now, he vows to come to Paris, find him and kill him. Neeson delivers this ultimatum perfectly, and we realize that from here on in we’re in for a hell of a ride. As soon as Grace is safely off-screen and Bryan is snapped from wussy father mode into unstoppable man-on-a-mission mode, the movie kicks into high gear and you forget all about its dodgy beginning.

Once in Paris, Bryan uses his few clues about the kidnappers’ identities to lay waste to the appropriate parts of the city. Liam Neeson seems like an unlikely choice for this genre (in what in the Nineties would have been a Van Damme role), but acquits himself more than admirably! Director Pierre Morel actually lets the fight scenes play out before our eyes, rather than cutting so rapidly that you can’t tell what’s going on. Therefore, the actor can’t really fake it. It’s clear that it’s really Neeson (now as old as Roger Moore was in his last Bond outing) showing off some very impressive fight moves. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised; he’s proven before that he can wield a sword and a lightsaber, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him engaging in contemporary hand-to-hand combat since Darkman! (Even in Batman Begins most of his fighting seemed more Rob Roy than Jason Bourne.)

Make no mistake: Bryan Mills is a badass. He tears through the Albanian mafia–and anyone else who stands in his way–like a slightly less friendly version of Jack Bauer. He even out-Jacks Jack in one truly unexpected moment that had the whole audience gasping. Taken is the movie I wish that 24: Redemption could have been! Like Bauer’s, Mills’s methods are not subtle. But he is righteous, which means that we’ll root for him no matter what unpleasantness he gets up to. The movie goes out of its way to make the bad guys as bad as possible and Bryan’s cause as noble as possible. They’ve taken his daughter, and they’re going to sell her into sex slavery! That scenario gives this well-trained former spy a license to kill more undeniable than any government could ever issue, so the audience is always with him, and rooting for the bad guys to get what’s coming to them. It’s akin to the vigilante/revenge genre that Charles Bronson jump-started in the Seventies and Eighties, but the hero here seems even more righteous because he has an attainable goal and isn’t just out for retribution. And as we see, he’s willing to go to any length to rescue the daughter he loves, cutting through friend and foe with equal ruthlessness if necessary.

In his quest, Bryan gets into car chases, fist fights, knife fights and shootouts, and gets up to dirty tricks and torture. "I’ll tear down the Eiffel Tower if I have to!" he swears to his former colleague, now a French police official interested in keeping his city as free of murder and destruction as possible. Bryan doesn’t actually do any harm to the Eiffel Tower, but he does manage to break a few more minor buildings, as well as several cars, a boat, and a whole lot of people.

Taken is more serious and a bit nastier than the Transporter movies, but it retains their mantra that action comes first, and that action should be discernible. Pierre Morel does a great job keeping the story moving quickly and the action impressive and easy to follow at the same time. (Only one fight, towards the end, suffers from the current trend of overly rapid editing.) Taken is to Bourne and 24 what Transporter 3 is to Roger Moore’s Bond. It proves that today, as in the Sixties, lower-budget "second tier" spy movies can often be just as much fun as the ones they’re imitating. Once you get past the grating first twenty minutes or so and get into the action, Taken is a solid, wickedly entertaining punch-up of the best Euro stock. And Liam Neeson proves himself a viable action star at 56. If they ever get around to making that Equalizer movie, I think he'd be a great choice for McCall.

Roger Moore Meets Alfred Hitchcock

TVShowsOnDVD reports that Universal has begun advertising Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Four–though a specific release date has not yet been announced. Why is this of interest to spy fans? Season Four contains the episode "The Avon Emeralds," guest-starring a young Roger Moore as "Inspector Benson." Sir Roger recalls in his autobiography, "The series was topped and tailed by a speech from the great man himself, but of course he was never around the set. My episode was 'The Avon Emeralds' with Hazel Court as my co-star. I don't think it was particularly memorable, but it did keep me in LA and in the thick of where it was all happening." Memorable or not, I'm glad that it kept Moore in the thick of it and I'm dying to see it! Now if only someone would get around to releasing his season of Maverick on DVD...

Tradecraft For February 6, 2008

Michael Weston Gets A Raise

In this week's episode of Burn Notice, Michael finally needed to break down and take a real job for cash. Granted, he did it with false papers and didn't really end up fulfilling his contractual obligations, but still... he did actually get paid. In a case of life imitating art, The Hollywood Reporter reports today that Michael Weston actor Jeffrey Donovan has earned himself a well-deserved raise, more than doubling his Burn Notice salary! "Under the new agreement," the trade reveals, "Donovan will be paid $125,000-$150,000 an episode, a big bump from the $55,000 he used to make." More importantly for fans, the new deal "also adds one year to his original seven-year contract for the show."

Quantum Exposure Pays Off For Kurylenko

Still hot from co-starring in the biggest 007 blockbuster of all-time, beautiful Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko has lined up her next two jobs on the momentum of her performance as Camille. First, she'll journey to an Age Undreamed Of for director Neil Marshall's sword-and-sandal epic Centurion. "The movie," says The Hollywood Reporter, is "a thriller set during the Roman invasion of Britain in A.D. 117, tells the story of Quintus Dias, sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, who marches north with General Virilus' legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the Earth and destroy their leader, Gorlacon." Then, according to Variety, she'll head from the ancient past to the near future for Andrew Niccol's sci-fi picture The Cross, also starring Orlando Bloom and Vincent Cassel. "Bloom plays a man seeking to cross a mysterious border, something no one else has achieved; Cassel limns the guard who will go to any lengths to foil him. Kurylenko takes the femme lead."

Before either of those, however, she'll be seen as a prostitute-turned-hitwoman in the La Femme Nikita-ish action thriller Kirot. Variety says: "The project sees Kurylenko's character coerced into becoming a hit woman for a shadowy organization after being imprisoned for working as a prostitute. She escapes from her new employers and joins forces with an abused woman she encounters on the run. Together they embark on a campaign of revenge."

Campbell Turns From Spies to Superheroes

Following two spy movies (Casino Royale and Edge of Darkness), Goldeneye director Martin Campbell will next turn his attention to the superhero genre. Variety reports that the director is in talks to helm a bigscreen version of DC's Green Lantern. That's great... but do we really have to wait until Eon decides to break in yet another new Bond for Campbell to return to 007? I'd love to see him re-team with Daniel Craig!

DGA Quarterly Covers Directing James Bond

The Winter 2009 issue of DGA QUARTERLY, the official magazine of the Directors Guild of America, has a great cover story by Steve Pond on "Directing Bond." The description of the story in the table of contents reads: "the eight surviving directors of the longest-running franchise in film history reminisce about their adventures making James Bond come to life." The article includes some choice quotes from all the directors involved. Michael Apted reveals that a test screening at which the audience indicated that they were disappointed that his film didn't have a bigger pre-credits action sequence caused him to shift the credits to later, after the boat chase, thus creating the longest pre-credits sequence in the history of the franchise. Marc Forster says that he thought it was important that most of his creative team had not worked on previous Bonds in order to bring a fresher approach and that gadgets are not interesting to him, "because the gadgetry reminds me more of comic superheroes." And John Glenn reminisces about working on Bond films in the pre-CGI days, noting that "all the techniques we used, I'm sure they were available in Buster Keaton's day." There are a lot more good bits! It's definitely worth picking up the issue, which is on newsstands now with an eight dollar cover price.

Upcoming Spy Screenings: Harry Palmer In Los Angeles

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will screen Funeral In Berlin on Saturday, February 21 at 9:15PM as part of their series "Torn Curtain: The Two Germanys on Film" examining films set in Cold War Germany. The Guy Hamilton-directed middle installment in the Sixties Harry Palmer trilogy will be paired with Robert Siodmak's Escape From East Berlin. I haven't seen the latter, but while it does sound cool, it doesn't appear to be a spy movie. The 1962 movie concerns twenty-nine East Germans who fled Communist rule by tunneling under the Berlin Wall. The whole film series ties in with the museum's current exhibit "The Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures." That's a good exhibit, and LACMA's got a great screen, so if you're in the area I definitely recommend taking advantage of this opportunity!

I started out intending to showcase relevant spy screenings all over, but it became tough to keep track. I apologize to all the non-LA readers for focusing as a result on Los Angeles screenings, but they're certainly foremost on my mind being based here. I will try to start covering screenings in other cities more often.

Robert Ludlum Video Games

Dark Horizons reports that Ludlum Entertainment has signed an exclusive deal with Electronic Arts to produce video games based on all of the late author's oeuvre. According to the website, "the deal includes his popular Jason Bourne novels, and the first game set to be released under the arrangement is based on the Bourne series. Sweden-based Starbreeze Studios (Chronicles of Riddick) is working on that game. A previous Bourne game was published by Sierra Entertainment." This license also covers games based on any of the many Ludlum movies currently in development. In discussing those movies, the Dark Horizons article also reveals that Brazilian director Jose Padilha is attached to direct The Sigma Protocol for Universal. That's the first I'd heard of it!

I'm not a gamer, but I've got to say that the idea of Robert Ludlum-based video games really appeals to me. I love the notion of a massive multi-player online game set in Ludlum's world! That would be cool. (Not that any such thing has been announced.)

DVD Review: 24: Redemption

I had high hopes for both a fresh start to 24, and for a 24 TV movie removed from the dense continuity of a season. 24: Redemption, however, sadly failed to fulfill those hopes.

The best thing about 24 isn’t its real time gimmick; it’s the compelling lead character of Jack Bauer. And a lot of what makes Jack Bauer so compelling is that he’s a character driven by anger. I don’t blame him. I would be angry too if I had had six days in my life as rough as his six roughest days. The guy never gets any sleep. The weight of the world is always on his shoulders alone–not to mention the fate of Los Angeles! And his organization is riddled with moles. I don’t begrudge him his anger issues.

Redemption, however, begins with Jack well removed from LA, the city he’s saved so many times, taking refuge in Africa after traversing three continents to dodge a subpoena in the United States, where he’s wanted to appear before Congress for illegally detaining and torturing suspects. The notion of Jack’s constant-to-the-point-of-hilarious use of torture finally catching up with him is amusing on paper, but does anyone actually want to see five or six hours of real-time testimony before a Congressional subcommittee? No. That’s why 24 doesn’t air on C-span. And, frankly, I don’t really want to see Jack on the run from such a subpoena either. I want to see him raging against terrorists and traitors and yelling at the top of his lungs into his cell phone telling Chloe to open up a socket. Instead, we get Jack performing missionary work with orphaned children.

Jack is hiding out with his friend and former Special Ops colleague Carl Benton, played by The World Is Not Enough’s Robert Carlyle, looking exactly the same age he always has. Benton runs a UN-sanctioned orphanage in war-torn Sengala. Jack does handyman work around the place, and even occasionally interacts with the children. One particularly annoying little scamp named Willie seems to drive him to the edge of his rather short tether again and again (by rummaging through his stuff, stealing his knife and asking a lot of pesky questions about the past Jack would rather not face), but Jack wills himself not to get angry. When he does finally snap at the kid, he instantly feels bad and tries to slow his heart rate. This tranquility goes on for forty-three minutes of real time, nearly half the length of the 102-minute movie! It’s like watching an episode of The Incredible Hulk all about David Banner, where nothing ever sets him off! The writers throw lots of annoyances at Jack, like prissy French UN officials, stuffy American Embassy workers who want to serve him his papers and the aforementioned irritating little boy, but still Jack manages to keep his cool! I couldn’t. By the halfway point, we’re dying for Jack to snap into a Hulk-like rage and do some killing. In a whole season, you might have some time for mountain lion-related filler, but in under two hours there simply isn’t enough for so many shots of kids playing soccer!

Even the great Sean Callery, who’s scored every pulse-pounding minute of 24 to date (and whose seasonal soundtrack CDs generally make great driving music) is sapped by this uncomfortably peaceful Jack. He sadly can’t resist some predictably maudlin themes to underscore Jack’s missionary work–and bombastically sappy sounds to accompany the recruitment and brainwashing of child soldiers by evil nearby warlords. The music is usually one of the very best aspects of 24, but here it is noticeably lacking.

Anyway, forty-three minutes in said warlord (played by the always reliable Tony Todd, last seen on Chuck) finally sends his goons to recruit more soldiers from the orphanage. For some reason, his entire revolution (which is only minutes away from taking place) depends on having these twenty-some untrained kids swelling the ranks of his army. Of course, we all know he picked the wrong orphanage to mess with!

When the action finally kicks in, it’s great. Jack puts the UN peacenik Frenchie in his place by telling him, "I need you to go hide in the shelter with the other children" as the rebels fast approach the school. Then he hulks out, like we’ve been waiting for, and singlehandedly takes on several large troop transports’ worth of bad African soldiers. (These aren’t the child soldiers we’ve been led to believe comprise so much of their army, mind you; Jack Bauer only fights adults.) Jack fights with knife, pistol and assault rifle, killing scores of them. Then he gets caught and tortured, but being Jack Bauer refuses to break. And when he has the opportunity, he kills his tormentor too, and we all cheer. It’s the best sequence in this TV movie, and it’s ultimately all too brief.

Having saved the school, Jack needs to safely escort all the kids to the American Embassy to get them out of the country before the coup goes down and the warlord’s in charge. On top of that, one of the boys is injured, so they throw in one of those "If we don’t get him to the hospital soon, he’s going to go into shock!" situations to boot. Frenchie, meanwhile, has lived up to all the awful potential the writers hinted at by making him French and UN-affiliated and gone straight to the warlord and told him where Jack is going, so the warlord sends more men–including the vengeful brother of the torturer Jack slew–after them. It should have been really cool to see Jack guiding a busload of schoolkids across the African terrain while dodging heavily-armed rebels (a scenario also conjured in the first episode of The Equalizer, a show 24 co-creator Joel Surnow worked on in the Eighties)... but it’s really not. Too much time was spent with Jack being nice and the kids playing soccer earlier, so other than some rather contrived drama involving a landmine, not much happens. Jack’s daughter may have encountered a ferocious mountain lion the first time she ever set foot outside LA, but Jack sadly encounters no exotic and threatening African wildlife on his own trek. It's never clear exactly what part of Africa Sengala is in, but wouldn't it have been cool to see Jack take on a crocodile? Or anything else Tarzan ever had to deal with?

Meanwhile, back in America, we meet the new female President Elect (Cherry Jones). By my count she’s at least the sixth President we’ve had in just over six seasons of 24 so far. (Remember, David Palmer wasn’t yet President during the first season.) I know a few of them got killed or otherwise removed from office, but I think some were also meant to serve more than one term, maybe. If they at least averaged a term apiece, that makes it sixteen years so far since Day 1. Sure, Kiefer’s got some lines on his face, but he doesn’t look like he’s aged that much! Oh well. I realize how nitpicky it is to dwell on such matters. I don’t really care about it anyway; it’s just an interesting observation.

Anyway, I found the intrigue in Washington compelling, even if they’re just trotting out the usual 24 tropes of dodgy Secret Service agents, duplicitous advisers and Presidents’ family members mixed up in shady dealings that they shouldn’t be mixed up in. But none of this really belonged in something that’s billed as a standalone TV movie. None of the Washington plot threads introduced in Redemption are wrapped up; they’re all "to be continued" in Season 7. So they’re intriguing, but they don’t pay off.

Washington and Africa are brought together as the movie closes on a saccharine note, inter-cutting the new President’s inaugural speech about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with Jack’s desperate efforts to save the children. Granted, 24 has always been unapologetically heavy-handed, but this is still a bit much–especially coupled with more uncharacteristically obvious and cliched score music from the usually unimpeachable Callery.

24: Redemption has some good action in the middle, but ultimately plays out like an elongated episode of the TV show rather than a standalone movie–despite its more exotic setting, which it never takes full advantage of. And not one of the better episodes, either. One that’s full of kids playing soccer, and Jack acting like a monk instead of an assassin, to borrow a phrase from Daniel Craig.

Fox’s DVD of 24: Redemption is a two-disc affair, probably just to give the package a little weight. The first disc contains the "broadcast version" and the second disc the "extended version." Sure, there might be too much mellow Jack, but I can’t imagine anyone would choose the cut version.

Disc 2 also includes several special features, the most impressive of which being a 21-minute making-of featurette. It’s not just a fluff piece, either; it’s a legitimate, in-depth documentary. There are on-location interviews with producers, crew members and stars, backed up with ample behind-the-scenes footage of filming and not filming, waiting for bad weather to pass. Technicians discuss the differences in filming with an African crew, and how the new terrain affects their cameras, and the producers talk about how the change of location works dramatically. (They’re clearly very proud of shooting in Africa, so it’s too bad that the finished product didn’t take better advantage of the location.) The centerpiece of the documentary is a very good segment with the producer explaining in detail all of the blocking called for in the big action scene at the orphanage. He goes through the whole setup, and his narration is cut together with great B-roll of Sutherland in action on set mixed with clips from the finished product. In keeping with the featurettes we’ve seen on the regular seasons of 24, this is a very good making-of. It’s so good, in fact–and so convincing–that watching it actually made me reconsider my opinion of the movie a little bit!

Less good is a self-congratulatory commentary track with Sutherland, director John Cassar and writer/producer Howard Gordon. They do mention that they’d already shot eight episodes of the seventh season before filming this "prequel" movie (and make the case that it worked to their advantage), but they don’t go into the notorious difficulties that plagued this movie and this season of 24. They’re more interested in saying what a good job each other did and using phrases like "the tapestry of Africa."

A short documentary co-produced by UNICEF and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland called "Blood Never Dry: Child Soldiers In Africa" features Carlos Bernard, Cherry Jones and other cast members reading powerful testimonials by actual African child soldiers. News footage of such children is mixed with talking head experts expounding on the subject. It’s a well-produced featurette, but its inclusion here (as much as I normally like this sort of DVD feature) makes the actual movie’s treatment of the subject seem even more trivialized.

Also included is a well-done "Season 6 in Four Minutes" recap and the first seventeen minutes of Season 7, which is fairly redundant now that the season is actually airing. (Those seventeen minutes, however, are impressively riveting, foretelling a better season than Redemption would suggest!)

Random Intelligence Dispatches For February 3, 2009

My Own Worst Enemy Cover Art

TVShowsOnDVD has revealed the cover art for Universal's previously announced upcoming DVD of My Own Worst Enemy: The Complete Series. I've gotta say, that artwork's kind of neat! All nine episodes will be included on two discs. The set is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Echelon Conspiracy

Usually I report on upcoming spy movies when they're first announced in the trades, and sometimes again as the cast is revealed or more news comes out. But sometimes they get by me completely. I just saw a trailer for a movie called Echelon Conspiracy that appears to be a spy movie. The cast includes Edward Burns, Ving Rhames, Jonathan Pryce and Martin Sheen... so it is a real movie. It comes out in theaters in the United States on February 27. It should not be confused with The Echelon Vendetta, a similarly titled novel by David Stone that was optioned last year and is being adapted for the screen by the director of The Wackness.

Echelon Conspiracy (the one that's coming out in a few weeks) concerns a guy whose cell phone starts giving him mysterious instructions that attract the attention of the CIA and the NSA, so it sounds a little bit similar to last year's Eagle Eye. According to Wikipedia, "ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and analysis network." In other words, an all-knowing computer system, pulling data from phone calls and email and eavesdropping and other electronic resources all over the world via sattellite. It comes up again and again in modern spy movies and TV shows, from Alias (which made wide use of it) to the aforementioned Eagle Eye. The website for Echelon Vendetta lets you input questions for ECHELON and have a conversation. Here is a conversation I just had with it at its own website:

Visitor> when does echelon conspiracy open?

ECHELON> What if I said it never does?

Visitor> Does it?

ECHELON> Suppose I said it does.

Visitor> Is the movie any good?

ECHELON> If it is, then I'll be very surprised.

So there you have it, from the mouth of the computer itself! Good advertising, that.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week: Our Man In Havana

The only major spy release this week is Our Man In Havana, the comedic 1960 Graham Greene spy classic starring Alec Guinness that I talked about at length last week. It's a "Martini Movie" from Sony, and while the cover sadly isn't nearly as good as the Region 2 one, it's still a pleasure to finally have this great movie on DVD in North America.

Read my full movie review of Our Man In Havana here.